Macroappraisal in theory and practice: Origins, characteristics, and implementation in Canada, 1950-2000

Archival Science

Volumn 5, Issue 2-4, 2005, Pages 101-161

  Cook, Terry ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA   (Canada)

Author keywords

Archival appraisal; Archival history; Archival theory; Functional analysis; Macroappraisal; National Archives of Canada; Records disposition

Indexed keywords

EID: 33749019340     PISSN: 13890166     EISSN: 15737519     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1007/s10502-005-9010-2     Document Type: Review

References (151)

1. I hereby sincerely thank five colleagues for their careful reading of this text, and for their very helpful suggestions. Richard Brown, Candace Loewen, and Dan Moore of Library and Archives Canada, Helen Samuels recently of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Tim Cook of the Canadian War Museum all significantly improved the essay with their comments, but they are not responsible for any errors that remain or for the interpretations that follow. See also the additional qualification in note 7.
2. This essay will use this North American terminology consistently throughout the text, where "archives" or "archival records" (as documents) refer to those records designated by an archival institution as having long-term value to citizens and society beyond their initial and (possible) lasting value to their creator. Before that archival appraisal designation, they are referred to as "records."
3. Terry Cook, "Macro-appraisal and Functional Analysis: Documenting Governance Rather Than Government", Journal of th Society of Archivists 25(1) (Spring 2004): 7.
4. Macroappraisal as appraisal theory has obvious major implications for more general archival theory which cannot detain us here. But it is no accident, for example, that Canadian archivists' international lead in first articulating the "postmodern archive" originated with many of the macroappraisal pioneers. See the long listing of key postmodern archivists and their work in note 14 of Terry Cook, "Fashionable Nonsense or Professional Rebirth: Postmodernism and the Practice of Archivs", Archivaria 51 (Spring 2001): 20-21. Of "postmodern" archival writers within the profession, the first chronologically (and in quantity) are Richard Brown, Brien Brothman, and Terry Cook, all long-time members of the National Archives macroappraisal program, as was Tom Nesmith in its early days, and Verne Harris acknowledges being directly influenced by the same mentalité during an extensive multi-week working visit to Ottawa.
5. I shall use "National Archives of Canada" and "National Archivist" throughout for generic references, and for the period after 1987; and "Public Archives of Canada" and "Dominion Archivist" specifically for the period before 1987. Since its merger with the National Library of Canada in May 2004, the National Archives of Canada is now part of Library and Archives Canada.
6. See Terry Cook, The Archival Appraisal of Records Containing Personal Information: A RAMP study with guidelines (Paris: UNESCO, 1991).
7. My views in this essay should not be assumed, therefore, to be those of Library and Archives Canada today, where all the programs are constantly evolving, as some other authors in this issue will attest, although my assertions do reflect what I believe were the policies of the institution during my time there. But I write today as an archival educator, no longer as a senior manager of Library and Archives Canada.
8. For this interrelated history of records management and archival administration in the 1950s and 1960s set in more detailed context, see Terry Cook, "An Archival Revolution: W. Kaye Lamb and the Transformation of the Archival Profession", Archivaria (forthcoming in 2006).
9. Older but still useful pieces are Jay Atherton, "The Origins of the Public Archives Records Centre, 1897-1956", Archivaria 8 (Summer 1979): 35-59;
10. and W.G. Ormsby, "The Public Archives of Canada, 1948-1968", Archivaria 15 (Winter 1982-1983): 36-46.
11. For an overview analysis of the last century's archival thinking, including appraisal and Schellenberg's influence, see Terry Cook, "What is Past is Prologue: A History of Archival Ideas Since 1898, and the Future Paradigm Shift", Archivaria 43 (Spring 1997): 17-63
12. (a shorter, less complete version was also published as "Interaction of Archival Theory and Practice Since the Publication of the Dutch Manual", Archivum 43 (1997): 191-214.)
13. There was a National Archives outreach program for many years of training for, and publications directed at, records managers in government departments, that addressed records classification, vital records, microfilming, file storage and retrievals, and general records management principles, including records scheduling. This was the deliberate strategy and operational practice of W. Kaye Lamb, Dominion Archivist, 1948-1969, who more than anyone else was responsible for adding the strong records management presence to the Public Archives' programs. (See again Cook, "An Archival Revolution: W. Kaye Lamb and the Transformation of the Archival Profession", forthcoming in Archivaria 2006.)
