INFO 6800 (Winter 2013) Week Five: Archival Appraisal
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Transcript of INFO 6800 (Winter 2013) Week Five: Archival Appraisal
INFO 6800 - Archives
• Announcements• Archival appraisal• Seminar presentations
February 4, 2013 1INFO 6800 Archives – Week Five
http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1995-02-23/
Archival Appraisal
February 4, 2013 2INFO 6800 Archives – Week FiveDiscards at the Dalhousie University Archives
What is archival
appraisal?Resource Allocation
Archival Appraisal
February 4, 2013 3INFO 6800 Archives – Week Five
What is the purpose of appraisal?
Identify records to be accessioned
Reduce backlog
Meet mandateComprehensive
but compact
Appraisal Practice
February 4, 2013 4INFO 6800 Archives – Week Five
Practice
Methods
Theory
Appraisal Practice
February 4, 2013 5INFO 6800 Archives – Week Five
Processing a fonds at the Dalhousie University Archives
Resource Allocation
Appraisal Practice
February 4, 2013 6INFO 6800 Archives – Week Five
1. Provenance and content
2. Values
3. Authenticity and reliability
4. Order and completeness
5. Condition and preservation costs
What should an archivist
consider?
$$$ ?
Appraisal Theory
February 4, 2013 7INFO 6800 Archives – Week Five
Practice
Methods
Theory
??
Appraisal Theory
February 4, 2013 8INFO 6800 Archives – Week Five
Historical Context
– Impartiality– Integrity
– Functions– Activities– Society
Contemporary Archives
Tomorrow's Archives? ?
Appraisal Theory
February 4, 2013 9INFO 6800 Archives – Week Five
Respect des fonds
Appraisal theorySociety
Creators and
records
Redefining Provenance
Appraisal Theory
February 4, 2013 10INFO 6800 Archives – Week Five
?
Jenkinson
February 4, 2013 11INFO 6800 Archives – Week Five
What is the moral defense of archives?
Protect evidentiality
Protect integrity
CustodianshipLegal and moral
responsibility
Jenkinson
February 4, 2013 12INFO 6800 Archives – Week Five
“The primary duty of the archivist was to the evidentiary nature of archival material, and the activities supporting this duty, which came to be known as the “moral defense of archives,” were seen as central to the professional ethic of archivists.”
Duranti (1994)
Schellenberg
February 4, 2013 13INFO 6800 Archives – Week Five
How does Schellenberg depart from Jenkinson?
Selection is essential
Use for researchRole of
archivists Primary and secondary value
Schellenberg
February 4, 2013 14INFO 6800 Archives – Week Five
“Can we, faced with these modern accumulations, leave any longer to chance the question what Archives are to be preserved? Can we…attempt to regulate them without destroying that precious characteristic of impartiality which results . . . from the very fact that their preservation was settled…?”
Schellenberg
Schellenberg’s Primary Values
February 4, 2013 15INFO 6800 Archives – Week Five
Primary ValueDerived from
original use for creator
Administrative value Fiscal value
Legal value Operational value
What are the primary values?
What are the secondary values?
Schellenberg’s Secondary Values
February 4, 2013 16INFO 6800 Archives – Week Five
Secondary Value
Primary concern for archivists
Evidential Informational
Uniqueness Form ImportanceWhat is informational value?
Intrinsic Value
February 4, 2013 17INFO 6800 Archives – Week FiveLeo Cullum, April 21, 2008 (New Yorker Magazine)
Luciana Duranti
February 4, 2013 18INFO 6800 Archives – Week Five
What are the characteristics of archival records?
Interrelationship and uniqueness
Impartiality
Naturalness
Authenticity
Luciana Duranti
February 4, 2013 19INFO 6800 Archives – Week Five
“…the role of the concept of accountability in archival theory … was undermined by Schellenberg’s desire to promote the cultural identity of archival repositories and the role of archivists as appraisers of records.”
Duranti (1994)
Richard Cox
February 4, 2013 20INFO 6800 Archives – Week Five
How do we understand
records collected in the past?
Richard Cox
February 4, 2013 21INFO 6800 Archives – Week Five
“Appraisal seems to have drifted into a world of confused, conflicting, or complacent methods, theories, and practices—at least when seen by the typical archival practitioner. Some archivists in the field embrace specific guiding concepts, but others seem to operate with little knowledge of changing perspectives concerning this archival function.”
