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

objectivity is irrelevant.
Content analysis as an appraisal tool continues to be
advocated in the contemporary appraisal literature of other
European countries, although German attempts to provide an
objective framework are notably absent from the discussion. Its
guiding principle is the preservation of records judged to be
valuable according to the standard of the needs of future
researchers. Within this tradition, a typical example of the
kind of guidance that is offered by one archivist to another is
to proceed in a responsible and imaginative manner.15 In France,
Marcel Baudot rightly argues that "Archivists must not lose sight
of their duty to preserve the largest possible documentary record
of contemporary society, which in the future will become the
source of historical research."16 The danger of such thinking,
however, resides in making future research needs the primary
focus of appraisal.
Baudot explains that historical value reveals itself in the
light of knowledge about the administrative structure in which it
was created, and in comparison to gaps in knowledge provided by
the repository's holdings, and gaps of knowledge about the
political, economic and social character of the regional
jurisdiction of the repository.17 While such analysis includes
15 Antonia Heredia Herrera, Archivistica General: Teoria y
Practice^Deputacion Provincial de Sevilla, 1987), 123.
16 Baudot, "Triages," 170.
17 Baudot, "Triages," 178-181.
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