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

The Grigg Report concludes its assessment of current
practices with a critique of the complicated methodology for
appraisal that had been imposed on archivists by legislative acts
of parliament:
The present arrangements for the
preservation of the records of Government
Departments are governed by an Act of 1838
which we believe was not meant to apply to
them, an Act of 1877 which makes the
selection of records for preservation about
as complicated as it can be, and an agreement
of 1845-6 which removes from those
responsible for the ultimate preservation of
the records a proper oversight of them.67
The Report then proceeds with its proposals to remedy the
problems encountered in using the historical criterion as a
method of selecting valuable records. It first insists that
nothing can be remedied in the appraisal process unless senior
staff is allocated to make the necessary "decisions of great
complexity."68 Then, it assures its readers that the
preservation of archival value, as found in the 'unselfconscious'
and 'impartial' nature of records, is of paramount concern:
the Departmental records to be preserved in
the Public Record Office would consist
entirely of papers that accrued in the course
of normal administration and not any that
were created, or whose form had been
modified, for the historian's special
benefit.69
The Grigg Committee clearly acknowledges the theoretical
67 Ibid, 28, paragraph 55.
68 Ibid, 29, paragraph 58.
69 Ibid, 44, paragraph 111.
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