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

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whereby records can be judged according to their ability to reflect accurately the functions and activities of the creating body within the context of its contemporary society. This brief overview of western European traditions of appraisal reveals that almost all twentieth century archivists acknowledge the problem of identifying value, and recognize the need for an objective framework for appraisal in order to limit the inevitable distortion of society's record that occurs with the intervention of the archivist. Appraisal literature suggests that, because value is relative to the perspective of the viewer, archivists must clearly identify to whom the perspective belongs, and for what purpose it is being ascribed. The value of records to the creating society may differ from their value to the archivist's society. In the same way, the value of the records to the creator may differ from their value to researchers. These differing values must be carefully separated in order to insure clarity in archival judgements. At the same time, the discussion on perspectives has caused several archivists to appeal vigorously for government repositories to acknowledge and accept responsibility for the important contribution of private records creators to the documentary heritage of society. Archivists, however, disagree on the means to achieve their common objective. Sometimes they understand content and structural analysis to be contradictory, but most often they promote a poorly constructed hybrid of both approaches in a theoretical vacuum. However, if the discussion is re-directed to 55
the European understanding of the nature of archives as being an organic and impartial mirror of the creating body, the application of the principle of provenance offers the primary method by which the archival and probative nature of records can be identified and preserved. At the same time, the application of the principle of pertinence seems to offer a method by which carefully constructed acquisition policies may be developed in a way that will accurately reflect the functions and activities of society as a whole. Both approaches can play a role in identifying value within a clearly defined theoretical framework. The goal of such a framework should be to preserve the archival and probative nature of the documentary heritage of society. 56
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A STUDY OF THE THEORY OF APPRAISAL
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ABSTRACT Appraisal for selection is
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I gratefully acknow
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the troublesome question of the rel
Page 9 and 10: principle of pertinence is commonly
Page 11 and 12: problems such as the availability o
Page 13 and 14: theoretical framework.^In this mann
Page 15 and 16: CHAPTER 1: THE PROBATIVE NATURE OF
Page 17 and 18: doctrine of stare decisis.3 The hie
Page 19 and 20: The courts thus enter the realm of
Page 21 and 22: the conduct of society, but to expl
Page 23 and 24: lives."16 Because the present inesc
Page 25 and 26: judiciary has developed a complex s
Page 27 and 28: creation, is inherently reliable. 2
Page 29 and 30: authority. "31^Public records can t
Page 31 and 32: whole or any part of any book, docu
Page 33 and 34: consist of all documentary records
Page 35 and 36: issue. German archivists have been
Page 37 and 38: information.2 It is, however, the F
Page 39 and 40: Importance of historical value as a
Page 41 and 42: intuitive ability to appraise recor
Page 43 and 44: objectivity is irrelevant. Content
Page 45 and 46: is supported by the many examples o
Page 47 and 48: that documented important historica
Page 49 and 50: ecords through a structural analysi
Page 51 and 52: is, the political issue of extent a
Page 53 and 54: appraisal. But, instead of rejectin
Page 55 and 56: provide archivists with the necessa
Page 57 and 58: theory of appraisal, which, in his
Page 59: For it is the task of archivists in
Page 63 and 64: to appraisal theory, the following
Page 65 and 66: of the Rolls has been required 'fro
Page 67 and 68: Schedule."13 In 1889, rules regardi
Page 69 and 70: their legitimate successors.17 His
Page 71 and 72: the administrator.22 Their meaning
Page 73 and 74: the connexion in which they were or
Page 75 and 76: fears, archivists and historians wh
Page 77 and 78: diminished from its previous absolu
Page 79 and 80: that had been used since the mid-ni
Page 81 and 82: preserved."52 Thus, the Report main
Page 83 and 84: series.59 The Report also notes tha
Page 85 and 86: The Grigg Report concludes its asse
Page 87 and 88: in the equation of historical value
Page 89 and 90: paradigms created by European theor
Page 91 and 92: seriously challenged since it was a
Page 93 and 94: the usefulness of existing resource
Page 95 and 96: CHAPTER 4: NORTH AMERICAN TRADITION
Page 97 and 98: ecords, from creation to dispositio
Page 99 and 100: possess it not as individual docume
Page 101 and 102: accomplished. As Hans Booms has cle
Page 103 and 104: and activities of the creating orga
Page 105 and 106: the next logical step: the identifi
Page 107 and 108: that they are needed for an underst
Page 109 and 110: archivists bring to research by the
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unarticulated."35 ^ In the American
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Cook's emphasis on relating the pro
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oader concept of information data s
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provenance. They also offer an inte
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content analysis as the primary met
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CONCLUSION After all is said and do
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the intervention of archivists in t
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ecords. The analysis seeks to ident
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according to an ideological underst
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previously, Hans Booms projects tha
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administrative and historical value
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BIBLIOGRAPHY Advisory Committee for
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Cook, Terry. "Improving our Disposi
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Haas, J. et al. Appraising the Reco
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Raffel, Stanley.^Matters of Fact: A
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GLOSSARY OF ARCHIVAL TERMS ACQUISIT
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PUBLIC RECORDS: Documents issued by
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