UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SCHOOL OF INFORMATION SCIENCES

 

 

LIS 2222                                         Archival Appraisal, Spring 2006 Term

Instructor:                                         Richard J. Cox

Office Number/Telephone:                SIS 614; 412 624-3245

Office Hours:                                    Mondays 1:30-4:30

E-mail:                                              rcox@mail.sis.pitt.edu or rjcox111@comcast.net

Homepage:                                       http://www2.sis.pitt.edu/~rcox/

 

Course Rationale

 

Archival appraisal is the most critical task of the archivist. The archivist’s process in determining continuing value affects all other archival functions, as well as makes an impact on individual, organizational, and societal memory. Since this is one of the most important responsibilities of the archivist, anyone intending to work as an archivist must be knowledgeable about appraisal.

 

Archival appraisal, and the techniques and models that have developed to support this function, also represents one of the unique contributions of the archivist to the information professions -- the ability to determine what portion of information and evidence needs to be saved to document institutions, communities, society, and the people who make them up.   The process involves not just thinking of historical issues, but also about the value of records for accountability and evidence.

 

Course Goals

 

The purposes of this course are to introduce students to the basic theories, principles, techniques, and methods that archivists use for identifying and selecting (appraising) information or evidence with continuing or enduring value and to enable students to compare and contrast archival appraisal to related activities in other fields, such as library collection management and development, artifact selection by museum curators, and the analysis of documentary evidence by historians.

 

Students will learn about

 

§   various methods archivists use in making appraisal decisions

§   societal, legal, and organizational aspects affecting the appraising of records

§   different opinions held by archivists in conducting appraisal

§   new and emerging approaches to appraising records

§   how to evaluate any archives appraisal and acquisition policy and activities

 

Course Outline

 

The course is divided into several sections, including: 

 

§   introduction to the definitions, theories, and principles that support archival appraisal with discussion about the classic writings on appraisal theory and principles, the challenges of selecting records that possess continuing or enduring value and the main debates about the purpose and practice of appraisal (especially the issue of the ideology of appraisal and the objectivity versus subjectivity of archival appraisal decisions); 

 

§   review of the prevalent appraisal practices and methods, from analysis of individual documents to institutional approaches to multi-institutional, cooperative efforts to appraise; and

 

§   case studies on archival appraisal, including institutional appraisal (government and college and university), topical areas (science and technology; medicine and health), the geographic context of appraisal (documenting localities), and the impact and challenges of recording media on archival appraisal (electronic, audio-visual, and visual records).

 

Throughout the course archival appraisal will be compared to similar functions in other disciplines as well as other archival functions it impacts within archival programs.  Within each section, one class session is devoted to debates and controversies involving archival appraisal, an archival function that is not only the most important but also the most contested archival process.

 

Course Requirements and Grading: Masters Students

 

Each student will be expected to complete a lengthy set of readings and to participate regularly in class discussions. The course will consist of lectures by the instructor in the first part of each class, followed by a discussion of the assigned readings and other issues raised by the lectures or of interest to the students.

 

A significant portion of the student's grade will be based on his or her participation in class; any student not participating in the class discussions will receive no higher than a "B" for the course. The remaining portion of the grade will be based upon successful completion of the appraisal project (described below) by formally declared archives students or a longer paper (also described below) by the other (non-archives) students taking the course.

 

The final grade will be based on the following:

 

§   Class participation and discussion 40%

§   Appraisal project or Research Paper 60%

 

All declared archives students must do the appraisal report assignment.  The appraisal report should evaluate the acquisition or appraisal policy of a Pittsburgh or another geographic area's archives, historical manuscripts, or records/information resources management program. The nature of the program can be based on the student's personal interest and selection. The paper (15 to 20 pages, not including appendices) should do the following:

 

1. Describe the institution's policy (or practice if it lacks a formal policy)

 

2. Evaluate the institution's policy and practice based on appropriate archival and records management standards (with citations and discussion)

 

3. Propose ways that the policy and practice could be strengthened

 

4. Propose ways that the "success" of the policy and practice could be measured or evaluated

 

Students should structure this paper according to the four elements listed above. Each student should visit the institution, interview appropriate staff, and immerse him or herself in the relevant appraisal literature. A student can evaluate the policy of an archives or historical manuscripts program in another area of the country, conducting the relevant interview by telephone and examining appraisal policy documents provided by the institution. The paper is due on Week 13 (April 17). Students should hand in to the instructor the institution they have selected by Week 4 (February 6) of the course.  The instructor is willing to consider other research paper topics for students building on papers completed in the Records and Knowledge Management course (LIS 2220) during the Fall term or related to particular career objectives held by the student.

