Appraisal and Selection of Records

LIS 389C.16, unique number 45945

Instructor: Patricia K. Galloway

Class meeting location: SZB 464

Class meeting period: Monday, 9:00-12:00 AM

Office: SZB 566

Office hours: Tuesday, 9:00-11:00 AM, or by appointment

Office telephone: 232-9220

Email: galloway@gslis.utexas.edu

Teaching assistant: Lori Eichelberger

Email: lkeich@gslis.utexas.edu

Office SZB 445

Office hours Thursday 1:00 - 3:00 PM or by appointment

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.

Objectives

1. To review the history and concepts of archival appraisal as a practice of cultural construction.
2. To familiarize students with current appraisal practice in an institutional setting, including economic, political, theoretical, and professional issues.
3. To prepare students to review existing appraisal policies and past appraisal decisions and to prepare appropriate documentation plans for a given archival environment.
4. To give students experience of the negotiation with archival constituencies (including archival staffs) necessary for dealing effectively with the underlying value issues of appraisal.

Gerald Ham, Selecting and Appraising Archives and Manuscripts (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 1993)

Helen Willa Samuels, Varsity Letters: Documenting Modern Colleges and Universities (Metuchen, NJ: Society of American Archivists and Scarecrow Press, 1992)

Readings: Available through Electronic Reserves

Class participation (30% of grade): Students will be expected to read assigned readings, prepare a minimum of one-paragraph précis of each to be turned in, and come to class prepared to discuss them critically. Since students will make their choice of project early, it is expected that they will bring the specifics of “their” repository to bear in class discussions, using the discussions in class and fellow students’ insights to help them clarify the project work.

Semester project (45% of grade): Each student will write an evaluation of the acquisition/appraisal policies/procedures of an archival repository in the Austin area. The student will visit the repository; evaluate the collection, existing acquisition policies, and any formalized evidence of appraisal practice (handbooks, rules of thumb, etc.); interview appropriate staff for actual appraisal practice; read appropriate appraisal literature for the kinds of collections maintained by the repository; and prepare a report evaluating findings (minimum 10 pages, double-spaced and exclusive of endnotes, appendices, and bibliography). The report will cover the following elements:

1. Description of the institution, its collections, and its selection and appraisal policies/practices.
2. Statement of what significant element(s) of appraisal theory this case study can be used to address.
3. Evaluation of appraisal policies/practices, based upon standard archival handbooks discussed in class and additional theoretical literature appropriate to the collections (your evaluation and references should reflect a critical reading of this literature).
4. Formal statement of revisions to the institution’s collection and appraisal policies and practices that could be appropriate to the institution and its collections, based upon current theoretical literature.
5. Suggestion of evaluation methods for determining whether selection and appraisal policies and practices, existing and proposed, are successful.

Students should choose the repository they wish to analyze by the third class meeting (September 24) and should discuss their choices with one another to ensure that they avoid duplication. In the first class meeting we will discuss how to obtain access to repositories to carry out the projects; the instructor (and possibly fellow students) will assist with contacts and introductions. The resulting paper should be a scholarly and professional production adhering to the most recent Chicago Manual of Style.

Presentation (25% of grade): Each student will prepare a fifteen-minute presentation of the findings of the above project, designed to provide classmates with an overview of the repository for context, but to concentrate on the special problems or issues of acquisition and appraisal that the repository faces, the ways it has solved them, and the student’s suggestions for improvement concomitant with the mission of the institution and cost-benefit expectations. The student will invite a representative of the institution to attend the presentation.