Dear Steve and other colleagues,

Just wanted to add my twopenn'orth to the debate. My immediate response (and
I suspect I'm not alone on this) on reading about MyLifeBits last week was
one of horror. Are IT people still responding that records management
doesn't matter because we can keep everything? Have we taught them nothing?

The truth is that time will tell. In my organisation, the IT people are now
beginning to sing the same tune as us - why? Because experience has shown
(as Jessie pointed out) that no matter how the technology develops, and how
fast our computers work, the more data you hold, the more difficult it is to
manage. The business driver, if you like, of appraisal, is what Steve says,
that we can't keep everything. But this applies equally to electronic
records as to paper, and it is as much to ensure the quality of archival
collections as to reduce storage costs. Kate's point that we are looking for
the gold amongst the dross is pertinent, and reflects my own view. It is so
much more difficult to find the gold when there is so much more dross, and
it is our ultimate role, as archivists, to ensure that the seams of gold are
there to be readily mined by the willing historian (if I'm not taking that
metaphor too far).

Appraisal is, if anything, more important now.  The academic and archival
community worldwide already seems to accept the continued importance of
appraisal, as the inclusion of a functional approach to management and
appraisal of records in the International Standard suggests (not to mention
the continued debates at conferences about standards for appraisal). Our own
approach here is to adopt Australian methods such as a classification scheme
based on Keyword AAA. All of these things demonstrate that we are changing
our attitudes to appraisal, but it is still a valid discipline, and will
continue to be. As was predicted some years ago (and I'm not that great at
remembering the names and articles, but I do recall the principles),
appraisal is increasingly falling to the user, and it is our role to educate
them and provide the tools (i.e. classification schemes, disposal schedules,
etc.).

The people using MyLifeBits and similar products will have to make those
decisions about what to keep (as I think Rick was suggesting) - the
important thing is that people like us are here to train them in that, and
that we try to get the tools we develop built into these systems. Appraisal
is actually likely to be one of our strongest attributes as a profession in
this environment.

Steve is definitely right about our changing roles though, and the need to
continually look at what we do. In terms of the relationship between
archivists and records managers - increasingly, we will be carrying out both
roles at the same time. Remember that in Australia and the US, there appears
to be no distinction between archivists and records managers. Electronic
records are likely to drive us along the same path.

Cheers, Steve, for stimulating such an interesting and valuable discussion.

Paul Gibbons,
Parliamentary Records Manager,
House of Lords Record Office (The Parliamentary Archives),
London SW1A OPW
(020) 7219 6291