14. Library and Archives Canada, Records of the Privy Council Office, RG 2, Order in Council 1749, 9 September 1966.
15. Schellenberg too, in articulating the life cycle, envisioned several vital concerns requiring archivists to work closely with records managers during the current or active phase of the life cycle (making it de facto more of a moving interactive continuum than fixed sequential cycle). See T.R. Schellenberg, Modern Archives: Principles and Techniques (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 1996), pp. 26-28. Schellenberg's work was originally published in 1956.
16. Public Archives of Canada: Report, 1959-1969 (Ottawa: Public Archives of Canada, 1971), pp. 1-2, 9-22, for statistical charts and supporting narrative.
17. W. Kaye Lamb, "Presidential Address", Canadian Historical Association, Report (1958), pp. 1-2. Emphasis added.
18. On the definition and history of the total archives concept as it originated in Canada, the best source is now Laura Millar's incisive pair of linked articles: "Discharging Our Debt: The Evolution of the Total Archives Concept in English Canada", Archivaria 46 (Fall 1998): 103-146;
19. and "The Spirit of Total Archives: Seeking a Sustainable Archival System", Archivaria 47 (Spring 1999): 46-65.
20. W. Kaye Lamb, "The Fine Art of Destruction", in Albert E.J. Hollaender. ed., Essays in Memory of Sir Hilary Jenkinson (Chichester: Society of Archivists, 1962), pp. 50, 53.
21. For Jenkinson's views, see Cook, "What is Past is Prologue: A History of Archival Ideas Since 1898, and the Future Paradigm Shift", pp. 22-26.
22. Lamb, "The Fine Art of Destruction", p. 53;
23. W. Kaye Lamb, "The Archivist and the Historian", American Historical Review 68 (2) (January 1963): 392-393;
24. and W. Kaye Lamb, "The Modern Archivist: Formally Trained or Self-Educated?", American Archivist 31(2) (April 1968): 176-177.
25. For more detail on Lamb's views on appraisal, see again Cook, "An Archival Revolution: W. Kaye Lamb and the Transformation of the Archival Profession", (forthcoming in Archiraria in 2006).
26. Hans Booms, "Society and the Formation of a Documentary Heritage: Issues in the Appraisal of Archival Sources", trans. Hermina Joldersma and Richard Klumpenhouwer, Archivaria 24 (Summer 1987): 84-85. Booms's work was originally published in 1972.
27. Jay Atherton, "The Appraisal of Government Records", 1971, revised 1973, in "Public Records Division Familiarization Course February 1976", pp. 7-1 to 7-8 (copy in possession of the author), original emphasis.
28. Eldon Frost, "A Weak Link in the Chain: Records Scheduling as a Source of Archival Appraisal", Archivaria 33 (Winter 1991-1992): 78-86
29. . For a thorough analysis of the problem, based on major internal analysis and departmental studies, see Bryan Corbett and Eldon Frost, "The Acquisition of Federal Government Records: A Report on Records Management and Archival Practices"', Archivaria 17 (Winter 1983-1984): 201-232.
30. A retrospective review (and summary) of the policy is available on the Library and Archives Canada Web site: see http://www.collectionscanada.ca/a- notre-sujet/010/012010-201-e.html (consulted 1 October 2004),
31. For a good overview, see Michael Nelson, "Federal Information Policy: An Introduction", in Government Information in Canada, vol. 1, no. 3.1 (1995): available at http://www.usask.ca/library/gic/v1n3/nelson/nelson. html, (consulted 3 October 2004).
32. For a recent extended analysis of this event, which includes sources for all the quotations that follow, see Terry Cook, '"A Monumental Blunder': The Destruction of Records on Nazi War Criminals in Canada", in Richard Cox and David Wallace, eds., Archives and the Public Good: Accountability and Records in Modern Society (Westport CT and London: Quorum Books, 2002), pp. 37-65. In Canada, a Royal Commission of Inquiry is the highest and most thorough form of public inquiry, and is reserved usually only for matters of grave national concern; in this case, the Honourable Jules Deschênes, former Chief Justice of the Quebec Superior Court, was appointed as Commissioner, and the inquiry was often referred to as the Deschênes Commission.
