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

appraisal. But, instead of rejecting the practice, Lodolini
accepts the inevitable and notes that, if appraisal must be done,
the criteria used are necessarily empirical rather than
theoretical. The empirical criteria include preservation of old
documents, the elimination of whole series rather than individual
documents, and preservation on basis of provenance, rather than
pertinence.38 Lodolini's emphasis on maintaining the integrity
of series, and the importance of structural analysis reflects his
theoretical understanding of the organic nature of archives in
which meaning is rooted in context. Be then adds that if ninety-
nine per cent of records are destroyed, as in the United States,
damage cannot be avoided.39
Lodolini offers hollow comfort to those attempting to
construct an objective theoretical framework that will allow
archivists to escape from the subjective limitations inherent in
content analysis. If there are no theoretical grounds for
appraisal, and yet records must be destroyed, archivists become
caught in an intolerable quandary in which they are forced to
participate in the destruction of meaning. Lodolini acknowledges
that understanding the structural context and preserving the
integrity of series provide standards of appraisal that can limit
damage to a fonds. Such reasoning indicates that, in spite of
protestations to the contrary, he is arguing from a theoretical
38 Elio Lodolini, Archivistica: Principi e Problemi, 4th ed.
(Milano: Franco Angell, 1987), 214.
39 Ibid, 216.
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