The text discusses the support given by the Archives Service of the University of Montreal in the second half of the 20^th century for the establishment of the University's Archival Science programs. Carol Couture, who was director of the Service, was the prime mover in the development of archival science courses in the School of Library and Information Science. To accomplish this, he mobilized the Archives Service to furnish teaching staff and a milieu for internships, both indispensable for the training of new archivists.

     This examination of RAMP (Records and Archivies Management Programme) studies was conducted in the course of a project designed to inquire into the state of development or archival principles and functions. The authors sought to use use the scientific body or knowledge that the RAMP studies contain as a window on the degree of advencement of the disdpline of archives. After having outlined the history or the RAMP programme, the authors offer a detailed analysis of the studies published to date and, in so doing look at the contents of thoses studies, their structure, and their methodology, draw up a topology of the authors of the studies, and determine the readership which the studies target.

     After evaluating the present state of published research concerning the impact on archives of standardization and of legislative, regulatory and administrative mesures, the authors trace the outlines of a research project intended to deeper our understanding of laws, the problems they raise, and the impact they have on the organization of archives and the processing of records.