Hello Kate

Identifying the dross amongst the not-quite-dross is, in my opinion, the
more normal experience of most archivists. Even this is a process which
should be fraught with the realisation that we may be wrong, no matter
how professional in our approach we are. Perhaps even the humble
cheque-stub has its place in the many-roomed palace of archival heaven
(though I doubt it!).
To be honest, I don't think that you have yet made any case for
appraisal as the overriding concern of the archivist other than arguing
that somehow such a process will 'serve the continuing interests of
citizens of a democracy'.
How on earth are we to determine what will achieve that, even if we
accept that that may be a desirable goal? Does not our everyday
experience of regret for the lost documents of the past teach us that
the exigencies and imperatives of the Now rarely take into account the
needs (or even merely the desires) of the future? And that goes for
archival imperatives too!
Now, I'm not arguing that everything is worth keeping (15 years of
dealing with business records have shown me that, if nothing else) but I
am questioning just how it is we can be so sure that certain records
reflect the function and nature of their creator and not others.
Ultimately, isn't all that we are saying is that the dross reflects such
a common and obvious part of their creator's nature that there is never
any chance that we (Society) shall forget it?
Tom Townsend





-----Original Message-----
From: kate manning [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 25 November 2002 17:02
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: More on MyLifeBits - and something else


Hi Steve,

I think the "why" of appraisal is critical. Why do we do it and why do
we
choose what we choose? We have moved a long way from the Jenkinsonian
view
that archivists should not appraise and are moving away from the purely
historical view that decisions about appraisal are justified as serving
the
needs of research into the past, to the view (at least in some places)
that
we are meeting some of the requirements of a modern, democratic society
by
carrying out appraisal. That is, we must clearly identify the records
that
are being created which document the functions and activities of the
creator
not only to help us understand the past but to meet accountability needs
and
more broadly to "document" our society (I am thinking here particularly
of
the macroappraisal model as practised in the National Archives of
Canada).

Appraisal is much more than keeping the records that were kept to meet
legal
and regulatory requirements (simply accepting the records at the end of
the
records management process). I heard Terry Eastwood give a paper
('Archival
appraisal in democratic societies') at a conference dedicated to
appraisal
in Salamanca, Spain last month where he said that one of the questions
for
archivists in a democracy is how to "orient ourselves to determine from
among the vast volume of records produced in modern, technologically
adept
society those that will serve the continuing interests of citizens of a
democracy." And at the same conference, Terry Cook ('Macroappraisal and
Functional Analysis: The importance of Governance rather than
Government')said that when we appraise "We are deciding what is
remembered
and what is forgotten, who in society is visible and who remains
invisible,
who has a voice and who does not. In this act of creation, we must
remain
extraordinarily sensitive to the political and philosophical nature of
documents individually, of archives collectively, of archival functions,
of
archivists' personal bias, and most especially of archival appraisal,
for
that process defines the creators, functions, and activities to be
included
in archives, by defining, choosing, selecting which documents become
archives, and thus enjoy all subsequent archival processes (description,

conservation, exhibition, reference, etc.), and, as starkly, and with
finality, which are destroyed, excluded from archives, forgotten from
memory." I think you are absolutely right when you say "Archivists will
find
themselves swimming against a pretty powerful current if the only
defence of
the importance of appraisal that we can muster is that it is what we as
archivists have always done!" But in order to do that, we have to
understand
ourselves why we appraise and what is our goal in appaisal.

I think the not choosing is as important as the choosing. The argument
for
not choosing is not simply that you can't keep everything but that not
everything is worth keeping! Nicholson Baker's book "Double Fold" is a
prime
example of libraries and archives not making it clear why some things
are
not worth keeping. It's finding the gold amongst the dross.

Regards,

Kate

>Hi Kate,
>
>Some further thoughts in response to your email.
>
>are we not missing the point of what we do if we keep entire
> > systems rather than appraise
>
>My point exactly! As I said in my first email, I see appraisal as
>*the* defining traditional core skill of the archive profession. The
>issue is that whereas until now that skill has had an appeal born of
>necessity (ie we can't keep everything so what should we keep). With
>the advent of MyLifeBits and more importantly the theory that lies
>behind it, that skill may nolonger be seen as being important. The
>whole point of MyLifeBits is that we *can* keep everything and moreover
>that we *should* keep everything (please note I am merely explaining
>this view not condoning it) so why bother appraising?
>
> Maybe the question we need to consider, before we think about our
>technical
> > abilities, is how and why do we appraise?
>
>The 'why' is, I'm sure, open to debate. At its most fundamental level
>however it is hard to deny that it was originally born of necessity.
>In the paper world you simply could not keep everything. Firstly
>because of the practical problems of storage and secondly because with
>manual finding aids it would take an age to find what you did want. So
>we invented a methodology for weeding out the ephemera and identifying
>and preserving historically valuable material(evidence of decision
>making etc etc) which kept the volume manageable and avoided waste. I
>can see no theoretical argument against keeping everything, it simply
>wasn't practically possible. Now if you follow the MyLifeBits approach
>the whole underlying assumption on which our approach to appraisal is
>based has gone (or at least will go soon) ie 'we *can* keep everything
>so why not and focus our collective efforts on improving *access* to
>it'. Archivists will find themselves swimming against a pretty
>powerful current if the only defence of the importance of appraisal
>that we can muster is that it is what we as archivists have
>always done! So is it time for us to learn new skills, and if so,
>what??
>
>
>Thoughts?
>
>Regards
>
>Steve
>
>
>
>
>On Mon, 25 Nov 2002 15:02:46 +0000 kate manning
><[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > With regard to the developing discussion on the influence of
technology
>on
> > appraisal, are we not missing the point of what we do if we keep
entire
> > systems rather than appraise (even if this is time- and
>resource-consuming),
> > i.e. select the records that properly reflect the functions and
>activities
> > of the creator (government, institution or person) whatever the
format?
> > Maybe the question we need to consider, before we think about our
>technical
> > abilities, is how and why do we appraise? When we know what we need
to
>keep,
> > we can work towards the infrastructure necessary to keep it.
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Kate Manning
> > Archives Department
> > University College Dublin


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