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

the intervention of archivists in the selection process. To
those who argue for natural selection, one can only counter with
the logic that rational intervention cannot help but provide a
better quality of evidence than chance.
The principle of impartiality recognizes that the impartial
and authentic nature of archives, which is derived from the
process of their creation and natural accumulation, must be
preserved. Because of the value of archival records to society,
because of the vital connection between preservation and
usefulness, the primary focus of the appraisal process must be to
select records for preservation in such as manner as to guard the
archival and probative nature of the records. The question is,
how can this be accomplished when the probative nature of
archives is endangered by the various subjective perspectives
brought by archivists to the process of selection.
As noted at the beginning of this study, the courts have
circumscribed the use of documents as evidence, because they are
inherently unreliable. The courts recognize the probative value
of records only if two conditions are met. First, they must be
authentically and impartially created in the usual and ordinary
course of business. Second, they must be kept in the custody of
a reliable custodian. The courts proceed on the assumption that
the circumstances of creation offer a guarantee of
trustworthiness because of the normal checks of accountability
that exist within any organized setting. In other words, the
courts limit the use of documentary evidence to archival records.
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