Interesting question that Clare raises. I would have thought that there is a
very important dostinction involved between appraisal and scheduling
involved here.
If you decide after appraisal to dispoose of a record, you are surely now (
if in a public body) need to provide satisfactory documentation of how this
decision was reached, so that in the event of an FOI request, your
organisation can show that it has behaved in compliance.
If you schedule material for disposal at a set date at a series or bulk
level, there is less need to provide such detailed documentation - you have
complied with your stated ( and possibly published ) retention schedule. It
may be that long retention periods are much more cost effective than
appraisal or weeding regimes...........
I do wonder if the discussion of appraisal we are witnessing does reflect
that many archivists have never worked in a records managers environment,
and vice versa. A fuller understanding of these two intimately related
activities is, I think, of enormous vale to us all.
Buce Jackson
Llancashire Record Office
-----Original Message-----
From: Clare Cowling [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 26 November 2002 10:45
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Appraisal
If we don't appraise and destroy the dross, particularly on electronic
systems, how are we going to answer FOI enquiries within 20 days? Any
suggestions?
Clare Cowling
University of London Records Manager
p.s. spending large sums of money on expensive systems is NOT an option
here.
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