ABSTRACT
The arrangement of archives is an essential operation in the process of managing the information contained in them. Arrangement is also an important step in the conservation of the materials, governing their disposition and housing in the repository. For the same reason, it is a process necessary to their administrative control. But, in addition, arrangement is an essential part of the eventual exploitation of the archive in reference and research: it is an aspect of intellectual as well as administrative control. The arrangement of an archive is an essential part of the process which will lead to the creation of a repre sentation file, the basis of a system of finding aids, which will provide the user (including staff users) with both a conceptual and an admin istrative overview of the material. Most importantly, however, the arrangement of an assembly of archives perpetuates and demon strates relationships between its components, explaining and authen ticating the significance of the information in them. The activities which support this have traditionally been known as the moral defence of archives, and are central to the professional ethic of archivists.1
