The end of collecting: Towards a new purpose for archival appraisal

Abstract

In this essay, the author ruminates on the relationship between collecting and archival appraisal. He argues that collecting does not necessarily equal appraisal, although society and even archivists value it as an important function. The author stresses that the critical need is for archivists to have a clear perspective, whether highly theoretical or immensely practical, of what it is they hope to accomplish in appraising and that they need to document this process so that future researchers and archivists can understand what archival appraisal meant. As it is, archives might become more valued as important cultural symbols than for the records they actually hold. The notion of an “end” of collecting is in the sense that collecting is appraising, but appraising elevated to a professional function requiring more care, deliberate thought, and self-evaluation.