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

Schedule."13
In 1889, rules regarding destruction of records held by the
PRO and government departments were codified. The appraisal
guidelines were presented to the department officer responsible
for scheduling. The rules maintained the ascendancy of research
interests. The officer was required to "take every precaution
against the inclusion therein of any documents which can
reasonably be considered as of legal, historical, genealogical or
antiquarian use or interest, or which give any important
information not to be obtained elsewhere."14 This is the
clearest articulation of the evolving consensus that the
identification of historical value was central to the appraisal
process. The Grigg Report adds that since their establishment
the 1889 rules had been subscribed to by virtually all government
departments, and remained in force in Grigg's time.15
By 1889, government archivists had identified the pressing
need for legal authority to select and destroy useless records
from their holdings. Their arguments clearly indicate that they
considered the records in their holdings as a valuable national
resource, which, because of the value of records to a democratic
society, required legal authority before destruction could be
accomplished. The criterion used for the selection process was
referred to as "public value", or "usefulness" to research and
13 Ibid, 17, paragraph 24.
14 Ibid.
15 Ibid.
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