Selection, appraisal and acquisition

The three core functions of an archive service are the selection, preservation and provision of access to the records and archives in its care.

Selection is a key function: deciding what you propose to keep of your own organisation’s records and/or to acquire from elsewhere is fundamental not only to how the service will develop, but in contributing to shaping the written and cultural heritage.

This chapter considers the theories, systems and processes surrounding archival selection, appraisal and acquisition. It will help you to:

■ differentiate between selection, appraisal, acquisition, collection, accession and documentation;

■ develop an awareness of current archival appraisal theory;

■ write an archival acquisitions/collections policy;

■ develop an acquisitions strategy;

■ establish processes for the systematic acquisition and accessioning of material;

■ apply appropriate methodologies in the appraisal of records and archives;

■ negotiate successfully the donation or deposit of material.

Much has been written about both the theory and the practice of appraisal. Theorists seek the ideal theory to guide professionals’ thoughts and actions and practitioners seek explicit instructions about what to keep and what to discard. In describing current ideas and practices we should acknowledge that:

No single textbook discussion of appraisal or standard of practice, or agreed benchmarks can be used as a technical manual to guide mechanical tasks or for rote application. Appraisal must be a live procedure which recognises the nuances of situation and timing, and caters for the constraints of resources.1

In other words there is no single appraisal solution. However, decisions bearing on the retention or disposal of current or archival records have to be made, and these can happen at any point during their life cycle. All records professionals need to be aware of the processes involved in appraisal across the spectrum, even if their particular role does not require expertise in all of them.

Records managers help records creators decide how long series of records should be kept for operational purposes, using retention schedules or disposal authorities to define the retention periods and consequent disposal actions. They deal with hybrid systems, with paper and electronic media, but the principles are the same. Electronic records will not survive to become archives unless early decisions are made about how to maintain their authenticity, reliability and accessibility throughout their current and archival lives. Making decisions as early as possible in the life of the record also means that electronic record-keeping systems as well as physical storage areas are not cluttered with unnecessary material. It also makes it easier to ensure a seamless flow of material of continuing value to the archives section of the organisation. There is plenty of advice available elsewhere for those involved more specifically in records management.2

The archivist who takes in archives from his or her employing body may be less involved in developing retention schedules for current record series, but will discuss those for potentially archival records with the records manager, and subsequently receive these records as corporate archives. An archivist or manuscript curator whose main task is to collect archives for research purposes from external sources will do so in accordance with a stated acquisitions or collections policy. Only acquisitions that fall within its remit will be acquired.

Definitions

Definitions in this area can be confusing because they tend to have different meanings for different writers and are sometimes loosely applied. A holistic definition of appraisal comes from Australia. Appraisal is ‘the process of evaluating business activities to determine which records need to be captured and how long the records need to be kept, to meet business needs, the requirements of organizational accountability and community expectations.’3

This high-level inclusive definition concentrates on current rather than archival records: the reference to ‘community expectations’ refers to archival provision and use. A more traditional definition (again Australian) says: ‘Determining which of the records will become archives and which shall be discarded is the archival skill of appraisal.’4

‘Selection’ is used also to refer to the act of determining which records are of sufficient ‘continuing value’ to be acquired by an archival repository either from the parent body or externally. Top-level selection decisions should comply with an acquisition or collection policy that has been drawn up in line with the organisation’s mission and goals: an in-house archive will have a different acquisitions remit from its collecting counterpart. The document that defines an archives’ acquisition focus is an ‘acquisition policy’. Those in the historical manuscripts tradition and other collecting archives may use the term ‘collection policy’ instead because they collect material that may include personal and other non-organisational material, but in reality terminology is fairly fluid. Documentation, when applied to appraisal, is a proactive strategy that aims to ensure the retention of core documentation relating to defined areas of human activity that might not otherwise be properly recorded. An acquisition strategy (or collection strategy) is a proactive and systematic plan for enhancing collections. This involves evaluating current holdings against the acquisition policy and setting appropriate, measurable targets.

Selection might be undertaken at the ‘collection’ level – for example, the few surviving archives of the Paperclip Collectors’ Club fall within your acquisitions remit but after appraisal you might decide that they are not worth acquiring. Selection might take place at lower levels. You might select the archive of the Northern Gas Board for retention, but on appraising its content decide to discard the chequebook stubs and duplicate copies of printed material, and keep the board minutes and annual reports. Or again the series of files on the project to sanitise litterbins in Ramsey Street might be worth considering for selection as might that relating to the industrial poisoning of the water supply of 4000 inhabitants of Gotham City. After appraisal the former will probably be found to have no continuing value, judged not worthy of retention and destroyed. The latter may well be selected for transfer to the archives. (This is a value judgement with which you might disagree – I will discuss this later.)

Thus, whereas ‘appraisal’ is the process of evaluating actual or potential acquisitions, the skill of judging – by understanding what values records have – what should be kept, the word ‘appraisal’ is also commonly (and loosely) used when discussing the various theories and practices surrounding the decision-making process.

Appraisal theory

Appraisal is a core skill of the records professional, whether records manager or archivist. It is important because whether you are appraising for current operational or archival research purposes you are involved in making a judgement about what should be retained – and in the long term defining the future research resource and contributing to moulding the historical record. As one writer put it, ‘our most important and intellectually demanding task as archivists is to make an informed selection of information that will provide the future with a representative record of human experience in our time.’5

This is quite a responsibility and has given rise to much debate. This debate involves:

■ whether archivists should in fact make appraisal decisions at all, and, if so,

■ why, and for what purpose, they should do so,

■ what should they appraise and

■ how such decisions should be reached.

The first two of these issues, the ‘whether’ and ‘why’ questions, are often centred on an intellectual enquiry about the wider purpose of keeping archives. One could say that it generates ‘ideas-based’ theory, allowing interesting speculation – for example whether archives should ‘aim at shaping as true as possible an image of society’ – that is not necessarily intended for practical application.6 The last two issues, about what we appraise and how we go about it, have given rise to a range of standards and methodologies of direct use in the work place, from national to local and specialist archives. These then are more ‘practice-based’ approaches.

Should archivists be involved in appraisal?

Hilary Jenkinson, Deputy Keeper of the UK Public Record Office in the middle of the twentieth century, argued that if the archivist decides which...