33. Robert J. Hayward, '"Working in Thin Air': Of Archives and the Deschênes Commission", Archivaria 26 (Summer 1988): 130-131.
34. David Matas was an active Jewish participant before the Deschênes Royal Commission on Nazi War Criminals, with formal standing as Senior Counsel representing The League for Human Rights for B'nai B'rith Canada. His cited words come from Winnipeg Free Press. 4 December 1985; and David Matas and Susan Charendoff, Justice Delayed: Nazi War Criminals in Canada (Toronto: Summerhill Press, 1987), pp. 84-88, which pages focus on his criticism of the destruction of the overseas immigration application forms.
35. See also, in response to the National Archives' published defence of its actions, his rebuttal letter to the editor, "Immigrant Files and Nazis", Globe and Mail, 21 August 1986.
36. Booms, "Society and the Formation of a Documentary Heritage", pp. 84-86.
37. F. Gerald Ham, "The Archival Edge", in Maygene F. Daniels and Timothy Walch, eds., A Modern Archives Reader: Basic Readings on Archival Theory and Practice (Washington: Society of American Archivists, 1984), pp. 328-329, emphasis added. Ham's article was originally published in 1975. Even at NARA, Schellenbergian concepts were subjected to harsh criticism for not being very susceptible even to changes in the historiographical weather, in particular being slow and then unimaginative to respond to the revolution in women's history and historiography, and what this should mean, following Schellenberg, for developing new appraisal criteria and obtaining different acquisition results. For an insider's analysis and critique,
38. see Elizabeth Lockwood, '"Imponderable Matters": The Influence of New Trends in History on Appraisal at the National Archives", American Archivist 53 (Summer 1990): 405.
39. Frank Burke, "The Future Course of Archival Theory in the United States", American Archivist 44 (Winter 1981): 41-43. On the hierarchical and Weberian mindset,
40. see Schellenberg's discussion of evidential value (and accompanying chart) in Modern Archives, pp. 142-144.
41. Richard C. Berner, Archival Theory and Practice in the United States: A Historical Analysis (Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1983), pp. 6-7.
42. Helen Willa Samuels, "Who Controls the Past", in Randall C. Jimerson, ed., American Archival Studies: Readings in Theorv and Practice (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2000), 210 pp. Samuels's article was originally published in 1986.
43. Hugh Taylor, "The Discipline of History and the Education of the Archivist", in Terry Cook and Gordon Dodds, eds., Imagining Archives: Essays and Reflections by Hugh A. Taylor (Lanham MA and Oxford: Scarecrow Press, 2003) , p. 59 for the quotation, and throughout many of the essays in this volume for the ideas. Taylor's article was originally published in 1977.
44. The best statement is in Tom Nesmith, "Archives from the Bottom Up: Social History and Archival Scholarship", Archivaria 14 (Summer 1882): 5-26,
45. reprinted with corrections in Tom Nesmith, ed., Canadian Archival Studies and the Rediscovery of Provenance (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1993).
46. Two other important studies aimed at archivists are G.J. Parr, "Case Records as Sources for Social History", Archivaria 4 (Summer 1977): 122-136;
47. and Peter Gillis, "The Case File: Problems of Acquisition and Access from the Federal Perspective", Archivaria 6 (Summer 1978): 32-39.
48. This feminist impact on macroappraisal theory, with appropriate citations for its time, may be found in Terry Cook, "Mind Over Matter: Towards a New Theory of Archival Appraisal", in Barbara L. Craig, ed., The Archival Imagination: Essays in Honour of Hugh Taylor (Ottawa: Association of Canadian Archivists, 1992), p. 43, pp. 63-64.
49. The Archival Imagination: Essays in Honour of Hugh Taylor Ibid., pp. 43-44 for the influence of Foucault's writings,
50. and Paul W. Kahn, The Cultural Study of Law: Reconstructing Legal Scholarship (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1999), p. 35.
51. For an excellent analysis of the relevance of anthropological theory and methodology for the postmodern archive, see Elisabeth Kaplan, '"Many Paths to Partial Truths': Archives, Anthropology, and the Power of Representation", Archival Science 2.3-4 (2002)
52. (one of two special double thematic issues on "Archives, Record, and Power"): 209-220.
