If the archivist is in a repository that holds other parts of the fonds, he or she should assemble a plan of work that encompasses, or at least acknowledges, the entire set of materials from the same originator.
Arrangement of materials should be completed with two archival principles that fall within respect des fonds in mind: provenance and original order.
[12][13] Some repositories will conduct item-level description of selected documents within a collection or group of records, if the research value is deemed to be extremely high, heavy use is expected, or the risk of theft is heightened.
The earliest finding aids were known as "calendars" and generally consisted of a listing of individual documents in chronological order, which was the preferred organizational method of historians, who were their primary users at the time.
[15][16] Currently used forms of finding aids vary in length and fall into several categories by type, with the inventory predominating in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Many archives post their finding aids online to widen exposure to their holdings and some are encoded (see Standards section below) to facilitate recognition by web search engines.
In addition, repositories may follow local practices designed to make finding aids serve their particular mission.
[1] Their method discourages these basic practices in the interest of accelerating processing to provide quicker access to researchers.
Their argument also acknowledges the assumption of proper climate control in modern institutions, which would slow the deterioration of acidic paper and rusting of metal fasteners.