The Province Archives are arranged and described in accordance with the principle of Provenance as explained by the Society of American Archivists, the oldest, largest and most authoritative organization of archivists in the United States. The content of the Archives adheres to the guidelines provided by the Salesian Congregation in the publication Juridical Elements and Administrative Praxis in the Government of the Province.

The creating sources of the records, called “fonds” by some, parallels the governing structure of the Province i.e. each province level office and each local community/work as well as each individual member of the province is considered a creating source of records. All the records created by each “fond” are kept together and no records from any other “fond” are admixed with them – the principle of Provenance.

The second basic principle of archives arrangement is called Original Order. It simply means that the records are kept in the order in which the originating source put them. Unfortunately the original order of the records was long lost by the time, August 1, 2010, that this present archivist arrived on the scene and could not be restored.

The Archives has a Finding Aid created to help the researcher locate the records he/she is looking for and which in the hardcopy version occupies six volumes. 

This archivist came in August of 2010 and found the Archives in need of a good deal of work because the former archivist had been ill for some time. Anyone who examines the Archives now I trust will find them in good, logical order and researcher friendly.

The Archivist makes himself available to assist the researcher.

Br. Larry King, SDB
Provincial Archivist

Provincial Archives Office
1100 Franklin Street
San Francisco, California 94109
USA

Bro. Larry King, SDB
Provincial Archivist

Ph: 1 (415) 441-7144
suoarchives@salesiansf.org