This chapter provides guidance for arranging archival and manuscript collections physically and intellectually, in accordance with professionally accepted archival principles as well as institutional needs and requirements.
The level of description of a collection need not reflect the level of arrangement. More granular arrangement can allow for less detailed narrative descriptions, and, conversely, more detailed narrative description can compensate for less granular arrangement at the file level.
The archivist outlines an arrangement scheme in the processing plan that includes organization into series (and sub-series) and an explanation of the arrangement within each series. Day-to-day decisions about how to carry out this arrangement scheme are made by the archivist and archival assistants.