Showing papers in "American Archivist in 1985"
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the premises from which T.R. Schellenberg derived many of the practices used to appraise modern records and identify some problems in the widespread use of his approach.
Abstract: Although acknowledged as an essential archival function, appraisal is a complex process that is not fully understood. The authors examine the premises from which T.R. Schellenberg derived many of the practices used to appraise modern records and identify some problems in the widespread use of his approach. As an alternative, they offer a model comprised of the elements that should be considered when making an appraisal decision. Three interrelated categories of elements are discussed: value-of-information, costs-of-retention, and implications-of-the-appraisal-recommendations. While the focus is upon the appraisal of university administrative records, this model represents another step toward the development of a more systematic understanding of the entire appraisal process.
29 citations
TL;DR: Woodson as discussed by the authors collected over five thousand documents which now comprise the "Carter G. Woodson Collection of Negro Materials" in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress during the late 1920s, with only a small amount of grant funds and a great deal of enthusiastic support from the black community.
Abstract: Until recently, white libraries and archives generally showed no interest in collecting primary source materials that dealt specifically with black culture. J. Franklin Jameson, chief of the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress during the late 1920s, recognized the need to acquire these sources and assisted Afro-American historian Carter G. Woodson in his endeavor to collect them. With only a small amount of grant funds and a great deal of enthusiastic support from the black community, Woodson collected over five thousand documents which now comprise the "Carter G. Woodson Collection of Negro Materials" in the Manuscript Division.
15 citations
TL;DR: The Houston Metropolitan Research Center (HMRC) of Houston Public Library has been addressing this situation by systematically building a collection of materials relative to the history of Houston's Mexican American populace as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The Mexican American population is one of the most significant minority groups in the nation, yet archivists and historians have been negligent in documenting its development. The Mexican American community in Houston, Texas, has been developing for one hundred years and today may well number as many as five hundred thousand people. Since 1978, the Houston Metropolitan Research Center (HMRC) of Houston Public Library has been addressing this situation by systematically building a collection of materials relative to the history of Houston's Mexican American populace. These materials include the papers of prominent Mexican American Houstonians, Mexican American families, as well as local Chicano organizations and institutions. Additionally, HMRC has established a supplementary oral history project especially designed for its Mexican American community. To implement this collection strategy, HMRC staff members have actively built a local support network and have become involved in public outreach. As one of ...
12 citations
TL;DR: In a recent survey by the Organization of American Historians, the fastest growing field of historical research is social history as mentioned in this paper, and the most important implications for archivists and manuscripts curators arise from the use of new kinds of source materials and from a new approach to social inquiry and interpretation.
Abstract: According to a recent survey by the Organization of American Historians, the fastest growing field of historical research is social history. Although many social historians use computers, this is not the most significant feature of the New Social History (NSH). More important implications for archivists and manuscripts curators arise from the use of new kinds of source materials and from a new approach to social inquiry and interpretation. Archivists who have attempted to respond to the challenges posed by NSH have tended to attack the problem piecemeal, dealing only with isolated aspects. Recognizing the highly interactive nature of archival functions, this study provides an overview of NSH's impact on all major aspects of archival practice and management. Traditional archival concerns such as solicitation strategies, appraisal criteria, provenance, and arrangement and description options are re-examined to assess the impact of NSH, point out some serious implications for archivists, and provide a starti...
11 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe the process employed by the Research Library of the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies to develop a viable collecting policy and to implement an active collecting program.
Abstract: The traditional methods for developing collecting policies do not work well in social history archives. Because social history archives typically have less than complete knowledge of the records available in their collecting universe, coherent guidance, flexibility, and a means for ongoing reassessment become equally important requirements of an effective collecting policy. This paper is a description of the process employed by the Research Library of the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies to develop a viable collecting policy and to implement an active collecting program. The process entails a cyclical approach to policy development and a careful consideration of collecting strategies.
11 citations
TL;DR: This survey serves as a starting point for archives searching for a methodology to measure the work of processing within their institutions as a step towards the standardization needed for self-evaluation, and, perhaps, as a means of furthering cooperation among institutions.
