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

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INTRODUCTION You and I by our involvement are either destroying or agreeing to the destruction of that very evidence which, in an almost Hippocratic oath sense, we are professionally bound to defend and preserve. That, without any question, is our first pitfall--a schizophrenic dilemma which we feel would not face us in an ideal world. Felix Hull, 1980.1 Appraisal is a vital archival function in which records that have exhausted their usefulness are destroyed, and records of value are identified and preserved as the documentary heritage of society. Appraisal decisions demarcate our knowledge of our past and, therefore, influence our ability to form our future. In a very real way, archivists mediate society's knowledge of itself. In the light of this heavy burden, present appraisal practice sometimes appears to be inadequate. Some archivists, such as Felix Hull, go so far as to argue that appraisal poses an ethical problem to the archival community. Since the mid-nineteenth century, archivists throughout the western world have struggled to come to terms with the modern explosion of recorded information in a proliferation of forms and media, which has exacerbated since World War I. Three factors complicate the issue of appraisal: the mass of records involved, the increased demand of the research community for access, and 1 Felix Hull, "The Appraisal of Documents--Problems and Pitfalls," Journal of the Society of Archivists 5 (April 1980): 287. 1
the troublesome question of the relativity of value. Examples of the exponential expansion of records can be seen in a 1976 statistical report which notes that the United States held 930,000 cubic metres of archives with an annual growth rate of 165,000 cubic metres, and France held 1,370,000 shelf metres with an annual growth rate of 51,000 metres.2 Many have traced the cause of the hypertrophy of records to the rapid expansion of government that now influences and documents many aspects of modern life, and to society's technological capability of copying documents with ease. Both trends have resulted in the proliferation of files that no longer are limited to recorded transactions, but also include copies of peripheral records and material that can be used for general information and reference. The pressure to destroy records in order to control the mass of information, while maintaining fiscal and legal responsibility, is on a collision course with an increasing pressure from researchers for broader public access to information. Appraisal literature regularly cites disturbed or outraged researchers who charge archivists with the irresponsible destruction of information. The problems posed by the quantity of records and public demands for access are, in essence, practical problems that need to be addressed through the development of public policy and careful management of resources. Unlike the preceding practical issues, the notion of value 2 Felix Hull, The Use of Sampling Techniques in the Retention of Records: A RAPW Study with Guidelines (Paris: UNESCO, 1981), 2. 2
Page 1 and 2: A STUDY OF THE THEORY OF APPRAISAL
Page 3 and 4: ABSTRACT Appraisal for selection is
Page 5: ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I gratefully acknow
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 and 60:
For it is the task of archivists in
Page 61 and 62:
the European understanding of the n
Page 63 and 64:
to appraisal theory, the following
Page 65 and 66:
of the Rolls has been required 'fro
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Schedule."13 In 1889, rules regardi
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their legitimate successors.17 His
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the administrator.22 Their meaning
Page 73 and 74:
the connexion in which they were or
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fears, archivists and historians wh
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diminished from its previous absolu
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that had been used since the mid-ni
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preserved."52 Thus, the Report main
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series.59 The Report also notes tha
Page 85 and 86:
The Grigg Report concludes its asse
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in the equation of historical value
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paradigms created by European theor
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seriously challenged since it was a
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the usefulness of existing resource
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CHAPTER 4: NORTH AMERICAN TRADITION
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ecords, from creation to dispositio
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possess it not as individual docume
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accomplished. As Hans Booms has cle
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and activities of the creating orga
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the next logical step: the identifi
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that they are needed for an underst
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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
Page 135 and 136:
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
Page 141 and 142:
GLOSSARY OF ARCHIVAL TERMS ACQUISIT
Page 143:
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