 

Non-archives students who are taking this course must complete the research paper assignment.  The research paper should relate to an in-depth treatment of some aspect of archival appraisal or the relationship of archival appraisal to other disciplines’ selection methodologies (such as library collection development).  This paper is intended to enable the student to do in-depth reading and study on a single aspect of archival appraisal. These papers should provide critical definitions as needed; review the literature that reflects both key points of this aspect of archival administration and the development of archival theory on this principle or function; and evaluate the literature's strengths and weaknesses, including any conclusions about needs in the profession.  Students must show evidence of having read thoroughly at least twenty articles and, if appropriate, several monographs or textbooks for this paper; in reality, students will probably need to scan the professional literature on any given topic far beyond this quantity of publications in order to identify the most important writings, research, and theory on the topic. Students should plan on meeting with the instructor to discuss their paper in order to evaluate their progress; this meeting can be in-person or via e- mail. This paper is due on Week 13, April 17).

 

All masters level students are required to hand in a one to two page statement of the intended topic of their paper at Week 4 (February 6) for the Instructor's approval.

 

Course Requirements and Grading: Doctoral Students

 

The final grade for Doctoral students will be based on the following:

 

 

 

§   Class participation and discussion 30%

§   Research Paper 70%

 

Doctoral students taking this course will be required to prepare a paper (25-35 pages) on some aspect of archival appraisal that interests them, relates to their broader dissertation research, and that is publishable.

 

The research paper should be an in-depth review of a particular issue, technique or application, or principle that is essential to the archival appraisal function. Examples of acceptable subjects for this kind of paper include the matter of objectivity in the appraisal process, the appropriateness of sampling as an appraisal tool, and the importance of provenance to conducting archival appraisal.   The choice of the topic should have some relevance to the doctoral student’s own research interests.

 

Students may also opt to write a comparative analysis of archival appraisal with some other library or information science function.  Examples of acceptable subjects for this kind of paper include a comparison of archival appraisal criteria to library preservation selection criteria and the archival concept of intrinsic value as compared to evaluation criteria used by material culture experts.

 

This paper is due on Week 13 (April 17).  The preparation of an essay of publishable quality will be the main evaluation criterion by the instructor. Doctoral students are required to hand in a one to two page statement of the intended topic of their paper at Week 4 (February 6) for the Instructor's approval.

 

Course Requirements and Grading: Style Manual

 

Students should adhere to the latest edition of the Chicago Manual of Style in the preparation of their papers.  Students should acquire, if they do not have a copy already, the most recent edition of Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations published by the University of Chicago Press.  This is a short hand version of the Chicago Manual of Style.  Any paper submitted not meeting the standards of this style manual loses one letter grade for this assignment.

 

Students also should be aware of the School’s Academic Integrity guidelines regarding this and all other matters concerning grades.  These guidelines are available at http://www2.sis.pitt.edu/sisinfo/sisacint.html.

 

Course Requirements and Grading: Class Participation and Discussion

 

Class participation and discussion, as the final grade weighing reflects, are extremely essential for this course's success and the student's educational experience:

 

Each student will be expected to participate fully and regularly in class discussions about the readings, session topics, and other matters related to archival studies.

 

Each student will be expected to meet at least once during the course with the Instructor in order to discuss his or her progress and work on the assignments.

 

Students who do not fully participate in class discussions will receive no higher than a "B" for this course.

 

The Instructor will take into account the possibility of a larger class size affecting class participation when considering the grade for the course.

 

Course Requirements and Grading: Incompletes

 

If students need to take an incomplete, they must request permission to do so from the Instructor by Week 13 (April 17).  Students, unless there are extremely adverse or emergency situations, will have until May 15, 2006 to complete all of their assignments and other course requirements.

 

Course Requirements: Book Purchases

 

While there is a considerable amount of readings, the articles and books provide only an introduction to the complexities and challenges of conducting archival appraisal. The literature is also intended to introduce the student to the debates within the archival community about how appraisal should be carried out.  The students can purchase a number of the texts from any online book dealer.  A small quantity of copies has been secured of the following for sale in the University of Pittsburgh bookstore.

 

Michael F. Brown, Who Owns Native Culture?  (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2003).

 

Richard J. Cox, Documenting Localities: A Practical Model for American Archivists and Manuscripts Curators (Metuchen: Scarecrow Press, 1996).  Also available through the Society of American Archivists.  A small number of copies are available at the Pitt Bookstore.

 

Richard J. Cox, No Innocent Deposits: Forming Archives by Rethinking Appraisal (Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2004). Also available through the Society of American Archivists.  A small number of copies are available at the Pitt Bookstore.

 

Helen W. Samuels, Varsity Letters: Documenting Modern Colleges and Universities (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1992).   Also available through the Society of American Archivists.

 

Students might wish to buy other volumes on Reserve or listed as recommended readings, but that is up to each individual.

 

Students should order the Society of American Archivists publications directly from the Society (check http://www.archivists.org for ordering information).  These publications include the following:

 

Frank Boles, Selecting & Appraising Archives & Manuscripts (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2005)

 

Richard J. Cox, ed., Lester J. Cappon and the Relationship of History, Archives, and Scholarship in the Golden Age of Archival Theory (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2004).  Not a required reading.