Abstract: A numerical analysis of the processing of manuscript and archival materials was undertaken to develop baseline figures for planning and comparison. The time required for different segments of the processing activity was averaged and analyzed for all accessions within a given time period, with size and type introduced as variables. The analysis proved useful in planning staff responsibilities, processor assignments, budgets, and other management data. The feasibility and efficacy of word processing applied to the creation of finding aids was also tested. This survey serves as a starting point for archives searching for a methodology to measure the work of processing within their institutions, as a step towards the standardization needed for self-evaluation, and, perhaps, as a means of furthering cooperation among institutions.
11 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that the historic collecting policy is too broad and too indiscriminate to make the best use of the institution's resources and outline a new policy based on present holdings and on the holdings and policies of other institutions.
Abstract: Archivists have been less succesful in collecting documentation on white ethnics than in gathering materials on other neglected groups in American society. This article addresses the problem by applying concepts of collection development to the holdings of an outstanding immigrant-ethnic repository, the Immigration History Research Center Collection of the University of Minnesota. It argues that the historic collecting policy is too broad and too indiscriminate to make the best use of the institution's resources and outlines a new policy based on present holdings and on the holdings and policies of other institutions.
10 citations
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TL;DR: A partir de la gestion des Archives de guerre d'Austin, au Texas, and de ses liens avec les Archives nationales des Etats-Unis, une reflexion generale est menee sur le traitement de l'histoire par un service d'archives as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: A partir de la gestion des Archives de guerre d'Austin, au Texas, et de ses liens avec les Archives nationales des Etats-Unis, une reflexion generale est menee sur le traitement de l'histoire par un service d'archives
10 citations
TL;DR: The experience of the Western Reserve Historical Society (WRHS) and its Cleveland Regional Ethnic Archives Program (CERAP) is described in this paper, where the authors describe how the society's collecting policy was defined and examine the evolution of collecting practice within the bounds of that policy.
Abstract: Archives and manuscript repositories need to determine and enforce realistic collecting policies in order to create cohesive collections for research use and keep the size of their holdings within reasonable bounds, but this is difficult to accomplish because of constituency pressures and the impulse to compete with other institutions. The experience of an old and important regional repository, the Western Reserve Historical Society, particularly its Cleveland Regional Ethnic Archives Program begun in 1971, is the central focus of this article. The author describes how the society's collecting policy was defined and examines the evolution of collecting practice within the bounds of that policy. The successful implementation of the original policy has depended especially on three factors: good working relations with ethnic group leaders, selectivity within the scope of the policy, and cooperation among repositories.
10 citations
TL;DR: In 1887, the Congress delegated, for the first time, legislative and judicial powers to an executive agency, the Interstate Commerce Commission, and in accordance with the constitutional right to due process, federal agencies conduct quasi-judicial and quasi-legislative proceedings that create hundreds of thousands of case files a year as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: In 1887 the Congress delegated, for the first time, legislative and judicial powers to an executive agency, the Interstate Commerce Commission. Today, under such delegations and in accordance with the constitutional right to due process, federal agencies conduct quasi-judicial and quasi-legislative proceedings that create hundreds of thousands of case files a year. Certain agencies each year select for transfer to the National Archives case files of important cases in accordance with selection schemes that were devised as far back as forty years ago. This large and inexorably increasing body of records is seldom used and almost never for the reasons for which it was selected—importance and precedent. The agencies publish in considerable detail their important and precedential decisions and the reasoning leading to these decisions; and these published reports, rather than the case files, are widely used. The relatively few users of the case files are almost always seeking in these files incidental informat...
5 citations
TL;DR: This paper identified the kinds of papers most likely to appear in legislators' files, discussed the conditions of their creation and official use, and suggested their possible usefulness to a variety of potential researchers.
