Record values - smith-special-collections/sc-documentation GitHub Wiki

In the non-archival world, "appraisal" and "value" usually refer to how much money something is worth. To an archivist, though, there are many kinds of value that go into our decision about whether to keep or get rid of something.

When we assess whether to keep Smith College records, we are often interested in "primary value", i.e. the value of records derived from the original use that caused them to be created. This includes:

  • Administrative/fiscal value- The records are needed so that an organization can continue to function.
  • Legal value- The records document and protect the rights and interests of an individual or organization, provide for defense in litigation, demonstrate compliance with laws and regulations, or meet other legal needs.

For the papers and records of individuals and other organizations, we are interested in other kinds of archival value, including:

  • Evidential value- The quality of records that provides information about the origins, functions, and activities of their creator. The record is evidence of an event that happened in the real world. For example, a receipt is evidence of a financial transaction. Some materials are better evidence than others.
  • Informational value- The usefulness or significance of materials based on their content, independent of any intrinsic or evidential value. For example, the document has a lot of interesting information that researchers will be interested in.
  • Associational value- The usefulness or significance of materials based on its relationship to an individual, family, organization, place, or event. For example, a record can be connected to an important/influential person or organization.
  • Artefactual value- The usefulness or significance of an object based on its physical or aesthetic characteristics, rather than its intellectual content. For example, a rare book can be valuable as an object that was created by an artist, even if the text/information inside is common (i.e. a handmade bible can be artefactually valuable, even if you can find the text in every other bible).

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