Level | Intellectual arrangement | Physical arrangement | Archival description | Housing and storage | Restrictions and privacy issues |
Baseline | Top-level archival unit with no defined internal arrangement. | Do not physically rearrange material received. Only rebox/refolder material if mould or other dangerous conditions are present. | Create a top-level archival description. | Only rebox/refolder if mould or other dangerous conditions are present. Rebox collection into acid free boxes if needed. Refolder only if mould or other dangerous conditions are present | Known or suspected restricted material may be spread throughout a fonds / collection. No efforts taken to identify and segregate materials. Rely on privacy and confidentiality note provided in top-level archival description. |
Low | Top-level archival unit with box lists or box-folder lists | Only physically rearrange material received if necessary to facilitate physical storage. Do not rearrange folders within boxes. | Create a top-level description and container list with approximate date(s) of creation. Incorporate creator-supplied inventories whenever possible. |
| Complete series or subseries are identified as restricted and housed separately from open materials. Restrictions and open dates are explained in archival description. |
Medium | Intellectual arrangement at the series level. | Refine the order of files within a series. | Archival description at the series level with container lists for each series. Incorporate and revise creator-supplied inventories whenever possible. |
| Files are identified as restricted and physically relocated so they are stored separately from open material in the fonds / collection. |
High | Intellectual arrangement into series and sub-series. |
| Archival description at the sub-series level with container lists for each series and/or sub-series. Incorporate and revise creator-supplied inventories whenever possible. |
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Highest | Intellectual arrangement into files contained within series and/or subseries. | Arrange one item per folder. | Archival description at the file-level. Incorporate and revise creator-supplied inventories whenever possible. |
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Item-level | Each item is examined and placed into a series/sub-series/file structure. |
| Archival description at the item-level. Incorporate and revise creator-supplied inventories whenever possible. |
| Individual items are identified as restricted. Items are removed from their original location, each documented with a separation sheet, and relocated elsewhere in the fonds / collection separately from open materials. |
Note: this matrix is adapted from an archival processing plan and matrix developed as part of the TLAM project.