Cox (2004)
Maynard J. Brichford
February 4, 2013 22INFO 6800 Archives – Week Five
“An archivist cannot rely on principles, laws, and schedules to determine what should be kept. It is most important that he [sic] read widely and well and interview.”
Brichford
Maynard J. Brichford
February 4, 2013 23INFO 6800 Archives – Week Five
Redefining Provenance
Hans Booms
February 4, 2013 24INFO 6800 Archives – Week Five
“Archivists must bring with them the concepts they need in order to make the judgment: this belongs to the documentary heritage, while that does not. But where do archivists get these value concepts, and how are such ideas developed?”
Booms
Hans Booms
February 4, 2013 25INFO 6800 Archives – Week Five
Archives
Values
Society
Hans Booms
February 4, 2013 26INFO 6800 Archives – Week Five
Begin appraisal
Investigate registries
Functional analysis
Chronicle of key dates and events
Tom Nesmith
February 4, 2013 27INFO 6800 Archives – Week Five
“A kind of archival “appraisal” is thereby going on in society long before most archivists can intervene in the process. These forces determine which … activities will be documented at all and which ignored, and which will be documented well, adequately, or poorly …”
Nesmith (2011)
?Report on appraisal methods
Tom Nesmith
February 4, 2013 28INFO 6800 Archives – Week Five
“…documenting appraisal as a societal-archival process involves recasting the theory of appraisal, seeking out practices reflecting that, and addressing the ethical issues arising from it.”
Archival Accountability
Documentation of Appraisal
Archives and the Internet
Ethnographic Archives
Tom Nesmith
February 4, 2013 29INFO 6800 Archives – Week Five
What should an archivist
document?
Research and decision-making
processes
Approach to descriptionHistorical and
current methods Nature of contextual info
Appraisal Methods
February 4, 2013 30INFO 6800 Archives – Week Five
Practice
Methods
TheoryResource Allocation
Appraisal Methods
February 4, 2013 31INFO 6800 Archives – Week Five
Macro-Appraisal Black Box Archival
Sampling
Minnesota Method
Documentation Strategy
More Product Less Process
Sources (in order of appearance)
February 4, 2013 32INFO 6800 Archives – Week Five
Adams, Scott (1995). Dilbert comic. http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1995-02-23/.
Writings of Sir Hilary Jenkinson cover image. http://thesocietyofqualifiedarchivists.blogspot.ca/2005_02_08_archive.html.
Modern Archives cover image. http://www.archivalmediaconsulting.com/blog/rise-and-consequences-of-the-digital-information-age.
Cullum, Leo (2008). Intrinsic value cartoon. http://www.condenaststore.com/-sp/With-the-doubloon-you-ve-got-the-intrinsic-value-of-the-metal-plus-the-n-New-Yorker-Cartoon-Prints_i8546263_.htm.
Wysocki, Charles. Remington the Well Read. http://gallery4collectors.com/CharlesWysocki-RemingtontheWellRead.htm.
Sources (in order of appearance)
February 4, 2013 33INFO 6800 Archives – Week Five
Brainstuck.com (2008). Corporate hierarchy diagram. http://www.brainstuck.com/2009/03/21/corporate-hierarchy-2/. Cox, Richard J. “The End of Collecting: Toward a New Purpose for Archival Appraisal.” In No Innocent Deposits: Forming Archives by Rethinking Appraisal, p. 22. Letterhead. http://bottledmonsters.blogspot.ca/2010/04/more-letterhead-from-collection.html.Ruth Bader Ginsburg Autograph. http://washburnlaw.edu/library/collections/autographs/showjustice.php?who=ginsburg-ruthbader. Lee Line Steamers. http://leelinesteamers.com/?page_id=93. Wizard of Oz letterhead. http://centeredlibrarian.blogspot.ca/2010/04/delightful-collection-of-letterheads.html.
Sources (in order of appearance)
February 4, 2013 34INFO 6800 Archives – Week Five
Booms, Hans. “Uberlieferungsbildung: Keeping archives as a social and political activity.” Archivaria 33 (1991-1992): 25; 31-32.
Photographs of Dalhousie University Archives and the Killam Library were taken by Dalhousie Archives staff