A Case Study on Arranging Archives of Administrative Headquarters of the Jogye Order

조계종 총무원 보존기록물 정리방법에 대한 사례연구

This paper reports the project of arranging archives of Administrative Headquarters of the Jogye Order. It illustrates the whole process of preliminary survey, arrangement, appraisal and description of the archives. One of the distinctive features of the project lies in its focus on practical considerations. In other words, it has avoided blindly following theoretical recommendations made by previous efforts. First step of the project has been to review the current state of the archives through preliminary survey as well as analysis of related regulations. Second step has followed to establish actual process of classifying, appraising, describing, filing and designing storage facility management as well as a computerized archival management system. In this process, every concern has been given to prevent records and archives from physical damage and to ensure their intellectual order kept so that archival information could be re-constructed and usability and efficiency of the records could be secured. Major contributions made by the project can be found in that it has reviewed the volume of administrative archives created and held by Jogye Order and improved the overall efficiency of as well as information sharing among personnel at the Headquarter. The most notable accomplishment could be, however, found in that the project has helped the personnel to rediscover their own history from their records, rather than from their memory. From the theoretical perspective of archival science, the meaning of the project can also be found in that it has provided with the starting point toward establishing organizing methodology for organizational archives including religious archives. Arranging archives of an organization requires archivists to respect theories and principles, but at the same time, adequate attention should be paid to reflect idiosyncratic characteristics of the organization. General methods applicable to a wider range of archives could be derived from the very endeavor. Though impossible in a short period of time, it could be accomplished by accumulating theoretical and practical knowledge and experience.