Documentation Strategy
Revisited
or
the Illusion of Makeability of the Archive
Peter Horsman
Archives School, Amsterdam
Introduction
 This paper not a research agenda
 Some reflections from reading and
practice
 Terry Cook as a starting point
 Reflection on theory and strategies
 A forgotten area of research in
appraisal?
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ARMReN workshop
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Need for appraisal theory
Pam Wernich:
“Appraisal imposes a heavy social
responsibilty on archivists”,
Archivists are “moulding the future of
documentary heritage”.
Appraisal is the “greatest professional
challenge and the most important
area of archival activity.”
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Appraisal Theory
Terry Cook
“… the most difficult, and the most
overlooked, dimension of appraisal is
its theoretical core upon which the
strategy and methodology of
appraisal practice depends, or should
depend.”
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What is Appraisal Theory
Terry Cook
Appraisal theory articulates concepts
that determine ‘value’, and enunciates
the generic attributes of those
concepts that apply to the selection of
records for enduring preservation.
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Why Appraisal Theory
Cook
“Appraisal … must reflect a defendable
set of theories or concepts why some
records are important and some are
not. “.
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Appraisal Theory Requirement
Cook
“Appraisal theory must be grounded in
practice.”
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Approaches to Appraisal
Three models:
 Jenkinson: passivity
 Schellenberg: values for users
 Cook: functional / macro appraisal
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Jenkinson




“archivists impartiality”
the creator determines
privileges the powerful
confuses archival theory and
appraisal theory
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Jenkinson
Cook
“I will not review the appraisal strategy
that could be used to implement
Jenkinson’s approach to determining
value, because, as indicated already,
I think this approach is unacceptable,
theoretically and morally, for modern
archives.
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Schellenberg
 signs “value” according to user needs
 Grounded in an empirical approach of
determining value
 If a researcher can use the record,
then it has value
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Schellenberg - comments
 subject to the loudest lobbying
groups
 Archivists … are unlikely to be able to
judge empirical use values for all
sciences
 Use-driven archival paradigms impose
criteria on appraisal that are external
to the record’s context memory”
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Cook
 interplay of social structures, societal
functions, and citizens and groups.
 determined by the archivist
 Archival appraisal theory assigns
greater importance, or “value” to
certain functional-structural factors
as compared to others.
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Questions and remarks
1. The illusion of the makeability of the
Archive
2. Quality of the archive: “created” by
the Archivist, created by the records
creator.
3. Creating records – keeping records
4. recordkeeping system as the locus of
evidence (Bearman)
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Questions and remarks
5. appraisal theory should be applied in
the design of recordkeeping systems
6. Recordkeeping systems may be
‘larger’ than organizations
7. Recordkeeping system as object for
research
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Recordkeeping system
Definition
"the whole of the procedures, methods,
knowledge, means and documents
with which an organization gives form
to its recordkeeping function."
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Grey scale of recordkeeping
0.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
No recordkeeping
Minimal recordkeeping
Laissez-faire recordkeeping
Intellectual destruction
Maximal recordkeeping
Spineless recordkeeping
Optimal recordkeeping
Overdone recordkeeping
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Conclusions
 From Jenkinson via Schellenberg,
documentation strategies to Cook, and
further …?
 Was Jenkinson wrong?
 Is the recordkeeping system the locus of
appraisal, and can appraisal be
implemented at design stage?
 What should be the role of the archivist? –
what is the influence of the context in
which she/he operates?
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