Back Home	Seminar on Records and Archives in Society
Course This Week Past Readings History Archives Projects	Jeff Frederick HY 648 Ole Kolsrud. "The Evolution of Basic Appraisal Principles- Some Comparative Observations," in American Archivist 55 (Winter 1992): 26-39. The Evolution of Basic Appraisal Principles With the advent of centralized archival institutions working closely with government agencies, the influx of records, documents, and artifacts into repositories has been dramatic. Consequently, the high flow of documents, the paucity of available preservation facilities, and the economic realities of the archival profession has caused archivists to ponder the role of record destruction. As a result, the appraisal process has increasingly become an ongoing exercise. Collections are now thoroughly appraised at acceptance, and then routinely reexamined every few years to determine their merit for remaining in the archive. Ole Kolsrud has examined the issue of record removal in Europe and found some significant differences between the appraisal practices of various nations. England and Germany offer dramatically different case studies. The English have traditionally placed the burden of appraisal on the administrative bodies where the documents originated. In 1952, the Grigg Committee was established to further reduce the amount of records through a dual appraisal process. Administrative agencies would provide the first filter, destroying anything they pleased. A second evaluation, more historical in nature, was to be conducted after twenty-five years to eliminate anything deemed irrelevant to posterity. The Wilson Report of 1981 took a dim view of the administrative emphasis of the Grigg Committee and concluded archivists needed to play a greater role in the appraisal process in order to focus on preservation, not administration. German archivists have traditionally placed greater importance on preservation than destruction and have thus, demanded a strong role in the appraisal and reevaluation process. Following the teachings of Karl Otto Muller, Germans have steadfastly battled against administrative hegemony in deciding what material is destroyed. Heinrich Otto Meisner supported Muller's theory by offering three general ground rules for evaluating material for preservation: age, content, and hierarchical order of contributing agency. In general, Meisner concluded, no material should be destroyed without the permission of professional archivists. Somewhat more recently, Fritz Zimmerman has posited that content of records, their relative "market value" to history and historians, should be the interpretive yardstick. Zimmerman's thesis has met with such strident criticism that he himself has softened his own view; although the emphasis on the pertinence of the record and not its origins is still widely accepted and is, in fact, traceable in some measure back to Zimmerman. Kolsrud also documents appraisal practices in his native Norway( heavily influenced by the experience of Nazi occupation), Communist East Germany(appraisal based on the record's importance to socialism and its furtherance), and the United States( strongly influenced by T.R. Schellenberg's ideas of primary and secondary value). Kolsrud sensibly posits that though automation and electronic record-keeping will undoubtedly reduce storage space issues, archivists will be forced to continue reevaluating appraisal practices due to the high cost of transferring records to a new medium. The article is well-written, thoughtful, and provides a good background on a topic that will undoubtedly continue to be important to professional archivists and historians. This reading, relevant to current issues and grounded in archival history, should be considered for inclusion into the pool of core readings.