53. Hugh A. Taylor, '"My Very Act and Deed": Some Reflections on the Role of Textual Records in the Conduct of Affairs", American Archivist 51 (Fall 1988): 468;
54. Hugh A. Taylor, "Transformation in the Archives: Technological Adjustment or Paradigm Shift?", Archivaria 25 (Winter 1987-1988): 24;
55. Hugh A. Taylor, "The Collective Memory: Archives and Libraries As Heritage", Archivaria 15 (Winter 1982-1983): 118;
56. and Hugh A. Taylor, "Information Ecology and the Archives of the 1980s", Archivaria 18 (Summer 1984): 25.
57. Terry Cook, "The Impact of David Bearman on Modern Archival Thinking: An Essay of Personal Reflection and Critique", Archives and Museum Informatics 11(1) (1997): 20.
58. See also David A. Bearman and Richard H. Lytle, "The Power of the Principle of Provenance", Arcliivaria 21 (Winter 1985-1986): 14-27.
59. See, again, Nesmith, "Archives from the Bottom Up: Social History and Archival Scholarship",
60. and especially his "Introduction: Archival Studies in English-Speaking Canada and the North American Rediscovery of Provenance", in Nesmith, Canadian Archival Studies and the Rediscovery of Provenance, pp. 1-28;
61. Terry Cook, "From Information to Knowledge: An Intellectual Paradigm for Archives", Archivaria 19 (Winter 1984-1985): 28-49;
62. and, for the quotations, Taylor, "Transformation in the Archives", p. 24,
63. original emphasis, and Hugh A. Taylor, "Towards the New Archivist: The Integrated Professional", 1988,
64. first published in Cook and Dodds, eds., Imagining Archives: Essays and Reflections by Hugh A. Taylor, p. 154. Nesmith's book (Canadian Archival Studies) was designed, in part, to showcase the rich variety of this rediscovery of provenance, based on research into and analysis of the context of records and records creators, as was the continuing section, "Studies in Documents", in Archivaria that he formalized.
65. Abraham Lincoln's memorable phrase was given its archival twist by Eric Ketelaar, in his "Archives of the People, By the People, For the People", South Africa Archives Journal 34 (1992): 5-16.
66. Booms, "Society and the Formation of a Documentary Heritage", p. 104.
67. Siegfried Büttner's ideas have not been published in English, but a summary of them from an unpublished manuscript and his extensive comments at an international ICA experts' meeting appear, with recognition for his influence on macroappraisal, in Cook, The Archival Appraisal of Records Containing Personal Information: A RAMP study with guidelines. The documentation of this citizen-state interaction through government records would be complemented with the appraisal and acquisition of personal papers of citizens, groups, and associations. Booms urges this public-private cooperation explicitly, even within the non-total-archives European context: "the sum of the activities of government offices does not equal the sum of historical-political life."
68. See his "Society and the Formation of a Documentary Heritage", p. 101, also p. 107.
69. Society and the Formation of A Documentary Heritage Ibid., p. 106.
70. Of course, a similar theoretical conceptualization, and then strategy and methodology, would be necessary for private-sector and personal records, to round out the "total archives" story, and complement the citizen-state interaction found in government records, but that is well beyond the scope of this article. This complementarity has only occurred with mixed success at the National Archives of Canada, however, where the government and private archives sectors exist side by side, rather than integrated in appraisal perspectives; on the need for this, against which there have been only modest improvements in the following decade, see Cook, "Mind Over Matter", pp. 65-66, note 29, and note 39 above.
71. Ian E. Wilson, "Reflections on Archival Strategies", American Archivist 58 (Fall 1995): 414-428.
72. Perhaps Giddens's best known work is The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1984), setting out the key factors important to understanding how society operates as a living dynamism.
73. See Richard Brown, "Records Acquisition Strategy and Its Theoretical Foundation: The Case for a Concept of Archival Hermeneutics", Archivaria 33 (Winter 1991-1992): 34-56.
74. Mary Douglas, How Organizations Think (Syracuse NY: Syracuse University Press, 1986), especially chapters 6-8.
75. The arguments in the next few paragraphs of this theoretical section follow closely my statements in Cook, "Macro-appraisal and Functional Analysis: Documenting Governance Rather Than Government", How Organizations Think op cit.
76. See especially the analysis in Richard Brown, "Macro-Appraisal Theory and the Context of the Public Records Creator", Archivaria 40 (Fall 1995): 121-172, which is a fine overview of the theory and implementation of macroappraisal a half decade after its initial conception and government-wide launching.
