Archival Appraisal in Community Archives

Abstract

Archival appraisal is one of the basic functions of archives. This chapter provides an initial analysis of the contexts in which community archives make appraisal decisions. The author draws attention to the different degrees of archival selection, how archival selection is perceived by community archivists, the importance of the human factor in this activity and how value is attributed to documentation. The chapter applies methods of analysis of texts and data from semi-structured interviews with community archivists.