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

events. Booms argues that
The more precisely archivists distinguish
degrees of historical relevance for these
historical phenomena according to how
characteristic, typical or momentous they
were at the time, the more accurately will
their documentation model reflect a scale of
significance for societal phenomena parallel
to which a scale of value for groups of
records can be constructed.45
Such a scale presents the significance of historical events and
phenomena that relate to each archival jurisdiction, and
identifies how characteristic they were within the time period
under consideration.
Proceeding from the scale of significance, the archivist was
then to proceed to the actual appraisal of records. Records that
document the "currents and cross-currents" of society were to be
considered to have permanent value.46 The archivist could then
determine "which documents, regardless of their provenance,
possess the optimum concentration of desired information so that
a maximum of documentation is achieved with a minimum of
documents. "47 The development of the scale of significance is
the focal point of each documentation plan, and the most
treacherous, for it is most open to the vagaries of subjectivity.
It will be objective only in so far as it recreates the climate
of the creating society, according to published sources.
Booms' analysis offers a remarkable contribution to the
45 Ibid.
46 Ibid.
47 Ibid.
51