Abstract: Many state archival agencies have done little to appraise and preserve office files created by state legislators, and few private repositories have collected these papers on a systematic or comprehensive basis. Professional literature that could provide guidance, either by example or by prescription, for the disposition of these files, is virtually nonexistent. This article attempts to take a first step to remedy that situation by identifying the kinds of papers most likely to appear in legislators' files, discussing the conditions of their creation and official use, and suggesting their possible usefulness to a variety of potential researchers. Rather than finding a model or a list of ready-made appraisal decisions, however, readers are asked to consider various alternatives and to draw their own conclusions based on the needs of individual repositories with their own collecting policies and obligations to parent agencies or user constituencies.
TL;DR: In two recent American Archivist articles, Frank G. Burke and Lester J. Cappon explored the notion of archival theory and produced a fundamental disagreement over the nature and role of theory in the archival field as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: In two recent American Archivist articles, Frank G. Burke and Lester J. Cappon explored the notion of archival theory and produced a fundamental disagree- ment over the nature and role of theory in the archival field. This article further ex- amines the possibilities of archival theory within the context of that debate. Three theoretical positions emerge from this discussion. The first is archival theory as universal laws or models, based on the study of archives in the context of other social institutions, as propounded by Burke. The second theoretical position discussed is ar- chival theory analyzed in its historical development, with emphasis on the intellectual traditions which directed the formation of theory. The final theoretical position discussed is that of Cappon, who rejected both of the above approaches to archival theory.
TL;DR: The role du Comite pour la planification et le developpement des archives (CAPO), aux Etats-Unis, consiste a definir les objectifs et strategies de la profession, recommander la mise en œuvre d'activites precises and a promouvoir the planification as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Le role du Comite pour la planification et le developpement des archives (CAPO), aux Etats-Unis, consiste a definir les objectifs et strategies de la profession, a recommander la mise en œuvre d'activites precises et a promouvoir la planification
TL;DR: This article present a bibliographie selective sur ce sujet presente, par ordre alphabetique d'auteur, monographies, articles, rapports et manuscrits de langue anglaise parus ces dernieres annees.
Abstract: La gestion d'un fonds suppose de faire le tri des documents pertinents pour un groupe donne d'utilisateurs. Cette bibliographie selective sur ce sujet presente, par ordre alphabetique d'auteur, monographies, articles, rapports et manuscrits de langue anglaise parus ces dernieres annees
TL;DR: While communication is a central factor in society, the creation and creation of documents of interest to archivists and historians have not been extensively studied as mentioned in this paper. But the authors of this paper review several investigations of communication in history along
Abstract: While communication is a central factor in society, the creation and func- tions of documents of interest to archivists and historians have not been extensively studied. The author reviews several investigations of communication in history along
Journal Article•
TL;DR: Problemes d'evaluation de l'interet des archives afin d'aboutir a selection valable are discussed in this paper, a.k.a. pratiques mises en œuvre par le Departement des archives de Caroline du Sud.
Abstract: Problemes d'evaluation de l'interet des archives afin d'aboutir a une selection valable. Exemple des pratiques mises en œuvre par le Departement des archives de Caroline du Sud
TL;DR: Rundell's subsequent career demonstrated a commitment to the implementation of those recommendations and to the creation of a community of history involving both the custodians of archival materials and the users of those materials as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: In his published account of the Survey on the Use of Original Source Material in Graduate Programs in History conducted between 1965 and 1967, Walter Rundell outlined problems hindering the full utilization of such sources. At the core of his recommendations for solving these problems was a conviction that researchers and curators are bound by a common interest in the past and in the materials that document that past. Rundell's subsequent career demonstrated a commitment to the implementation of those recommendations and to the creation of a community of history involving both the custodians of archival materials and the users of those materials.
TL;DR: A review of the existing literature and a set of questions to ask in appraising reprint collections are provided in this article, where the authors also provide guidelines for the evaluation of reprints.
Abstract: Appraisal of reprint collections or large series of reprints within manuscript and archival collections is of particular interest to archivists working with voluminous contemporary scientific collections. They have sought to identify and eliminate from collections material that is not unique and has little research value. A dozen articles and books in the archival literature have discussed the collection and appraisal of ephemera, near-print material, and reprints. While several authors have suggested that reprints be appraised closely, they have failed to provide appraisal guidelines.A review of the existing literature and a set of questions to ask in appraising reprint collections are provided in this article.