Index thématiques, tableaux méthodiques et thésaurus : luxe ou nécessité ?

Abstract

Thematical indexes, methodical tables, and thésaurus : are they a luxury or a necessity ? The author raises some questions about the new methods of archival arrangement, in the light of ADP and the new needs its creates. Any archival arrangement, whether of modem or historical documents, implies really a work of intellectual synthesis : an effort of thought especially significant at the level of language, for the choice of terms in the thematical index, which has to be done before writing the finding aid, not after. The author emphasizes the difficulty of creating a documentary language, taking as examples four well-known inventories of the Archives nationales. She then describes the successive phases of the elaboration of a thesaurus, the techniques of cross-indexing, and the subsequent creation of a vocabulary that is supple, open, and with self-evident internal relations. The obstacles to these new archival are still many in our profession : refusal of documentary techniques, mistrust for ADP, fear to call in question traditional attitudes of mind and working practices. However, some individual initiatives have been taken and should be pursued, especially in the field of modem records in departmental (= provincial) archives : for instance, the methodical tables proposed by F.-J. Himly for the Archives of Bas-Rhin. At least one thing is evident : the necessity not to confine ourselves to the traditional field of archives, but to interest ourselves in the experiences of libraries, universities, and scientific research.