Publication | Open Access
The Archivist as Planner and Poet: Thoughts on the Larger Issues of Appraisal for Acquisition
10
Citations
0
References
2001
Year
Cet article traite de questions relies aux stratgies d'acquisition dans le domaine des documents privs.Il analyse les relations entre le processus d'acquisition et les mandats des institutions d'archives de mme que les notions d'importance.L'valuation y est lie aux concepts plus larges du temps, de la mmoire et de la conservation long terme des documents.Quatre grands secteurs de la recherche archivistique sont mis en vidence : le rle de l'valuation dans la conservation, la nature des documents personnels, les liens entre les archives et les autres objets de la mmoire sociale et, enfin, l'tude des utilisateurs des archives.L'auteure fait valoir que la recherche en histoire des archives doit se poursuivre car elle offre la possibilit de contribuer l'valuation archivistique et de l'humaniser.ABSTRACT This article comments on issues related to private sector acquisition strategies.It discusses the relationship of acquisition to institutional mandates and ideas of significance.Appraisal is linked to larger concepts of time, memory, and the continuing preservation of records.Four large areas for archives research are highlighted: the role of appraisal in preservation; the nature of records for private persons; connections between archives and other social memorials; and the study of archives users.The pursuit of archives history is advocated for its potential utilitarian and humane contributions to appraisal.Appraisal transforms the objects of its activities: some ordinary stuff of everyday transactions and communication are selected for special protection in an archives.Those not taken have an uncertain future: those selected will have a prolonged life.They will carry forward accruing burdens of meaning arising from their status as objects of continuing importance, to those who make the selection and to communities of users, some already established, others not yet known.Archivists who do appraisal recognize that it is an extraordinary function with wide ranging implications for society, but more particularly to their insti-* This paper was prepared from a commentary delivered in the session "Private Sector Acquisition Strategies" at the annual general meeting of the Association of Canadian Archivists in Winnipeg (2001).I am grateful to two anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions.