Date: 17–19 May 2007

Time: 10.00–17.00 (17–18 May) and 10.00–13.00 (19 May). Please note that registration will take place on the morning of 17 May between 09.30–10.00.

Venue: Room A003, Health Sciences Complex, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland.

Fee: SoA members €150; SoA student members €125; Non-members €300.

Tea & coffee will be provided.

http://www.ucd.ie/archives/html/conferences/cs4.htm

This is a workshop about appraising records for deciding on acquisition and archival retention as archives, rather than appraising records for other purposes (i.e. it is not a records management workshop, nor dealing with appraisal used for aspects of description, conservation, or public programming, although obviously there are some shared issues). A list of required pre-reading will be emailed to participants, all of which is available electronically.

There is a maximum of 25 places available. Priority is given to SoA members. Bookings will be taken until 10 May 2007.

To book a place on the workshop, please contact Bernie Deasy, Training Officer, Society of Archivists, Ireland, [log in to unmask] or telephone +353-49-4378300. Please indicate when booking if you require an invoice to facilitate payment.

Queries about the workshop programme should be directed to Kate Manning, UCD Archives, [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>or telephone +353-1-7167553.

Terry Cook teaches in the Archival Studies graduate program at the University of Manitoba, Canada. Cook worked for 23 years at the Public (later National) Archives of Canada, leaving in 1998 as the senior manager responsible for appraising all government records in all media for their possible archival value. He developed a new series of concepts and strategies for appraising records called macroappraisal, which has gained widespread international acceptance. He has conducted workshops and seminars on appraisal, electronic records and archival ethics across Canada and internationally. Terry Cook has written more than eighty publications on a wide range of archival subjects and has served as editor of Archivaria, the scholarly journal of the Association of Canadian Archivists.

Workshop Programme 1. WORKSHOP AND PARTICIPANT INTRODUCTIONS Introductions, expectations, possible modification of agenda, and a chance to share backgrounds and experiences in appraisal of records. Overview of workshop.

2. FOUNDATIONS: DEFINITIONS, PROBLEMS, AND “VALUE” CONCEPTS The problem and importance of appraisal analyzed, schools of thinking about appraisal value, a common language of definition, failures of past approaches.

3. ORGANIZATIONAL APPRAISAL (GOVERNMENT, CORPORATE, OR LARGE INSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENTS): UNDERSTANDING MACROAPPRAISAL Exploring the Canadian approach of macroappraisal as concept/theory, strategy, methodology, and its operational framework.

4. CASE-LEVEL RECORDS: ISSUES, VALUES, METHODS One major problem identified in the appraisal literature is sampling and selecting case files for Archives, retaining a small percentage from the whole.

5. ORGANIZATIONAL/INSTITUTIONAL APPRAISAL: GROUP DISCUSSION

6. PERSONAL AND PRIVATE-SECTOR RECORDS APPRAISAL: CONCEPTS, METHODS, NEW DIRECTIONS Setting the landscape: archives vs manuscripts, official records vs personal papers, managing vs collecting, archival performance, traditional vs new values.

7. COOPERATIVE APPRAISAL: DOCUMENTATION STRATEGIES AND THE MINNESOTA METHOD Looking at the two more suggestive approaches to private-sector cooperative or collaborative appraisal across some functional or geographical sector.

8. APPRAISAL: MACHINE-READABLE, ELECTRONIC, DIGITAL RECORDS The second major problem identified in appraisal literature is identifying the criteria for selecting archival records within computer-based record-keeping systems.

9. APPRAISAL OF “SPECIAL” MEDIA: PHOTOGRAPHS, CARTOGRAPHY AND ARCHITECTURAL/ENGINEERING PLANS, FILM, SOUND, TELEVISION, ETC
An open discussion of “other” or “special” or audio-visual records

10. ETHICAL APPRAISAL: THE AUDIT TRAIL, TRANSPARENCY, ACCOUNTABILITY, AND MANY VOICES, VALUES, CHOICES
An exploration of the archivist’s responsibilities in appraisal, for what may she or he be held accountable and what not, summarizing appraisal approaches, full circle back to values.