Journal Title: Currents in Archival Thinking Article Author: Ciaran B. Trace Article Title: On or Off the Record? Notions of Value in the Archive Volume: Issue: Month/Year: 2019 Pages: 47.68 (can notes and tccpyeh pages for chapter requeatay Imprint: Paced by GB diva Reason Not Filled (check ono} NOS 5 LACK VoLISsuE © PAGES MISSING FROM VOLUME © NFAC (GIVE REASON): Rec'd: 12/23/2016 1:58:18 PM Document Delivery Book Chapter Trans. #: 1628820 AAA Call #: CD972 .c87 2019 Location: Main Library Item #: CUSTOMER INFORMATION: Jamie Ann Lee [email protected] STATUS: Faculty DEPT: School of Information University of Arizona Library Document Delivery 1510 E. University Bivd Tucson, AZ 85721 (520) 621-6438 (520) 621-4619 (fax) ASKILL@u library arizona edu38 On or Off the Record? Notions of Value in the Archive Ciaran B. Trace Apprawal occurs promariy today on the records of yesterday to create a past or tomorrow (Cook 2006, 169) In assigning value to recorded information, archivists and records managers are bound up in the processes of appraisal and selection. The terms appraisal and selection are often thought of as synonymous. However, selection isthe “prac: tical and controlled application of appraisal principles toa body of material” (Harrison 1997, 126), whereas appraisal isthe “intellectual decision making activity that precedes selection” [Harrison 1997, 126), Appratal thezefore pro- vides the intellectual framework in which the actvity of selection takes place. Both are fundamental activities undertaken by records managers and archivists throughout the records’ lifecycle or continuum. For the records manager, appraisal rakes place in the assessment of the value that current records have for their creating entity. From a records-management perspec- tive, records ace generally seen as valuable for admimstative, fiscal, and legal reasons. Such appraisal decisions take physical form in the retention scheduling and disposition of paper and electron records. Appraisal is also increasingly taking physical form daring computer-systems design when a2 (CURRENTS OF ARCHIVAL THINKING eeswon must be made up tront whether, stor und to what extent certan types son should be managed as record. In the aechival environment, the appraisal and selection of records has traditionally heen predicated on the adea that archivists manage records that hate long teem or enduring value. Apprarsal and selection take place in the processes of following retention schedules, conducting manuscripts Bld work, eeappratsing andlor deaces sng collections, and weeding materual. Appraisal evteria and selection processes and methodologies are enified atthe msttutional and collection level sn mission statements, acquisition and collecting policies, apprassal reports, and processing plans. “The overall goal of this essay 8 to intcoduce the reader to the broad land- scape of archival apprarsal with a particular emphasis on wlentifying its key facets from both historical and contemporary perspectives. The essay ives tugates the various pomnts of view that lie hehund decisions to designate cer tain records as worthy of long-term retention, The physical manifestation and application of appraisal principles are also discussed, particulaely in terms of the changes to practice that have heen brought about by advances in technology. The essay concludes by speculating about the future of Appraisal cheory and peactice mn the light of emerging tren A HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF WRITINGS ON ARCHIVAL APPRAISAL ‘The notion of appraisal is relatively new to the archival profession. Early attempts ro examine the issue of archival appraisal and to codify the pri ples behind appraisal decisions date to the late decades of the nineteenth century and the early decades of the owentieth century (Kolsrud 1992), and such attemprs were largely located within a public archives rather than a bis torical manuscripts tradition. Tracing the early development of appraisal standards to the time of the French Revolution, T. R. Schellenberg (1956, 134) observes that before that time, appraisal privileged the historical sig nificance of the records rather than their role in documenting the functioning, of prerevolutionary institutions. Before World War I there was also an attempt in England to articulate notions of value, and these centered ‘on issues such as the age of records, as well as their use and completeness (Kolsrud 1992). The early English tradition of appraisal was to “stress the destruction of the worthless more than the preservation of the valuable” (1992, 27), a focus that speaks to immediate practical concerns for reducing, ‘the volume of records. Following the expansion of government structure and function after World War I, the need to manage the burgeoning mass of public documents in particular took on a new urgency. {A pivotal point in the history of archival appraisal was the publication, in 1922, of Hilary Jenkinson's A Manual of Archive Administration. As an archivist atthe Public Records Office of the United Kingdom, Jenkinson(ON OR OFF THE RECORD? 6