 

Clark A. Elliott, ed., Understanding Progress as Process: Documentation of the History of Post-War Science and Technology in the United States; Final Report of the Joint Committee on Archives of Science and Technology (Chicago: Distributed by the Society of American Archivists, 1983).

 

Joan K. Haas, Helen W. Samuels, and Barbara T. Simmons, Appraising the Records of Modern Science and Technology: A Guide (Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1985).

 

James M. O’Toole, ed., The Records of American Business (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 1997).

 

S. Muller, J.A. Feith, and R. Fruin.  Manual for the Arrangement and Description of Archives (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2003).

 

Thornton W. Mitchell, ed., Norton on Archives: The Writings of Margaret Cross Norton on Archival & Records Management (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2003).

 

All readings will be on Reserve in the SIS Library.

 

A Note About the Readings

 

Students need to focus on the required readings in each section.  The Instructor will comment on the list of readings designated as recommended, but the student is not expected to read these (unless they may be of value in their writing assignment).

 

Course Schedule

 

INTRODUCTION

 

Session 1 (January 9, 2006)     

 

Introduction to the Course; Course Requirements; Introduction to the Appraisal Project

Lecture: “The Evolving Nature of Archival Appraisal: A Framework for the Course”

 

Recommended Readings

 

Richard J. Cox, No Innocent Deposits: Forming Archives by Rethinking Appraisal (Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2004).  This book contains a lot of the instructor’s recent thinking about archival appraisal, and it can function as a good resource for class lectures and discussions.

 

No class on January 16, 2006 due to the Martin Luther King Day

 

DEFINITIONS, THEORIES, AND PRINCIPLES

 

Session 2 (January 23, 2006)   

 

Archival Appraisal: Basic Definitions; Importance

Lecture: “The Place of Appraisal in Archival Administration, the Information Professions, and Society”

 

Required Readings

 

Nancy E. Peace, "Deciding What to Save: Fifty Years of Theory and Practice," in Archival Choices: Managing the Historical Record in an Age of Abundance, ed. Nancy E. Peace (Lexington: D.C. Heath, 1984), pp. 1-18.

 

Maynard J. Brichford, Archives & Manuscripts: Appraisal & Accessioning (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 1977).  A copy is on Reserve.  Peruse.

 

F. Gerald Ham, Selecting and Appraising Archives and Manuscripts (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 1992).  A copy is on Reserve.  Peruse.

 

Frank Boles, Selecting & Appraising Archives & Manuscripts (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2005), chapters 1 and 2.

 

Terry Cook, "Mind Over Matter: Towards A New Theory of Archival Appraisal," in Barbara L. Craig, ed., The Archival Imagination: Essays in Honour of Hugh A. Taylor (Ottawa: Association of Canadian Archivists, 1992), pp. 38-70.

 

Recommended Readings

 

John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid, "The Social Life of Documents," First Monday, available at

http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue1/documents/index.html.

 

Terry Cook and Gordon Dodds, eds., Imagining Archives: Essays and Reflections by Hugh Taylor (Lanham, Md: Scarecrow Press, Association of Canadian Archivists, and Society of American Archivists, 2003).

 

Terry Cook, "What is Past is Prologue: A History of Archival Ideas Since 1898, and the Future Paradigm Shift," Archivaria 43 (Spring 1997): 17-63.

 

Richard J. Cox and Helen W. Samuels, "The Archivists' First Responsibility: A Research Agenda for the Identification and Retention of Records of Enduring Value," American Archivist 51 (Winter/Spring 1988): 28-42.

 

Terry Eastwood, "Toward a Social Theory of Appraisal," in Barbara L. Craig, ed., The Archival Imagination: Essays in Honour of Hugh A. Taylor (Ottawa: Association of Canadian Archivists, 1992), pp. 71-89.

 

Margaret Hedstrom, "New Appraisal Techniques: The Effect of Theory on Practice," Provenance 7 (Fall 1989): 1-21.

 

Michael Piggott, “ Appraisal: The State of the Art,” Paper delivered at a professional development workshop presented by ASA South Australia Branch 26 March 2001, available at http://www.archivists.org.au/sem/misc/piggott.html.

 

Session 3 (January 30, 2006) 

 

Archival Appraisal: History

Lecture: “The Historic Foundations of Archival Appraisal Theory and Practice”

 

Required Readings

 

S. Muller, J.A. Feith, and R. Fruin.  Manual for the Arrangement and Description of Archives (New York: H.W. Wilson, 1968), chapter one.  Students should acquire a copy of this Manual for the Arrangement and Description of Archives with new introductions by Peter Horsman, Eric Ketelaar, Theo Thomassen and Marjorie Barritt published by the Society of American Archivists in 2003.

