Archival science

, De Archivis (1632) Archival science emerged from diplomatics, the critical analysis of documents. Archival science is also closely related to historical archaeography, an interdisciplinary field that analyses various, mutually correlated aspects and properties of ancient manuscripts and early printed materials, and thus prepares and produces scholarly descriptions and editions. In 1540, Jacob von Rammingen (1510–1582) wrote the manuscript of the earliest known archival manual. He was an expert on registries (Registraturen), the German word for what later became known as archives. Rammingen elaborated a registry for the Augsburg city council. However, since he could not attend the council meeting, he described the structure and management of the archives in writing. Although this is not the first work about archival science (Rammingen himself refers to earlier literature about record-keeping), earlier manuals were usually not published. Archival science had no formal beginning. Jacob von Rammingen's manual was printed in Heidelberg in 1571. While generally associated with museums and libraries, the field also can pertain to individuals who maintain private collections or business archives. Archival Science is taught in colleges and universities, usually under the umbrella of Information Science or paired with a History program. A list of foundational thinkers in archival studies could include: American archivist Theodore Schellenberg and British archivist Sir Hilary Jenkinson. Some important archival thinkers of the past century include: Canadian archivist and scholar Terry Cook, South African archivist Verne Harris, Australian archival scholar Sue McKemmish, UCLA faculty and archival scholar Anne Gilliland, University of Michigan faculty and archival scholar Margaret Hedstrom, American archival scholar and University of Pittsburgh faculty member Richard Cox, Italian archival scholar and faculty at University of British Columbia Luciana Duranti, and American museum and archival scholar David Bearman. == Standards ==

There is no universal set of laws or standards that governs the form or mission of archival institutions. The forms, functions, and mandates of archival programs and institutions tend to differ based on geographical location and language, the nature of the society in which they exist and the objectives of those in control of the archives. The standard developed by archivists in Canada, Rules for Archival Description, also known as RAD, was first published in 1990. As a standard, RAD aims to provide archivists with a consistent and common foundation for the description of archival material within a fonds, based on traditional archival principles. A comparable standard used in the United States is Describing Archives: A Content Standard, also known as DACS. These standards are in place to provide archivists with the tools for describing and making accessible archival material to the public. Metadata comprises contextual data pertaining to a record or aggregate of records. In order to compile metadata consistently, so as to enhance the discoverability of archival materials for users, as well as support the care and preservation of the materials by the archival institution, archivists look to standards appropriate to various kinds of metadata for different purposes, including administration, description, preservation, and digital storage and retrieval. For example, common standards used by archivists for structuring descriptive metadata, which conveys information such as the form, extent, and content of archival materials, include Machine-Readable Cataloguing (MARC format), Encoded Archival Description (EAD), and Dublin core. ==Provenance in archival science==

Provenance in archival science refers to the "origin or source of something; information regarding the origins, custody, and ownership of an item or collection". As a fundamental principle of archives, provenance refers to the individual, family, or organization that created or received the items in a collection. In practice, provenance dictates that records of different origins should be kept separate to preserve their context. The practice of provenance has two major concepts: "respect des fonds", and "original order". "Respect des fonds" rose from the conviction that records entering an archive have an essential connection to the person or office that generated and used them; archivists consider all the records originating with a particular administrative unit (whether former, or still existing) to be a separate archival grouping, or "fonds", and seek to preserve and describe the records accordingly, with close attention to evidence of how they were organized and maintained at the time they were created. "Original order", refers to keeping records "as nearly as possible in the same order of classification as obtained in the offices of origin", gives additional credibility to preserved records and to their originating "fonds". Not infrequently, practical considerations of storage mean that it is impossible to maintain the original order of records physically. In such cases, however, the original order should still be respected intellectually in the structure and arrangement of finding aids. Practices before the emergence of provenance Following the French Revolution, a newfound appreciation for historical records emerged in French society. Records began to "acquir[e] the dignity of national monuments", and their care was entrusted to scholars who were trained in libraries. Complementing the work of the Dutch archivists and supporting the concept of provenance were the historians of the era. Through subject-based classification aided research, historians began to concern themselves with objectivity in their source material. For its advocates, provenance provided an objective alternative to the generally subjective classification schemes borrowed from librarianship. Historians increasingly felt that records should be maintained in their original order to better reflect the activity out of which they emerged. Debates Although original order is a generally accepted principle, there has been some debate about applicability to personal archiving. Original order is not always ideal for personal archives. However, some archivists insist that personal records are created and maintained for much the same reason as organizational archives and should follow the same principles. ==Preservation in archival science==

Preservation, as defined by the Society of American Archivists (SAA), is the act of protecting materials from physical deterioration or loss of information, ideally in a noninvasive way. The goal of preservation is to maintain as much originality as possible while retaining all the information which the material has to offer. Both scientific principles and professional practices are applied to this technique to be maximally effective. In an archival sense, preservation refers to the care of all the aggregates within a collection. Conservation can be included in this practice and often these two definitions overlap. Physical maintenance is another key feature of preservation. There are many strategies to preserve archives properly: rehousing items in acid-free containers, storing items in climate controlled areas, and copying deteriorating items. == Critical archival studies ==

In 2002, the journal Archival Science published a series of articles that analyzed systems of power in archival practice, theory, and recordkeeping. This approach was described in 2017 by Punzalan, Caswell, and Sangwand as "critical archival studies". Critical archival studies applies critical theory to archival science, with the goal of developing and implementing archival practices that are more fully inclusive of matters pertaining to race, class, gender, sexuality, and ability. Archival studies have focused renewed concern on recognition and representation of indigenous, community, and human rights archives. Since 2016, the concept of "symbolic annihilation" has been used to describe the disappearance of communities through systematic or implicit lack of representation or under-representation in archives. It was initially adapted into the archival literature by Caswell from feminist uses of symbolic annihilation. This absence can also be found in archival policies as well as description and annotation practices. == Professional and advanced education ==

In 2002, the Society of American Archivists published guidelines for a graduate program in archival studies. The guidelines were most recently revised and re-approved in 2016. Formal courses of study in archival science are available at the master's and doctoral level. A master's degree is typically a two-year professional program focusing on acquiring a knowledge base of archival skills (including digital records and access systems) whereas a doctorate is more broad in scope and includes critical inquiry of its archival practices, with graduates typically preparing for careers in research and teaching. Archival science students may have academic backgrounds in areas such as anthropology, economics, history, law, library science, museum studies or information science. == Associations ==

Professional Professional archivist associations seek to foster study and professional development: Regional Smaller professional regional associations provide more local professional development. Examples in the United States include the , , , , and . == See also ==