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Records Authority
Category: Archival Management

Respect des Fonds

Also known as: le respect pour les fonds, principle of respect des fonds
Simply put

Respect des fonds is a principle in archival practice that keeps the records of a single creator or organization together as a group, rather than mixing them with records from other sources. The idea is that records make more sense and retain their evidential value when they stay grouped according to who created or accumulated them. It is a foundational concept guiding how archives are arranged.

Formal definition

Respect des fonds is a principle of archival arrangement holding that records should be maintained according to their origin and kept in the organic units, or fonds, in which they were originally created or accumulated, without intermingling them with the records of other creators. As articulated by Michel Duchein, it directs archivists to group the archives created by or coming from a given creator without mixing them with those of other creators. The principle is commonly associated with, and often discussed alongside, the notion of original order (the internal arrangement in which records were kept by their creator), though the two are typically treated as distinct components of arrangement. Respect des fonds concerns the intellectual and physical grouping of archival records for preservation and description, and its application in practice may vary depending on institutional context and the nature of the records.

Why it matters

Respect des fonds underpins the evidential value of archival records. When records remain grouped according to their creator, the relationships between documents, the context of their creation, and the activities they document stay legible. Intermingling records from different creators, by contrast, can obscure provenance and erode the ability to interpret records as reliable evidence of the activities that produced them. In this sense, the principle protects the qualities that distinguish an authoritative body of records from a loose accumulation of information.

The principle also gives archival arrangement a defensible logic. Rather than reorganizing records by subject, format, or the interests of a particular researcher, respect des fonds directs archivists to preserve the arrangement that reflects origin. This makes description more consistent and helps ensure that future users can trace records back to the creator and the circumstances of their accumulation. Because the principle concerns intellectual and physical grouping for preservation and description, it also shapes how finding aids and catalogues are structured.

It is worth noting that respect des fonds is a principle of arrangement rather than an inflexible rule. Its application in practice may vary depending on institutional context and the nature of the records, and archivists often must exercise judgment where the boundaries of a fonds are ambiguous or where records have complex or shared provenance.

Who it's relevant to

Archivists and Arrangement Staff
Archivists apply respect des fonds directly when appraising, arranging, and describing holdings. The principle guides decisions about how to group records by creator and informs the structure of finding aids, though its application may require judgment where provenance is complex or contested.
Records Managers Transferring Records to Archives
Records managers responsible for transferring records of enduring value benefit from understanding respect des fonds, since maintaining records in the units in which they were accumulated supports their continued evidential value once they reach an archival repository. This connects lifecycle disposition decisions, including transfer for permanent preservation, to archival arrangement practice.
Researchers and Users of Archives
Researchers rely on the arrangement that respect des fonds produces to interpret records in context. Because records are grouped by creator rather than by subject, understanding the principle helps users trace records back to their origin and assess their reliability as evidence.
Information Governance and Descriptive Standards Practitioners
Those working on descriptive frameworks and cataloguing conventions encounter respect des fonds as a foundational concept shaping how archival description is structured around provenance. It is relevant to ensuring consistency in how the origin of records is captured and represented.

Inside Respect des Fonds

Provenance
The core principle underlying respect des fonds, which holds that records should be kept and described according to their origin, that is, the person, family, or organization that created, received, or accumulated them in the course of their activities. Records of one creator are typically not intermingled with those of another.
Fonds
The whole of the records, regardless of form or medium, organically created, accumulated, and used by a particular individual, family, or organization in the conduct of its affairs. The fonds is the highest-level unit around which arrangement and description are commonly organized in archival practice.
Original order (respect de l'ordre primitif)
A closely associated principle, often treated as a component of respect des fonds in many traditions, holding that records should be maintained in the order and organization imposed by the creator, rather than rearranged by subject or other imposed schemes. Preserving original order can help retain evidence of how the creator conducted its activities.
Organic accumulation
The notion that records within a fonds arise naturally from the functions and activities of the creator, rather than being artificially assembled. This organic quality is what distinguishes an archival fonds from a collection gathered around a theme or subject.
Contextual integrity
The relationships between records and their creating context, which respect des fonds seeks to preserve. Maintaining these relationships supports the authenticity and understandability of records as evidence of the activities that produced them.

Common questions

Answers to the questions practitioners most commonly ask about Respect des Fonds.

