Introduction
Archival collections are groups of materials created and kept by individuals and (in our case at MIT) departments, labs, and centers (DLCs) during the course of their lives and work. Often creators of collections have imposed a certain arrangement of the materials. Archivists want to keep this original arrangement when possible. But sometimes there is no or limited original arrangement and the archivist may impose one to better provide access to collections. Arrangement, along with description, are the two main activities in processing archives. Arrangement is the order material is put in by creators or archivists - and can be done physically and intellectually, or just intellectually.
Physical arrangement