77. An analysis of the practical implementation of macroappraisal and the planned approach to records disposition, current only to 1993-1994, however, before major changes occurred, but still a useful fuller exposition of some of the issues mentioned here, is Bruce Wilson, "Systematic Appraisal of the Records of the Government of Canada at the National Archives of Canada", Archivaria 38 (Fall 1994), pp. 218-231.
78. The original version of the plan may be viewed on the Library and Archives Canada Web site, at http://www.collectionscanada.ca/06/0625/ 0625020305_e.html (consulted 11 November 2004).
79. For summaries in English, see R.C. Hoi, "PIVOT's Appraisal of Modern Records: A 'Floody' Tale from the Dutch Experience", South African Archives Journal 38 (1996): 5-15;
80. and R.C. Hols, and A.G. de Vries, "PIVOT Down Under: A Report", Archives and Manuscripts 26 (2) (May 1998): 78-101. PIVOT embraced detailed researching of government functionality as the basis of appraisal, but not the case-file-level interaction of citizens with the state. In this regard, therefore, PIVOT proceeds both on a different theoretical assumption and with an easier, less detailed research agenda, and for a much smaller government and population, than does macroappraisal in Canada. Nevertheless, PIVOT still took many years and more-than-expected resources to complete its government-wide functional research.
81. See Agnes Jonker's article in this issue of Archival Science.
82. For more information on the increasingly standardized presentation of the macroappraisal research and decision-making processes, see Richard Brown (with Yvette Hackett), "Drafting an Appraisal Report for the Disposition of Government Records" (internal report, National Archives of Canada, 1999).
83. See, especially, Brown, "Macro-Appraisal Theory and the Context of the Public Records Creator", pp. 121-172.
84. See Terry Cook, "An Appraisal Methodology: Guidelines for Performing an Archival Appraisal" (internal report, National Archives of Canada, 1991). This methodology was updated (for reasons to be explained in the next section of this essay) by Cook in the year 2000, edited by National Archives' colleagues, and appears in full, in two parts (A: theoretical, B: methodological), on the Library and Archives Canada Web site, at http://www.collectionscanada.ca/information-management/061101_e.html and http://www.collectionscanada.ca/information-management/061102_e.html (consulted 11 November 2004). Although the "Appraisal Methodology 2000" was significantly updated, it retains the core of the 1991 document, if now stated with more nuance and better examples. I have since further expanded these functional criteria for macroappraisal from 2000
85. in Cook, "Macro-appraisal and Functional Analysis", pp. 5-18.
86. See Terry Cook, "The Appraisal of Case Files: Sampling and Selection Guidelines for the Government Archives Division, National Archives of Canada" (internal report, National Archives of Canada, 1991).
87. The essence of this report and its methodologies are summarized in Terry Cook, '"Many are called but few are chosen': Appraisal Guidelines for Sampling and Selecting Case Files", Archivaria 32 (Summer 1991): 25-50.
88. David Bearman, review of Cook, Archival Appraisal of Records Containing Personal Information, in Archivaria 34 (Summer 1992): 217-218.
89. Steve Stuckey, review of Cook, Archival Appraisal of Records Containing Personal Information, in Archives and Manuscripts 20 (November 1992): 250-252.
90. Clive Kirkwood, "The National Archives' Appraisal Programme", South African Archives Journal 40 (1998): 43-44.
91. Helen Willa Samuels, Varsity Letters: Documenting Modern Colleges and Universities (Metuchen NJ and London: Scarecrow Press, 1992), p. 3.
92. Mark A. Greene and Todd J. Daniels-Howell, "Documentation with an Attitude: A Pragmatist's Guide to the Selection and Acquisition of Modern Business Records", in James M. O'Toole, ed., The Records of American Business (Chicago, Society of American Archivists, 1997), pp. 161-229, especially Figure 1 on 172 and Figure 2 on 181 and supporting text. Another prominent theorist of institutional functional analysis is Bruce Bruemmer;
93. see his "Avoiding Accidents of Evidence: Functional Analysis in the Appraisal of Business Records", in O'Toole, Records of American Business, pp. 137-160. This work, like Samuels's book, underlines that in American usage "institutional functional analysis" and macroappraisal are often perceived synonymously. While there are many similarities and supportive methodologies, macroappraisal puts much more emphasis on the citizen or, in these business-centred applications, the customer or client.
