[Personal_archives] Arrangement discussion - original order

[Jeremy Heil]

Greetings all!

One of the first ideas that struck me as I read through these articles 
was truly how much we have relied on the practices governing arrangement 
of institutional records, adapted for personal archives.  We've had the 
discussion many times in the past on the concept of "original order" and 
what it really means.  Is each accrual a puzzle to be pieced together, 
or is the puzzle already complete?  Perhaps each accrual represents one 
side of a three-dimensional puzzle, and it will only be completed with 
the last accrual on a closed fonds? Is original order what was 
originally, or what was recently?

I think our greatest problem stems from the nomenclature.  We've been 
tied to the concept of "original order" for ages, but it is a concept 
that can only properly apply to institutional records.  The 
/Regitraturprinzip /is, by definition, how records fit within a 
classification scheme (registry).  To continue with the puzzle analogy, 
piecing records back together in accordance with this principle is more 
akin to completing a wooden cut-out puzzle - each piece has its place 
according to the rules of the registry.  Where this concept obviously 
fails is that few, if any, private individuals create file registries.  
So the question is, why do people file? In short - so we can find 
things. Sarah Kim quotes a study in her PhD proposal indicating that 
individuals organize their records mainly for easy retrieval for later 
use. At the institutional level, file schemes are implemented so 
multiple people over time and space can find records in the same way 
(whether or not employees adhered to these systems, and the problems in 
arrangement that arise as a result is another question entirely). On an 
individual level, we each file according to how we can best find 
correspondence, notes, random thoughts, etc. This is an intensely 
personal activity, and can change on a whim (New Years' resolution to 
organize our house! Watched High Fidelity and decided to arrange files 
by our past relationships!).So, without a registry for personal 
archives, what are we left with?

Jennifer Meehan writes that "in order to better contextualize personal 
records, archivists must strive to interpret and represent personal 
records on their own terms, rather than imposing conventions or schema 
based on either user expectations or analogies with organizational 
records." I would take this idea further and propose that the 
/Regitraturprinzip/ is to institutional archives as what I will term the 
/Gedächtnisstützeprinzip/ - the principle of mnemonic devices - is to 
personal archives.  Individuals arrange files according to how they can 
later find them.  Stemming from this, there is one key concept that must 
also be acknowledged - that arrangement is mutable over time and space, 
as creators arrange based on how they are using the material at any 
given time.  Then throw into the mix the role of custodians in further 
rearrangement (Meehan p. 40), we are left with multiple possible orders, 
none of which are necessarily clear to the archivist.  Thus "original 
order" in personal archives is often a false construct, no matter how we 
try to define it.  We would be better served if we simply acknowledge 
this limitation, and perhaps rechristen the term "recent discernible 
order" (or something far more elegant).  "Original order" sounds 
powerful and authoritative, and I think it leads many archivists to 
believe that it truly exists in all fonds and accruals.  The truth is 
less ideal.

I look forward to an invigorating discussion on this and much more!

Cheers,

Jeremy
-- 
Jeremy Heil, BA, MAS
Technical Services Archivist

Queen's University Archives
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Tel: 613-533-6000 ext. 74462 Web: http://archives.queensu.ca

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