Is respect des fonds the same as keeping records in their original physical order?
No. Respect des fonds is primarily about maintaining records according to their provenance, meaning records are grouped and kept together according to the entity or agency that created or accumulated them, rather than being intermixed with records of other origins. The idea of preserving the original ordering or arrangement of records within a fonds is often described as a distinct principle, sometimes referred to as original order or respect for original order. The two are related and frequently discussed together, but they address different concerns: provenance concerns whose records these are, while original order concerns how those records were arranged. Conflating the two is a common misconception.
Does respect des fonds mean records can never be physically rearranged or reorganized?
Not necessarily. The principle is chiefly about preserving the relationship between records and their creating or accumulating entity, and about not merging fonds from different origins. It does not, on its own, forbid all intervention. In practice, archivists may need to make arrangements or reconstructions, and decisions about how strictly to preserve arrangement depend on institutional policy, the condition and history of the material, and professional judgment. The principle is better understood as a guiding concept for maintaining provenance and context than as an absolute prohibition on any handling.
How does an archivist identify the fonds when records have passed through multiple organizational changes?
Identifying the fonds can be difficult when a creating entity has been merged, split, renamed, or otherwise reorganized over time. Practitioners typically work to establish the provenance by tracing the administrative history of the entity that created or accumulated the records, documenting successor and predecessor relationships. Depending on institutional policy and the complexity of the case, the boundaries of a fonds may be defined in different ways, and these decisions are generally recorded so that later users can understand how provenance was interpreted.
How should shared or overlapping records be handled when they relate to more than one creating body?
Records that appear to relate to multiple entities can present a challenge to a strict application of provenance. In practice, archivists commonly assign the records to the entity responsible for their creation or accumulation, and use description to note relationships to other bodies rather than physically duplicating or splitting the material. How such cases are resolved depends on institutional practice and professional judgment, and the reasoning is typically documented to preserve transparency and context.
How is respect des fonds applied to digital records and electronic recordkeeping systems?
In digital environments, the physical arrangement that the principle originally addressed is less meaningful, so provenance and context are often maintained through metadata rather than physical grouping. Information about the creating entity, the system of origin, and the relationships among records can be captured and preserved as descriptive and contextual metadata. The underlying aim of maintaining the link between records and their origin remains, but the means of doing so depend on the systems in use and on organizational policy.
How does respect des fonds relate to archival description and finding aids?
The principle commonly shapes how archival holdings are described. Description is often structured to reflect provenance, so that records are presented within the context of the entity that created or accumulated them, along with an administrative or biographical history of that entity. Finding aids can thereby convey the origin and context of records to users. The exact structure of description depends on the descriptive standards and practices adopted by the institution.

Common misconceptions

Respect des fonds means records should be arranged by subject matter to make them easier to find.
Respect des fonds generally works against subject-based rearrangement. It emphasizes keeping records grouped by their creator and, in many traditions, in their original order, so that the evidential context of accumulation is preserved. Subject access is typically provided through description and finding aids rather than by physically reorganizing the records.
Respect des fonds and preservation of original order are the same single rule.
They are related but distinct ideas. Respect des fonds concerns keeping the records of one creator together and separate from those of other creators, while preservation of original order concerns maintaining the internal arrangement given by the creator. In many archival traditions the two are treated together, but they address different aspects of arrangement and can be applied with differing degrees of strictness.
Respect des fonds is an absolute rule that must never be departed from.
It is a guiding principle rather than an inflexible mandate. Depending on the condition of the records, the reliability of the original arrangement, and institutional policy, archivists may need to make qualified decisions. Where original order is lost, unclear, or was never meaningfully established, documented professional judgment is typically applied while still striving to respect provenance.

Best practices

Identify and document the creator or creators of records before arrangement, so that the boundaries of each fonds can be established on the basis of provenance rather than subject.
Keep the records of distinct creators separate rather than intermingling them, and record any decisions where the boundaries of a fonds are ambiguous or contested.
Where a discernible and meaningful original order exists, preserve it and describe it, rather than reorganizing records by theme or format for convenience.
When original order is lost, damaged, or was never coherently established, apply and document a reasoned arrangement while continuing to respect provenance, and make the basis for that decision transparent in the description.
Provide subject and other access points through finding aids and descriptive metadata rather than by physically rearranging the records, so that contextual relationships remain intact.
Record the contextual relationships between records and their creating activities in description, supporting the authenticity and understandability of the records as evidence.