94. See Frank Upward, "Structuring the Records Continuum. Part One: Post-Custodial Principles and Properties", Archives and Manuscripts 24 (November 1996), pp. 268-285;
95. and "Structuring the Records Continuum. Part Two: Structuration Theory and Recordkeeping", Archives and Manuscripts 25 (May 1997): 10-35. For a practical manifestation of function-based methodology and records disposition, within continuum thinking,
96. see Catherine Robinson, "Records Control and Disposal Using Functional Analysis", Archives and Manuscripts 25 (November 1997): 288-303. I am not suggesting a direct cause-and-effect relationship between Australians being exposed to macroappraisal thinking in continuum theory or its functional decomposition methodology, and the later adoption of AS 4390, but macroappraisal was certainly in the local mix of ideas leading to it. For a sympathetic yet critical analysis of some aspects of Australian continuum thinking and appraisal, see
97. Terry Cook, "Beyond the Screen: The Records Continuum and Archival Cultural Heritage", in Lucy Burrows, ed., Beyond the Screen: Capturing Corporate and Social Memory (Melbourne: Australian Society of Archivists, 2000), pp. 8-21.
98. Richard Cox, No Innocent Deposits: Forming Archives by Rethinking Appraisal (Lanham MA and Oxford: Scarecrow Press, 2004), p. 100.
99. For a good example of such comparative analysis, see John Roberts, "One Size Fits All? The Portability of Macro-Appraisal by a Comparative Analysis of Canada, South Africa, and New Zealand", Archivaria 52 (Fall 2001): 47-68. That the Canadian model is not fully portable to different environments is not surprising nor recommended; the point here is that Roberts's essay, among others that could be cited, seriously engages macroappraisal and thus demonstrates its influence on international archival thinking.
100. See Elizabeth Diamond, "The Archivist as Forensic Scientist: Seeing Ourselves in a Different Way", Archivaria 38 (Fall 1994): 139-154. Within his own sympathetic reading of macroappraisal, Verne Harris initially saw parallels with Schellenberg's evidential values, in that both employ top-down functional analysis as their "core characteristic." As I have suggested above, that top-down functionality is a (partial) method and early metaphor for macroappraisal, not its core in theory, values, or overall method.
101. See Verne Harris, "Exploratory Thoughts on Current State Archives Service Appraisal Policy and the Conceptual Foundations of Macro- Appraisal", Archives News [South Africa] 37 (February 1995), pp. 6-10, 19. For some American readers who have missed this point, I should add that, while I have criticized the applicability of Schellenberg's assumptions and methodologies to our era, I have also liberally praised him as the pioneer of modern appraisal thinking;
102. see my "What is Past is Prologue: A History of Archival Ideas Since 1898", pp. 26-29.
103. Angelika Menne-Haritz, "Appraisal or Documentation: Can We Appraise Archives by Selecting Content?", American Archivist 57 (Summer 1994), pp. 528-43.
104. On this misunderstanding, see Terry Eastwood, "Nailing a Little Jelly to the Wall of Archival Studies", Archivaria 35 (Spring 1993): 232-252
105. ; and my response: Terry Cook, "'Another Brick in the Wall': Terry Eastwood's Masonry and Archival Walls, History, and Archival Appraisal", Archivaria 37 (Spring 1994): 96-103.
106. The best example is Mark Greene, '"The Surest Proof: A Utilitarian Approach to Appraisal", Archivaria 45 (Spring 1998): 127-169, which reworks his Minnesota Method. While I have only praise for Greene's imaginative (and pragmatic) borrowing of the best from documentation strategy, macroappraisal, and functional analysis, his updated justification of the core Schellenbergian formulations is still not convincing: use of archives of course adds value to the archives that are so used, but that does not negate the methodological (and accountability) obstacles of how to predict such use long in advance of it occurring, nor Ham's charge of circular or weathervane-driven appraisal decision making, nor missing the marginalized off the edge of the use radar. A far less satisfactory and very reactive piece, riddled with inconsistencies and seemingly unaware of its author's own institution's and its digital medium's, critique of Schellenbergian appraisal, is
