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

that had been used since the mid-nineteenth century to identify
records worthy of permanent preservation: the administrative
criterion and the historical criterion. An understanding of the
Report's terms of reference is key to understanding its proposals
for change. The administrative criterion, echoing Jenkinson's
notion, attempts to identify the value of the records to the
creating department for its own purposes. The Report quotes a
PRO memorandum that offers guidance to departments by stating
that the work must be done "before the meaning of the
transactions in question has faded from memory. . . by persons
having a first-hand knowledge and experience of the executive
work of the Department. . . ."47 The Report, thus, identifies
knowledge, experience and timeliness as crucial to the
identification of the administrative value of records.
Crucial to an understanding of the Report is its view that
administrative value must be interpreted broadly. For example,
it notes that the concept of administrative value should include
the likelihood of the paper being required as
a precedent or as a guide to possible action
should a similar set of circumstances arise
in the future. This would entail the
preservation, inter alia, of papers showing
the authority under which a Department
exercises, or has exercised, any particular
function; together with papers showing the
organisation it has developed, the policies
it has adopted, and the procedures it has
followed, in order to carry out that
function.48
47 Grigg Report, 20, paragraph 29.
48 Mid, 29-30, paragraph 60.
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