Applying archival appraisal concepts to information lifecycle management.

• Author: Cohen, Stephen

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Information is the real currency of business today; without it, organizations cannot function. As the value of information transcends and exceeds the value of currencies, records and information management (RIM) professionals are poised to become the new chief financial officers. By integrating archival appraisal methods into their practice, RIM professionals can ensure their organizations are not bogged down with obsolete materials, have the best information, and get more value from it by using it for secondary purposes.

There is much for records and information management (RIM) professionals to learn from their counterparts in archival administration. It is archivists' efforts to cull the 95%-98% of materials that are not of enduring value to get to their repositories' archival core that transcend their field. Identifying, analyzing, and selecting just those materials that fit the collecting scope are known as archival appraisal, or simply appraisal.

People traditionally think of appraisal as an expert assessing the market value of something of potential con siderable value, such as a diamond ring or a house. But, it happens in all facets of life; we are a culture of appraisers. Anytime we go to buy or sell something, we perform an appraisal at some level--whether it be measuring, assessing, and comparing brands of butter at the supermarket, shopping around for a car, or even clearing out the attic.

This last example--sifting through the accumulations of life to determine what can go away and what still has value and needs to be kept--is closest to the type of appraisal performed by archivists.

Building Blocks for Appraisal

Context is crucial to performing a sound appraisal. So, before appraisal can begin, the appraiser must first determine the material's "who, what, when, where, why, and how" to build the context for understanding the value and purpose of the information. In an archival setting, these questions are consolidated into a few foundational concepts, as follows.

Provenance is defined by the Society of American Archivists as "The origin or source of something." Provenance ties to appraisal as it authenticates the source and custodians, ensuring the veracity of the information. The term is often heard in auction houses and museums where artifacts are verified through their records of ownership and custodianship. Provenance answers the "who," "when," and "where."

As stated by Luciana Duranti in Diplomatics: New Uses for an Old Science, provenance also "leads us to evaluate records on the basis of the importance of the creator's mandate and functions, and fosters the use of a hierarchical method, a 'top-down' approach..."

Respect des fonds, literally "respecting the group," means that each group of records must be understood for what it is and not be conflated with other groups or subdivided. Each fond is a distinct group with its own distinct set(s) of records series and must be treated separately. Respect des fonds answers the "what."

Original order refers to the way in which the information was kept and used by its custodian. It aids in identifying information within a group, understanding decision-making and thought processes, and proving that the information is genuine. Original...