107. Linda Henry, "Schellenberg in Cyberspace", American Archivist 61 (Fall 1998): 309-327.
108. Greene and Daniels-Howell, "Documentation with an Attitude: A Pragmatist's Guide", p. 168.
109. The classic statement of the dichotomy of archival-integrity versus appraisal-values theory is by Jenkinson, of course, but also one renewed in the past decade: see Luciana Duranti, "The Concept of Appraisal and Archival Theory", American Archivist 57 (Spring 1994): 328-344;
110. Heather MacNeil, "Archival Theory and Practice: Between Two Paradigms", Archivaria 37 (Spring 1994): 6-20;
111. and Reto Tschan, "A Comparison of Jenkinson and Schellenberg on Appraisal", American Archivist 65 (Fall-Winter 2002): 176-195. Quite separate from the appraisal assumptions of this neo-Jenkinsonian voice from the University of British Columbia, perhaps the best example of the focus of electronic records theorists on evidence and authenticity, and appraisal, is
112. Richard J. Cox, "The End of Collecting: Towards a New Purpose for Archival Appraisal", Archival Science 2.3-4 (2002), pp. 287-309. For a suggested reconciliation of the critical importance of both archival theory and appraisal theory, each with its honoured place within the profession's modern theory and practice,
113. see Terry Cook, "Archives, Evidence, and Memory: Thoughts on a Divided Tradition", Archival Issues 22 (1997): 177-182.
114. Victoria Lemieux, "Applying Mintzberg's Theories on Organizational Configuration to Archival Appraisal", Archivaria 46 (Fall 1998): 32-85.
115. Greene and Daniels-Howell, "Documentation with an Attitude: A Pragmatist's Guide", pp. 188-190. The Multi-Institutional Disposition Authorities of the National Archives of Canada have now followed this example, as least analogously, if not with quite the same sweeping finality.
116. Peter Botticelli, "Records Appraisal in Network Organizations", Archivaria 49 (Spring 2000): 161-191. In the interest of openness, I should note that Botticelli wrote the paper that became this article for my class at the University of Michigan's School of Information.
117. Among many essays with these views, see Verne Harris, "Introductory Essay: Refiguring the Archive", pp. 1-5,
118. and "Postmodernism and Archival Appraisal - Seven Theses", pp. 48-50, both in South African Archives Journal 40 (1998).
119. See his comments before Canadian, American, and international audiences, respectively, in Jean-Pierre Wallot, "Building a Living Memory for the History of Our Present: New Perspectives on Archival Appraisal", Journal of the Canadian Historical Association (new series), 2 (1991): 263-282;
120. "Free Trade in Archival Ideas: The Canadian Perspective on North American Archival Development", American Archivist 57 (Spring 1994): 380-399;
121. and "Le macroévaluation aux Archives nationales du Canada", Joannis Booms and Joannis Favier, eds., Miscellanea in honorem Caroli Kecskeméti (Brussels: Archives et Bibliothéques de Belgique), pp. 1559-1571.
122. Some of the most complex multi-media macroappraisal projects are analysed, with examples, by Catherine Bailey, "From the Top Down: The Practice of Macro-Appraisal", Archivaria 43 (Spring 1997): 89-128;
123. and Brian P.N. Beaven, "Macro-Appraisal: From Theory to Practice", Archivaria 48 (Fall 1998): pp. 154-198. The criticisms of macroappraisal voiced by these perceptive authors will be mentioned shortly.
124. See Candace Loewen, "From Human Neglect to Planetary Survival: New Approaches to the Appraisal of Environmental Records", Archivaria 33 (Winter 1991-1992): 87-103.
125. Jean-Stéphen Piché and Sheila Powell, "Counting Archives In: The Appraisal of the 1991 Census of Canada", Archivaria 45 (Spring 1998): 27-43.
126. Jean-Stéphen Piché, "Macro-Appraisal and Duplication of Information: Federal Real Property Management Records", Archivaria 39 (Spring 1995): 39-50.
127. Sheila Powell, "Archival Reappraisal: The Immigration Case Files", Archivaria 33 (Winter 1991-1992): 104-116;
128. and Ellen Scheinberg, "Case File Theory: Does It Work in Practice?" Archivaria 38 (Fall 1994): 45-60.
