One size fits all? the portability of macro-appraisal by a comparative analysis of Canada, South Africa, and New Zealand

Archivaria

Volumn 52, Issue 1, 2001, Pages 47-68

  Roberts, John ^a  

^a VICTORIA UNIVERSITY OF WELLINGTON   (New Zealand)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 79960488570     PISSN: 03186954     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (43)

1. This article is based on work carried out for study towards a Master of Information Management and Systems at Monash University, Australia, and formed the basis of a paper to the 2001 ACA Conference in Winnipeg. The views in this paper are my own and do not necessarily represent the position of Archives New Zealand. I would like to thank Terry Cook and Verne Harris for their helpful comments during the development of the paper.
2. Most recently articulated in National Archives of Canada: Government Records Branch, Appraisal Methodology: Macro-Appraisal and Functional Analysis (Ottawa, 2001).
3. David Bearman, Electronic Evidence: Strategies for Managing Records in Contemporary Organizations (Pittsburgh, 1994), p. 187.
4. Terry Cook, "Overview of Appraisal: Why are we here this week?" paper to Monash University Appraisal Seminar, March 1999, p. 16: "There is no universal standard or rigid theory; solutions - and indeed animating concepts - will rightly reflect their time and place."
5. 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.
6. Verne Harris, "Redefining Archives in South Africa: Public Archives and Society in Transition, 1990-1996," Archivaria 42 (Fall 1996), note 91.
7. Appraisal Review Committee (ARC), State Archives Service of South Africa (SASA), Report on Current State Archives Service Appraisal Policy and the Theory and Practice of Macro Appraisal (March 1996), Section 1.1 Establishment and Mandate.
8. State Archives Service of South Africa, M10/1/1/1, Appointment of Appraisal Task Team, memorandum of 24 April 1996.
9. Michael Hoyle, "Review, Restructure, and Reform: Recordkeeping Standards in the New Zealand State Sector," Archivaria 48 (Fall 1999) pp. 44-63.
10. National Archives of New Zealand, Appraisal Review: Discussion Paper, November 1998. Available at: (accessed 24 December 2001).
11. Terry Cook "Why are we here?" p. 5: "one has to know first what one means by 'valuable,' one has to know what one is looking for, BEFORE developing the means to find it. Theory comes first."
12. Terry Eastwood suggests a different three-way division of the grounds for evaluation: provenance, pertinence, and use. "How Goes It with Appraisal?" Archivaria 36 (Fall 1993), p. 116-117.
13. At a minimum, individual archivists will choose which assumptions to make, and which theory to accept on the basis of their personal, real world experiences.
14. National Archives of Canada Act, s. 4(1) "The objects and functions of the National Archives of Canada are to conserve private and public records of national significance and facilitate access thereto."
15. Terry Cook, "Final Commentary Session of the Appraisal Seminar," paper to Monash University Appraisal Seminar (March 1999), p. 1.
16. Verne Harris, "Transforming South African Archives: Discourse and Delivery," SA Archives Journal 38 (1996), p. 2. Harris discusses the transformation discourse in detail in "Redefining Archives in South Africa."
17. Harris, "Transforming South African Archives," p. 2.
18. Verne Harris, Exploring Archives: An Introduction to Archival Ideas and Practices in South Africa (Pretoria, 2000), pp. 40-45.
19. Hoyle, "Review, Restructure, and Reform," p. 46, who notes "New Zealand does not have its own strong theoretical traditions in the records and archives fields; it has borrowed overseas methodologies and adapted these to the local environment."
20. Brad Patterson, "New Dawn for the National Archives," Archifacts (April 2000), p. ix: "there must be recognition within National Archives that New Zealand situations frequently demand New Zealand solutions."
21. It is also likely, however, that awareness of literature describing Canadian experiences influenced the way in which the New Zealand paper analysed the local situation.
22. National Archives of New Zealand, Appraisal Review: Discussion Paper (November 1998), Executive Summary.
23. Annual reports of the Directorate State Archives and Heraldic Services, Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology, South Africa, 1995 (Pretoria, 1996), pp. 9-10.
24. Appraisal Review Committee (ARC), State Archives Service of South Africa (SASA), "Report on Current Appraisal Policy," 2.3.2, p. 7.
25. National Archives of South Africa, Appraisal Policy Guidelines (December 1998), Introduction.
26. John Roberts, "Market Forces: Electronic Records Appraisal in the Age of Economic Rationalism," Paper to the Australian Society of Archivists Conference, Fremantle 1998. Available at: http://www.archives.govt.nz/archivesnz/staff/papers/market_forces_frame.html (accessed 24 December 2001).
27. Appraisal Review Committee (ARC), State Archives Service of South Africa (SASA), "Report on Current Appraisal Policy," 3.3.3.2.
28. Chris Hurley, "Ambient Functions - Abandoned Children to Zoos," Archivaria 40 (Fall 1995), p. 38.
29. Appraisal Review Committee (ARC), State Archives Service of South Africa (SASA), "Report on Current Appraisal Policy," 3.2.3.2.
30. The Canadian Government Policy on the Management of Government Information Holdings, issued by the powerful Treasury Board Secretariat, available at (accessed 10 June 1999), requires agencies to "designate a senior official to represent the deputy head to Treasury Board Secretariat and other central agencies for the purposes of this policy" and notes that "the National Archives has specific evaluation responsibilities on behalf of the Treasury Board Secretariat in regard to this policy." The importance of "support from senior executive stakeholders" is also noted by Richard Brown, "Macro-Appraisal in Transition: Recasting the Government Records Disposition Programme of the National Archives of Canada," paper to the Annual Conference of the National Association of Government Archivists and Records Administrators, Sacramento, July 1997, p. 5
31. Verne Harris, General Report: Visits to National Archives of Canada in Ottawa (4-15 December 1995) and Public Record Office in London (18-19 December 1995), State Archives Service of South Africa file reference B17/3/4, 8 January 1996, paragraph 3.2.3.7.
32. Roberts, "Market Forces."
33. "The New Zealand Government's Goals and Priorities 1999-2002," available at (accessed 10 June 1999).
34. Harris, "Redefining Archives in South Africa," p. 9 and e-mail to author, 10 May 1999.
35. Harris, e-mail to author, 10 May 1999.
36. Richard Brown, "Macro-Appraisal Theory and the Context of the Public Records Creator," Archivaria 40 (Fall 1995), pp. 123-124.
37. This area of risks manifests in a slightly different form where appraisal is predominantly based on examination of records - the risk of accepting the record at face value without question.
38. National Archives of Australia, Why Records Are Kept: Our Approach to Appraisal, available at (accessed 21 December 2001): "The AS 4390 model has several elements which we believe are now needed in the Commonwealth record-keeping regime. These [include]:. functionsbased classification as the means of control over records creation, management and disposal, reducing the risks associated with sentencing by third parties at a later stage."
39. Richard Brown, e-mail to author, 15 May 1998.
40. "Outputs are the goods and services purchased by Ministers. Outcomes are the impacts on the community of an output or class of outputs," The Treasury, Putting It Together (Wellington, 1996), pp. 13-14.
41. Possible licensing arrangements have been occasionally discussed as a means of addressing this issue.
42. Harris, "Redefining Archives in South Africa," p. 16.
43. National Archives of South Africa Act 1996, section 6 (4) (e).