Course Description

The Appraisal and Selection course will treat paper records and those in other media, including electronic records. I plan to focus critically upon the following themes: what is the traditional theoretical basis for appraisal of archival materials, both records and manuscripts, and the social setting for its emergence; what were the effects of the shift to a "documentation strategy" as social history gained importance after the 1960s in the US and elsewhere; what are the changes implied and entailed by electronic records; and what have been the impacts of changes in archival practice on the structure of the archival record. Students will investigate appraisal practices in existing archives to discover what kinds of appraisal decisions are made in real-world environments, what constraints lead to such decisions, and how (and when and if!) archivists document their appraisal decisions.