Schellenberg's life cycle approach to records : active --> semi-active --> destroy or archive?

Schellenberg's Value System: one method of assessing values to a fonds

• Primary Values (importance and use to those who created the records)
  1. Administrative Value
  2. Legal Value
  3. Fiscal Value

• Secondary Values (importance and use to those who use the records)
  1. Evidential Value
  2. Informational Value

• Intrinsic Value (a worthy addition to Schellenberg's values)

Some Pragmatic Considerations:

1. Arrangement and Condition
2. Their relationship to other records

The Five Analyses of Archival Appraisal

1. an analysis of a record's functional characteristics
2. an analysis of the information in the record to determine its significance and quality
3. an analysis of the record in the context of parallel or related documentary sources
4. an analysis of potential use and limitations on access
5. an analysis of the cost of preservation versus the benefit of retaining the information

Sampling

Weeding & Culling

To Review: The Practical Considerations in Acquisition and Appraisal

1. Will the fonds meet the mandate/mission of your archive?
2. What is the scale of the fonds? Do you have the space?
3. What is the research value?
   • Is the fonds unique?
   • What is here that cannot be found elsewhere?
4. Can you afford to process them?
   • Consider the processing costs of textual vs. non-textual records

Macroappraisal and Functional Classification at Canada Life

A note on digital records and appraisal (Huth)