Arrangement, Respect for Provenance and Maintaining the Original Order in the National Archives of Iran

The aim of this research is to explain the method of arranging archival records and employing two principles i.e. “respect for provenance” and “maintaining the original order” in the National Archives of Iran. The research data were collected through interviews and using an analytic survey method. The research population includes staff of the Arrangement and Processing department of the National Archives of Iran, and embraces the instruction books compiled from 1971 to 1991 for the users. The research findings show that in the National Archives of Iran the “arrangement” task has been considered equal to “classifying” since the inauguration of the Archives up to the present, and the “respect for provenance” principle has been observed. Although arrangement and description experts have made efforts for “maintaining the original order”, there have yet been no efforts for maintaining the primary order in higher levels of arrangement and description. Finally, suggestions are made based on findings of the research.