The Documentation Strategy and Archival Appraisal Principles: A Different Perspective

  • Richard J. Cox

Abstract

North American archivists have recently witnessed an upsurge in writings about appraisal theory. This essay takes a different approach to this topic. It attempts to describe a set of basid principles, derived from the archival literature, that relate to the practice of appraising records. These principles bridge the gap between theory and practice, but they represent--in the author's view--something more than just methodology. The essay also seeks to relate the decade-old discussion to the archival documentation strategy, showing how the strategy both emanates from such principles and is consistent with them.

RÉSUMÉ

Les archivistes nord-américains ont récemment été témoins d'une recrudescence des écrits concernant la théorie de l'évaluation archivistique. Le présent article adopte une approche différente de ce sujet: il tente de décrire une série de principes fondamentaux tirés de la littérature archivistique concernant l'exercice de l'évaluation des dossiers. Ces principes font le lien entre la théorie et la pratique, mais ils représentent, selon l'auteur, quelque chose de plus qu'une simple méthodologie. L'article tente également d'évoquer la discussion vieille d'une décennie sur la stratégie de documentation archivistique, en démontrant que cette stratégie émane à la fois de tels principes et qu'elle est compatible avec ces principes.

Author Biography

Richard J. Cox
Richard Cox is an Assistant Professor in Library Science at the University of Pittsburgh, School of Library and Information Science. Prior to his current position he worked at the New York State Archives and Records Administration, the Alabama Department of Archives and History, the City of Baltimore, and the Maryland Historical Society. Through the years Dr. Cox has been very active in professional archival associations and is Editor of the American Archivist. He has written extensively on archival and records management professional issues, including American Archival Analysis: The Recent Development of the Archival Profession in the United States (1990) and Managing Institutional Archives: Foundational Principles and Practices (1992). He holds an M.A. from the University of ~ a r y l a n d has additional training in archival administration and and records management and a Ph.D. in Library Science from the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Cox was named a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists, that association's highest honour, in 1989.
Published
1994-02-07
How to Cite
Cox, Richard J. 1994. “The Documentation Strategy and Archival Appraisal Principles: A Different Perspective”. Archivaria 38 (February), 11-36. https://archivaria.ca/index.php/archivaria/article/view/12021.
Issue
Archivaria 38 (Fall 1994)
Section
Articles

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