A STUDY OF THE THEORY OF APPRAISAL FOR SELECTION By ...

oader concept of information data systems. The organization of
each data system into microdata related by software capabilities
for precise indexing allows for a high precision of retrieval
that is simply unattainable in paper records. At the same time,
electronic records are highly unstable, and suffer from software
dependency and rapid obsolescence. The traditional notion of
original order as corresponding to physical order is meaningless
in the context of the random storage of electronic data, and
therefore must be reexamined. Original order in paper records is
a static phenomenon that must be preserved to provide context and
meaning. In electronic records, the concept of original order as
an arbiter of meaning is found in the system's dynamic relational
context. This functionality is inherent in the design system of
the software and must be preserved by the archivist to maintain
meaning and access.
Electronic records began their history in the 1950s with
non-record status, and were gradually accorded partial status for
containing unique information. In 1981, John McDonald and Sue
Gavrel from the Public Archives of Canada challenged Charles
Dollar's proposal to limit the evaluation of electronic records
to technical and informational value. McDonald and Gavrel had no
quibble with Dollar's insistence on technical analysis as central
to the appraisal of electronic records, but, for the first time,
they insisted that electronic records also had evidential and
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