In this essay I seek to examine how the Principle of Provenance can be discerned in the new activity-based wayof establishing an archival description. In which terms do authors of reports and works about archival descriptionspeak about provenance. Do they at all?In order to do so I have studied the history of the Principle of Provenance and what is to be its future ? theregulation from the Swedish National Archives, RA-FS 2008:4. I have also read the referrel that was sent out toSwedish authorities, universities and other archival institutions.

For my advanced degree in archival science, I have organized and catalogued the Blomqvist family archive.  The Blomqvist family archive consists of records from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 21th century. The records in the archive depict and describe different aspect of the Blomqvist familys life and work. Specific problems and theoretical questions that appeared during the cataloguing of the Blomqvist archive were related to the great presence of objects and photographs in the archive. A discussion concerning the role of objects in archives and within archive institution took place. The problem with cataloguing photographs as well as the problem of searching for photographs in archives, were also discussed.       .

This essay has its background in the work I?ve been conducting organizing and cataloging two personal archives concerning the life and work of two vicars, Johan Axel Björkman and P.A. Björkman. The time span of the papers stretches from 1823 to 1982.The main problems I?ve been confronted with during this work have to do with respecting provenance and original order.

The defence unit´s archive stretches over a time limit between the middle of 1971 to the end of 1987. The records the archive mainly contains are concerning the civil defence, inspection and construction of shelters, war- and crisis planning. The majority of the records are registered record, as often is the case with an authority?s archives. The main problems that occurred concerned what should or shouldn´t be public, the principle of provenance and what to prioritize; finish the project before deadline or make sure the records are prepared for a storage that ideally should last for several lifetimes..

The text deals with the process of reorganizing and cataloging the archival material emerging from State secondary grammar school in Falun, which appears to have been poorly managed for a number of years. The work was done with consideration to former ways of organizing the material, and a great deal of research was needed in order to establish the outer provenance of the archive.The theoretical discussion goes deeper into the questions of provenance and appraisal in regard to the work,and some choices, especially the decision to reorganize the archive, are motivated with reference to Swedishrules and regulations concerning state authorities' archival management and their duties towards Swedish citizens..

Hemsjukvårdscentralen began its work from Tunåsens Hospital in Uppsala in 1962, with the purpose to give conomic support to people who nursed their chronic sick relatives in home. Hemsjukvårdscentralen ended its work in 1987, and delivered its archive to the County council of Uppsala in 1988. About half of the archive consisted of medical records of the patients who had received economical support, and many of the archival records was considered as ?work papers?, non-archival records that could be discarded. Two obvious problems emerge from the organizing of the records.

For my advanced degree in archival science, I have organised and catalogued two family archives; man Family Archives ("Gardtmanska släktarkivet") and the Hamnström Family Archives ("Hamnströmska säk- tarkivet"). Though both could be labelled "family archives", there were many differences between the two. The Gardtman Family Archives contained the records of several family members from a period of several centuries, spanning from the early 17th century, to the early 20th century. It was by far the larger of the two archives. A substantial part of the records consisted of documents regarding various agricultural estates the family had owned or been involved with in one way or another.

The investigation analyzed the implementation and application of the Swedish National Archives' new Process-Oriented Archives Description Model to activities of the hierarchical, function-oriented and decentralized university organizations.The basic reason why a new archive description has evolved is because documents are becoming more and more digital. It requires a new interpretation of how evidence is secured for their reliability and authenticity, and a new way of looking at provenance, for the purpose of describing and searching electronic documents. The new archive description model's logical structure is based on business processes.The relationship between the new archive description and a function-oriented organization's activities can be seen from the different outlooks of processes between archive activities and activities of the organization. It is also reflected in the modification that all universities have made ??of the new archive description model to be more flexible and pragmatic to fit a function-oriented organization.The relationship between provenance and process-oriented archive description is mainly the link between documents and business processes that produce them.

I have for my one year master's thesis worked on arranging and cataloging the archives from the missions stations of Musana, Congo-Brazzaville and Sundi-Lutete, Congo-Kinshasa, belonging to the Swedish Missions Church (Svenska Missionskyrkan). The archives contained records written in Swedish, French and Kikongo, from primarily the years 1910 until 1961. Records have though been found that adhere from both prior to and after these years. These archives are deposited at the Swedish National Archive and it was therefore important to take the opinions and regulations of both parties into consideration, as well as relying onto archival theory.The archives were initially scattered and had in some parts been organized by an archivist without formal schooling. The major difficulties in this work has therefore been to establish the provenance ? to which creator the documents belonged to, and also to decide to which degree the principle of the original order should play a part.

This essay is based on the work of arranging and making an inventory for an archive consisting of records from the Board of Education (Utbildningsnämnden) within the administration of the County Council in Uppsala, Sweden. This archive is kept at the County Councils Archives in Uppsala where I have done the work. I have documented the process and discussed the complex of problems relating to it. In this particular case the issue of limitation of the office of origin and the respect of the fonds, or the principle of provenance, have been of interest. This is due to the fact that the records had been rearranged and mixed with records with other origin related to the Board of Education.

The object of this two years master's thesis has been to study a specific genre of personal archives by examiningthe archives of nine parents who have lost one or several infants. Using internet-based methods, (e-mail, Skypeand digital photographs), I have conducted qualitative research using a general interview guide technique. Usingresearch from archival theory as well as other fields, my material has been arranged and analysed according tothemes and recurring thoughts picked up from my informants during the interviews.My main theoretical aid has been that the role of parent who has lost a child is the starting point for the creationof the personal archives. Another important theory is my definition of the term ?document? as not dependent onmedium and format, but on usage: if an object has been used as a part of an archive, it is a document.