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

series.59 The Report also notes that while archivists gain a
wide knowledge of research practices in the normal course of
their work, "There is no established machinery in existence
whereby the Inspecting Officers, in exercising the historical
criterion, may take the advice of historians, economists, or
other persons with experience in research."60 Because of the
heavy load of work for the inspecting officers, and the broad
categories used in the records' classification system, the
Report's main criticism of the procedure was that the application
of the historical criterion is "unavoidably transferred back, in
its most difficult form, to the Departments themselves."61 In
other words, lack of expertise and time combined to prevent the
Application of the historical criterion to the selection process.
The final phase of the procedure was the execution of the
schedule. Once the schedule received parliamentary approval, the
schedule was implemented by the department. Most often, the work
of reviewing non-current records, many of which had no further
interest to the department, was often entrusted to junior staff
members.62 The execution of the schedule was accomplished in
three informal steps, which are often referred to as "weeding": a
review of departmental records to identify those to be retained
or destroyed; destruction of files consisting wholly of documents
59 Ibid, 23,
60 Ibid, 22,
61 Ibid, 23,
62 Ibid, 27,
paragraph 38.
paragraph 36.
paragraph 39.
paragraph 51.
78