129. Dan Moore, "Too Many Records, Too Little Time, Too Few Resources: The Need for a Researched Based Planned Approach to the Acquisition of Government Records", La mission de l'archiviste dans la société, GIRA (groupe interdisciplinaire de recherche en archivistique) (Montreal: GIRA, 1994), pp. 161-180.
130. Encouraging such a transition in recordkeeping practices was certainly part of the macroappraisal program, although not its formal responsibility; for an example of such work by a program staff member, see Paul Sabourin, "Constructing a Function-Based Records Classification System: Business Activity Structure Classification System", Archivaria 51 (Spring 2001): 137-154.
131. See note 52 above for explanation and citation reference.
132. For the text of the actual policy that I wrote, and its monitoring terms and conditions, together with some background from professional literature debates, see Terry Cook, "Leaving Archival Electronic Records in Institutions: Policy and Monitoring Arrangements at the National Archives of Canada", Archives and Museum Informatics 9 (2) (1995): 141-149.
133. See, again, note 52 above.
134. See, again, note 50 above.
135. Most of my reflections in these pages about the changes in the macroappraisal program, and plans for its suggested further evolution, come from a "recasting" or reengineering initiative in December 1997, a staff retreat I designed to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of macroappraisal to that point, and chart new directions based on the collective learned experience: see Terry Cook, "A Report on Recasting the Records Appraisal and Disposition Programme at the National Archives of Canada" (internal report, National Archives of Canada, February 1998).
136. In addition to the MIDA already mentioned on the use of art posters in government communications, Jim Burant has incorporated some macroappraisal thinking for two visual media in his "Guidelines on Appraisal: Art and Photography" (internal report, National Archives of Canada, September 2002), which updates an earlier November 1997 version. For the possibilities of valuing visual media in terms of their functional context as much as their informational content, see
137. Joan M. Schwartz (then of the National Archives of Canada), '"We make our tools and our tools make us': Lessons from Photographs for the Practice, Politics, and Poetics of Diplomatics", Archivaria 40 (Fall 1995): 40-74.
138. For information on regional records, and their context within macroappraisal by one of its archivists, see Paulette Dozois, "Beyond Ottawa's Reach: The Federal Acquisition of Regional Government Records", Archivaria 33 (Winter 1991-1992): 57-65. By the early 1990s, permanent regional archives offices had been established by the National Archives of Canada in Vancouver and Winnipeg, and the archivists in them worked (analogously to the media archivists in Ottawa) as part of a team headed by the lead macroappraisal archivist on any appraisal projects for government functions having regional dimensions. This all reflected mid-1980s policy changes that regional records would stay in the regions.
139. For a fine analysis by one of the macroappraisal program's archivists on the enriched value of sharing of archivists' research-based contextual knowledge across archival functions from this kind of system, of which he was one of the key builders, see Jean-Stéphen Piché, "Doing What's Possible with What We've Got: Using the World Wide Web to Integrate Archival Functions", American Archivist 61 (Spring 1998): 106-123.
140. See also Normand Fortier's article in this issue of Archival Science.
141. Because of the large scale of the macroappraisal research projects, some 40-45 were completed per year in the 1991-1998 period, as contrasted to some 400 or more of the much smaller, piecemeal, ad hoc disposition instruments issued under the old regime in the 1980s.
142. See other articles in this issue of Archival Science.
143. On this result, see again Cook, "A Report on Recasting the Records Appraisal and Disposition Programme at the National Archives of Canada", Archival Science op cit.
144. For all these details and more, see Terry Cook, "Downsizing Government and the Disposition of Records", with detailed desk procedures attached (internal report, National Archives of Canada, February 1996).
145. For the program's policy when officials announced abandoning electronic recordkeeping systems, see Candace Loewen, "Appraising Records of Large Systems in Emergency Situations" (internal report, National Archives of Canada, June 1996).
146. Lamb, "The Fine Art of Destruction",
147. and Ian Wilson (with the assistance of Richard Brown), "The Fine Art of Destruction Revisited", Archivaria 49 (Spring 2000): 124-139.
148. On this passion, even the feverish "ecstasy of memory", see the evocative assertions by Harris, in "Introductory Essay: Refiguring the Archive",
149. and "Postmodernism and Archival Appraisal", Introductory Essay: Refiguring the Archive op cit.
150. Booms, "Society and the Formation of a Documentary Heritage", pp. 106-107.
151. Harris, "Postmodernism and Archival Appraisal", p. 49.