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

must not be negated in the rejection of content analysis.
Researchers are dependent on archivists to preserve the probative
nature of records, and to provide meaningful intellectual access.
The first need must be addressed by the application of sound
archival principles. The second can be addressed by the
implementation of descriptive standards, rationalized
intellectual access, and practical methods employed in the course
of reference service.
The principle of contemporary value provides archivists with
a mechanism by which they can distance themselves from the social
conditioning of their own society by evaluating the functions of
records creators in the context of their contemporary society.
If meaning is rooted in context, then an understanding of context
must be extended from the relationship between records and their
creator, to include also the relationship between the records
creator and its contemporary society.
An understanding of contemporary value primarily acts as an
objective point of reference to help archivists distance
themselves from their inevitable subjective allegiance to the
ideology of their own society. The contemporary chronicle
proposed by Hans Booms is not the result of an interpretive
exercise, but is a straightforward record of dates and events
that were important to the society of the records creator during
the time the records being appraised were created. The chronicle
provides an objective frame of reference in which the functions
of the creator can be judged in a broad social context. As noted
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