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

provide archivists with the necessary tools to assess the
conceptions by which they bring the past into the present."42
Public opinion from a particular historical era expresses the
dominant political culture of society, and provides a fixed point
of reference from which value decisions can be made: "Such a
constant can only be derived from socio-political values that
were dominant at the time the documentary material was created
and actively used."43
Booms also advocated the formation of documentation plans to
be developed by subject category or historical phenomenon, within
specific time periods, as they relate to a particular
repository's sphere of responsibility. An advisory council could
analyze contemporary opinion, and develop an historical grid of
significant events that occurred in the broader contemporary
society of the records' creator. From this analysis, archivists
could "distill in concrete form the significant points from the
total political and social events which occurred within the
specific archival jurisdiction."44 In this manner, the
historical model could identify the essential events, actions,
omissions, and developments that are characteristic of the time
and subject under consideration.
After the significant events were identified, archivists
could then proceed to construct a scale of significance of the
42 Ibid, 104.
43 Ibid, 105.
44 Ibid.
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