 

Sir Hilary Jenkinson, A Manual of Archive Administration, rev. 2nd ed. (London: Percy Lund, Humphries & Co., Ltd., 1966), pp. 136-55.

 

T. R. Schellenberg,  "The Appraisal of Modern Public Records," National Archives Bulletin 8 (Washington: National Archives and Records Service, 1956).  You can read this online at the NARA website at http://www.archives.gov/research/alic/reference/archives-resources/appraisal-foreword.html.

 

Thornton W. Mitchell, ed., Norton on Archives: The Writings of Margaret Cross Norton on Archival & Records Management (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1975), pp. 231-65.  Students should acquire the reissue of this publication by the Society of American Archivists with the new introduction by Rand Jimerson.

 

Barbara Craig, Archival Appraisal: Theory and Practice (Munchen: K. G. Saur, 2004), chapters one and four.  On Reserve.

 

Recommended Readings

 

Leonard Boyle, "Diplomatics," in James M. Powell, ed., Medieval Studies: An Introduction, 2nd ed. (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1992),  pp. 82-113.

 

Leslie W. Dunlap, American Historical Societies 1790-1860  (Madison, Wisconsin: Privately Printed, 1944).

 

H. G. Jones, For History’s Sake: The Preservation and Publication of North Carolina History 1663-1903 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1966).

 

 George H. Callcott, History in the United States 1800-1860: Its Practice and Purpose (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1970)

 

Kevin M. Guthrie, The New-York Historical Society: Lessons from One Nonprofit’s Long Struggle for Survival (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1996).

 

Jed I. Bergman in collaboration with William G. Bowen and Thomas I. Nygren,  Managing Change in the Nonprofit Sector: Lessons from the Evolution of Five Independent Research Libraries (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1996).

 

H. G. Jones, ed., Historical Consciousness in the Early Republic: The Origins of State Historical Societies, Museums, and Collections, 1791-1861 (Chapel Hill: North Caroliniana Society, Inc. and North Carolina Collection, 1995)

 

David D. Van Tassel, Recording America’s Past: An Interpretation of the Development of Historical Societies in America 1607-1884 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960)

 

Louis Leonard Tucker, Clio’s Consort: Jeremy Belknap and the Founding of the Massachusetts Historical Society (Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1990).

 

Ole Kolsrud, "The Evolution of Basic Appraisal Principles -Some Comparative Observations," American Archivist 55 (Winter 1992): 26-39.

 

Walter Muir Whitehill, Independent Historical Societies: An Enquiry Into Their Research and Publication Functions and Their Financial Future (Boston: Boston Athenaeum, 1962).

 

Eilean Hooper-Greenhill, Museums and the Shaping of Knowledge  (New York: Routledge, 1992).

 

Susan M. Pearce, Museums, Objects, and Collections: A Cultural Study (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Press, 1993).

 

Gary Nash, First City: Philadelphia and the Forging of Historical Memory (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002).

 

Sally F. Griffith, Serving History in a Changing World: The Historical Society of Pennsylvania in the Twentieth Century (Philadelphia: Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 2001).

 

Session 4 (February 6, 2006) 

Archival Appraisal:  Challenges; Ideology; Possibilities

Lecture: “The Problem of Historical Knowledge and Documenting the Past”

 

Required Readings

 

Daniel Boorstin, "A Wrestler with the Angel," in Hidden History (New York, 1988), pp. 3-23. 

  

Kenneth E. Foote, "To Remember and Forget: Archives, Memory, and Culture," American Archivist 53 (Summer 1990): 378-92.

 

Hans Booms, "Society and the Formation of a Documentary Heritage," Archivaria 24 (Summer 1987): 69-107.

 

Elisabeth Kaplan, “We Are What We Collect, We Collect What We Are: Archives and the Construction of Identity,” American Archivist 63 (Spring/Summer 2000): 126-151.

 

F. Gerald Ham, "The Archival Edge," American Archivist 38 (January 1975): 5-13.

 

Richard J. Cox, "Archival Anchorites: Building Public Memory in the Era of the Culture Wars,”  Multicultural Review 7 (June 1998): 52-60.

 

Barbara Craig, Archival Appraisal: Theory and Practice (Munchen: K. G. Saur, 2004), chapters three and five.

 

Recommended Readings

 

Joyce Appleby, Lynn Hunt, Margaret Jacob, "Truth and Objectivity," in Telling the Truth About History (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1994), pp. 241-270.

 

Gary B. Nash, Charlotte Crabtree, and Ross E. Dunn, History on Trial: Culture Wars and the Teaching of the Past (New York: Alfred B. Knopf, 1997)

 

Peter N. Stearns, Meaning Over Memory: Recasting the Teaching of Culture and History (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1993). 

 

Lawrence W. Levine, The Opening of the American Mind: Canons, Culture, and History (Boston: Beacon Press, 1996).

 

Hans Booms, "Uberlieferungsbildung: Keeping Archives as a Social and Political Activity," Archivaria 33 (Winter 1991-92): 25-33.

 

Lawrence Dowler, "Deaccessioning Collections: A New Perspective on a Continuing Controversy," in Archival Choices: Managing the Historical Record in an Age of Abundance, ed. Nancy E. Peace (Lexington: D.C. Heath, 1984), pp. 117-32.

 

Carlo Ginsburg, "Checking the Evidence: The Judge and the Historian," Critical Inquiry 18 (Autumn 1991): 79-92.

 

F. Gerald Ham, "Archival Strategies for the Post-Custodial Era," American Archivist 44 (Summer 1981): 207-16.

 

F. Gerald Ham, "Archival Choices: Managing the Historical Record in an Age of Abundance," in Archival Choices: Managing the Historical Record in an Age of Abundance, ed. Nancy E. Peace (Lexington: D.C. Heath, 1984), pp. 133-147.

 

David Lowenthal, The Past Is A Foreign Country (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985).  Read selectively.

 

William Rathje and Cullen Murphy, Rubbish? The Archaelogy of Garbage (New York: Harper Collins, 1992).

 

Roy Rosenzweig and David Thelen, The Presence of the Past: Popular Uses of History in American Life (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998).

 

REMINDER: DESCRIPTION OF ARCHIVAL PROGRAM TO BE EVALUATED or TOPIC FOR RESEARCH PAPER IS DUE TO BE HANDED IN AT THIS CLASS (February 6, 2006).

 

Session 5 (February 13, 2006)

 

Archival Appraisal: Purposes; Questions about Archival Knowledge

Lecture: “What Do We Appraise For? Archivists Debate Among Themselves about the Goal of Appraisal

 

Required Readings

 

Luciana Duranti, "The Concept of Appraisal and Archival Theory," American Archivist 57 (Spring 1994): 328-344 and Frank Boles and Mark A. Greene, "Et Tu Schellenberg? Thoughts on the Dagger of American Appraisal Theory," American Archivist 59 (Summer 1996): 298-310.

 

Leonard Rapport, “No Grandfather Clause: Reappraising Accessioned Records,” American Archivist 44 (Spring 1981): 143-150 and Karen Benedict, “Invitation to a Bonfire: Reappraisal and Deaccessioning of Records as Collection Management Tools in an Archives – A Reply to Leonard Rapport,” American Archivist 47 (Winter 1984): 43-49.

 

Terry Cook, “’Another Brick in the Wall’: Terry Eastwood’s Masonry and Archival Walls, History and Archival Appraisal,” Archivaria 37 (Spring 1994): 96-103 and Terry Eastwood, "Nailing a Little Jelly to the Wall of Archival Studies," Archivaria 35 (Spring 1993): 232-252.

 

Boles, Selecting & Appraising Archives & Manuscripts, review chapter 2.

 

Recommended Readings

 

D. Laberge, "Information, Knowledge, and Rights: The Preservation of Archives as a Political and Social Issue," Archivaria 25 (Winter 1987-88): 44-49.

 

James M. O'Toole, "On the Idea of Permanence," American Archivist 52 (Winter 1989): 10-25.

 

James M. O'Toole, "The Symbolic Significance of Archives," American Archivist 56 (Spring 1993): 234-255.

 

Mark Greene, “The Power of Meaning: The Archival Mission in the Postmodern Age,” American Archivist  65 (Spring/Summer 2002): 42-55,

 

ARCHIVAL APPRAISAL METHODS AND PRACTICES

 

Session 6 (February 20, 2006)           

 

Archival Appraisal Methods and Practices: Item and Collection Approaches; Collection Policies and Institutional Archives

Lecture: “Constructing and Deconstructing Archival Appraisal Policies”

 

Required Readings

 

Intrinsic Value in Archival Material, NARS Staff Information Paper 21 (Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Service, 1982).  You can read this at http://www.archives.gov/research/alic/reference/archives-resources/archival-material-intrinsic-value.html

 

Terry Cook, "Many are called but few are chosen: Appraisal Guidelines for Sampling and Selecting Case Files," Archivaria 32 (Summer 1991): 25-50.  You also can read Terry Cook, The Archival Appraisal of Records Containing Personal Information: A RAMP Study with Guidelines, PGI-91/WS/3 (Paris: UNESCO, April 1991), available at http://www.unesco.org/webworld/ramp/html/r9103e/r9103e00.htm#Contents.

 

David Klaassen, "The Provenance of Social Work Case Records: Implications for Archival Appraisal and Access," Provenance 1 (Spring 1983): 5-26.

 

 Frank Boles and Julia Marks Young, "Exploring the Black Box: The Appraisal of University Administrative Records," American Archivist 48 (Spring 1985): 121-40.

 

Judith E. Endelman, "Looking Backward to Plan for the Future: Collection Analysis for Manuscript Repositories," American Archivist 50 (Summer 1987): 340-55.  See also Christine Weideman, "A New Map for Field Work: Impact of Collections Analysis on the Bentley Historical Library," American Archivist 54 (Winter 1991): 54-60.

 

Faye Phillips, "Developing Collecting Policies for Manuscript Collections," American Archivist 47 (Winter 1984): 30-42.

 

Timothy L. Ericson, "At the 'rim of creative dissatisfaction': Archivists and Acquisition Development," Archivaria 33 (Winter 1991-92): 66-77.

 

JoAnne Yates, "Internal Communication Systems in American Business Structures: A Framework to Aid Appraisal," American Archivist 48 (Spring 1985): 141-58.

 

Boles, Selecting & Appraising Archives & Manuscripts, chapter three.

 

Craig, Archival Appraisal, chapters five and six.

 

Recommended Readings

 

Frank Boles, "Sampling in Archives," American Archivist 44 (Spring 1981): 125-30.

 

Frank Boles, Archival Appraisal (New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc., 1991).

 

Margery N. Sly, "Sampling in an Archival Framework: Mathoms and Manuscripts," Provenance 5 (Spring 1987): 55-75.

 

Evelyn Kolish, "Sampling Methodology and its Application: An Illustration of the Tension Between Theory and Practice," Archivaria 38 (Fall 1994): 61-73.

 

Lauren R. Brown, "Present at the Tenth Hour: Appraising and Accessioning the Papers of Congresswoman Marjorie S. Holt," Rare Books & Manuscripts Librarianship (1988): 95-102.

 

Patricia Aronsson, "Appraisal of Twentieth-Century Congressional Collections," in Archival Choices: Managing the Historical Record in an Age of Abundance, ed. Nancy E. Peace (Lexington: D.C. Heath, 1984), pp. 81-104.

 

Richard W. Hite and Daniel J. Linke, "A Statistical Summary of Appraisal During Processing: A Case Study with Manuscript Collections," Archival Issues 17, no. 1 (1992): 23-29.

 

Francis X. Blouin, "A New Perspective on the Appraisal of Business Records: A Review," American Archivist 42 (Fall 1979): 312-20.

 

Michael Lutzker, "Max Weber and the Analysis of Modern Bureaucratic Organizations: Notes Toward a Theory of Appraisal," American Archivist 45 (Spring 1982): 119-30.

 

Sheila Powell, "Archival Reappraisal: The Immigration Case Files," Archivaria 33 (Winter 1991-92): 104-116.

 

Session 7 (February 27, 2006)           

 

Archival Appraisal Methods and Practices: Cooperative and Multi-institutional; Macro-Appraisal

Lecture: “The Forest and the Trees: The Nature of Records and the Need for a Bigger Perspective”

 

Required Readings

 

Richard J. Cox, "The Documentation Strategy and Archival Appraisal Principles: A Different Perspective," Archivaria 38 (Fall 1994): 11-36.

 

Helen W. Samuels, "Who Controls the Past," American Archivist 49 (Spring 1986): 109-24.

 

Larry J. Hackman and Joan Warnow-Blewett, "The Documentation Strategy Process: A Model and A Case Study," American Archivist 50 (Winter 1987): 12-47.

 

Terry Cook, “Appraisal Methodology: Macro-Appraisal and Functional Analysis; Part A: Concepts and Theory,” National Archives of Canada, October 2001, available at http://www.archives.ca/06/061101_e.html

 

Terry Cook, “Appraisal Methodology: Macro-Appraisal and Functional Analysis; Part B: Guidelines for Performing an Archival Appraisal on Government Records,” National Archives of Canada, October 2001, available at http://www.archives.ca/06/061102_e.html

 

Adrian Cunningham, “From Here to Eternity: Collecting Archives and the Need for a National Documentation Strategy,” LASIE 29 (March 1998): 32-45.  Students can get a full text pdf file of this essay by going to http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/lasie/welcome.htm and following the links to the March 1998 issue.

 

Catherine Bailey, “From the Top Down: The Practice of Macro-Appraisal,” Archivaria 43 (Spring 1997): 89-128.

 

Richard Brown, “Macro-Appraisal Theory and the Context of the Public Records Creator,” Archivaria 40 (Fall 1995): 121-172.

 

Boles, Selecting & Appraising Archives & Manuscripts, chapters four and five

 

Recommended Readings

 

Andrea Hinding, "Toward Documentation: New Collecting Strategies in the 1980s," in Options for the 80s: Proceedings of the Second National Conference of the Association of College and Research Libraries, eds. Michael D Kathman and Virgil F. Massman (Greenwich, Connecticut: JAI Press, 1981), pp. 531-38.

 

Philip Alexander and Helen W. Samuels, "The Roots of 128: A Hypothetical Documentation Strategy," American Archivist 50 (Fall 1987): 518-31.

 

Terry Cook, "Documentation Strategy," Archivaria 34 (Summer 1992): 181-91.

 

James E. Fogerty, "Manuscript Collecting in Archival Networks," Midwestern Archivist 6, no. 2 (1982): 130-41.

 

Max J. Evans, "The Visible Hand: Creating a Practical Mechanism for Cooperative Appraisal," Midwestern Archivist 11, no. 1 (1986): 7-13.

 

David J. Klaassen, "The Archival Intersection: Cooperation Between Collecting Repositories and Nonprofit Organizations," Midwestern Archivist 15, no. 1 (1990): 25-38.

 

Thomas J. Ruller, "Dissimilar Appraisal Documentations as an Impediment to Sharing Appraisal Data: A Survey of Appraisal Documentation in Government Archival Repositories," Archival Issues 17, no. 1 (1992): 65-73.

 

Helen W. Samuels, "Improving Our Disposition: Documentation Strategy," Archivaria 33 (Winter 1991-92): 125-40.

 

Richard Brown, “Records Acquisition Strategy and Its Theoretical Foundation: The Case for a Concept of Archival Hermeneutics,” Archivaria 33 (Winter 1991-92):34-56.

 

Jim Suderman, "Appraising Records of the Expenditure Management Function: An Exercise in Functional Analysis," Archivaria 43 (Spring 1997): 129-142.

 

SPRING RECESS.  No Classes March 6-10, 2006

 

Session 8 (March 13, 2006)

 

Archival Appraisal Methods and Practices: The Documentation Strategy

Lecture: “Putting Theory into Practice: The Practical Uses and Controversies of the Documentation Strategy Model”

 

Required Readings

 

Richard J. Cox, "The Archival Documentation Strategy: A Brief Intellectual History, 1984-1994 and Practical Description,"  Janus no. 2 (1995): 76-93 is incorporated into chapter five of Cox, Closing an Era: Historical Perspectives on Modern Archives and Records Management (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2000); read the latter version. 

 

Terry Abraham, "Collection Policy or Documentation Strategy: Theory and Practice," American Archivist 54 (Winter 1991): 44-52.

 

Terry Abraham, "Documentation Strategies: A Decade (or More) Later," paper presented at the Society of American Archivists, Washington, DC, August 31, 1995, available at http://www.uidaho.edu/special-collections/papers/docstr10.htm.

 

Frank Boles, "Mix Two Parts Interest to One Part Information and Appraise Until Done: Understanding Contemporary Record Selection Processes," American Archivist 50 (Summer 1987): 356-68.

 

Richard J. Cox, "A Documentation Strategy Case Study: Western New York," American Archivist 52 (Spring 1989): 192-200.

 

Timothy L. Ericson, A. “’To Approximate June Pasture’: The Documentation Strategy in the Real World,” Archival Issues 22, no. 1 (1997): 5-20.

 

Jennifer A. Marshall, "Documentation Strategies in the Twenty-First Century?: Rethinking Institutional Priorities and Professional Limitations," Archival Issues 23, no. 1 (1998): 59-74.

 

Review relevant discussion of the documentation strategy concept in the Boles and Craig books.

 

Session 9 (March 20, 2006)

 

Archival Appraisal Methods and Practices: Collecting and Appraising

Lecture: “Is Collecting Appraisal?  Is Appraisal Collecting?” 

 

Required Readings

 

Carolyn Heald, “Are We Collecting the ‘Right Stuff’?” Archivaria 40 (Fall 1995): 182-188.

 

Lester J. Cappon, “Walter R. Benjamin and the Autograph Trade at the Turn of the Century,” Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society 78 (January-December 1966): 20-37 or see pp. 63-75 in Richard J. Cox, ed., Lester J. Cappon and the Relationship of History, Archives, and Scholarship in the Golden Age of Archival Theory (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2004).

 

Thomas Wilsted, “Observations on the Ethics of Collecting Archives and Manuscripts,” Provenance 11 (1993): 25-38.

 

Lester J. Cappon, "The Archivist as Collector," American Archivist 39 (October 1976): 429-435 or see pp. 76-83 in Richard J. Cox, ed., Lester J. Cappon and the Relationship of History, Archives, and Scholarship in the Golden Age of Archival Theory (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2004).

 

Mark Greene, “'The Surest Proof': A Utilitarian Approach to Appraisal,” Archivaria 45 (Spring 1998): 127-169.

 

Molly McCarthy, “Consuming History?” Common-Place 1 (January 2001), available at http://www.common-place.org/vol-01/no-02/ebay/.

 

Adrian Cunningham, “Collecting Archives in the Next Millennium,” paper presented to the Australian Society of Archivists annual conference, Adelaide, July 1997, available at http://www.nla.gov.au/nla/staffpaper/acunning7.html.

 

Bill Brown, “The Collecting Mania,” University of Chicago Magazine 94 (October 2001), available at http://magazine.uchicago.edu/0110/features/mania.html.

 

Recommended Readings

 

Nicholas A. Basbanes, A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books (New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1995).

 

Russell W. Belk, Collecting in a Consumer Society (New York: Routledge, 1995).

 

Edmund Berkeley, Jr., editor, Herbert E. Klingelhofer and Kenneth W. Rendell, co-editors ; sponsored by the Manuscript Society, Autographs and Manuscripts: A Collector's Manual (New York: Scribner, 1978).

 

Mary A. Benjamin, Autographs : A Key to Collecting (New York : Walter R. Benjamin Autographs, 1966).

 

Charles Hamilton, Collecting Autographs and Manuscripts , rev. ed. (Santa Monica, Calif.:  Modoc, 1993).

 

Kenneth W. Rendell, History Comes to Life: Collecting Historical Letters and Documents (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1995).

 

Pat Bozeman, Forged Documents: Proceedings of the 1989 Houston Conference; Organized by the University of Houston Libraries (New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Books, 1990).

 

Anthony Grafton, Forgers and Critics: Creativity and Duplicity in Western Scholarship (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990).

 

Charles Hamilton, Great Forgers and Famous Fakes: The Manuscript Forgers of America and How They Duped the Experts (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1980).

 

Robert Harris, Selling Hitler (New York: Penguin Books, 1986).

 

Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith, The Mormon Murders: A True Story of Greed, Forgery, Deceit, and Death (New York: New American Library, 1988).

 

Leah Dilworth, ed., Acts of Possession: Collecting in America (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2003)

 

Philipp Blom, To Have and to Hold: An Intimate History of Collectors and Collecting (New York: Penguin Books, 2002)

 

Werner Muensterberger, Collecting: An Unruly Passion; Psychological Perspectives (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994).

 

APPRAISAL CASE STUDIES

 

Session 10 (March 27, 2006) 

 

Archival Appraisal Case Studies: Science and Technology; Government

Lecture: “Shaking the Foundations: Challenging Traditional Appraisal in Big Government and Science”

 

Required Readings

 

Clark A. Elliott, ed., Understanding Progress as Process: Documentation of the History of Post-War Science and Technology in the United States; Final Report of the Joint Committee on Archives of Science and Technology (Chicago: Distributed by the Society of American Archivists, 1983).

 

Joan K. Haas, Helen W. Samuels, and Barbara T. Simmons, Appraising the Records of Modern Science and Technology: A Guide (Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1985).

 

Edward F. Barrese, "Adequacy of Documentation in the Federal Government," Information Management Review 5 (Spring 1990): 53-58.

 

David Levine, "The Appraisal Policy of the Ohio State Archives," American Archivist 47 (Summer 1984): 291-93.

 

Susan D. Steinwall, "Appraisal and the FBI Files Case: For Whom Do Archivists Retain Records?" American Archivist 49 (Winter 1986): 52-63.

 

Elizabeth Lockwood, "'Imponderable Matters:' The Influence of New Trends in History on Appraisal at the National Archives," American Archivist 53 (Summer 1990): 394-405.

 

Marie B. Allen, "Intergovernmental Records in the United States: Experiments in Description and Appraisal," Information Development 8 (April 1992): 99-103.

 

Christopher P. Bickford, “Public Records and the Private Historical Society: A Connecticut Example,” Government Publications Review 8A (1981): 311-320.

 

Bryan Corbett and Eldon Frost, "The Acquisition of Federal Government Records: A Report on Records Management and Archival Practice," Archivaria 17 (Winter 1983-84): 201-232.

 

Recommended Readings

 

Bruce H Bruemmer and Sheldon Hochheiser, The High-Technology Company: A Historical Research and Archival Guide (Minneapolis: Charles Babbage Institute, Center for the History of Information Processing, University of Minnesota, 1989).

 

Bruce V. Lewenstein, "Preserving Data About the Knowledge Creation Process: Developing an Archive on the Cold Fusion Controversy," Knowledge: Creation, Diffusion, Utilization 13 (September 1991): 79-86.

 

Richard J. Cox, "Government Publications as Archives: A Case for Cooperation Between Archivists and Librarians," Journal of Library Administration 7 (Summer/Fall 1986): 111-28.

 

Karen Paul, The Documentation of Congress (Washington, D.C.: United States Senate Historical Office, 1993).

 

Victoria Irons Walch, "Government Records Programs: An Overview," in Committee on the Records of Government: Report (Washington, D.C., March 1985), pp. 69-95. 

 

Joan D. Krizack, ed., Documentation Planning for the U.S. Health Care System (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994).  Read selectively.

 

Session 11 (April 3, 2006)

 

Archival Appraisal Case Studies: Local Community, Colleges and Universities, Architectural Records

Lecture: “Sex, Parking Lots, and Knowledge: Has Academic Archives Appraisal Been Successful?”

 

Required Readings

 

Richard J. Cox, Documenting Localities: A Practical Model for American Archivists and Manuscripts Curators (Metuchen: Scarecrow Press, 1996).

 

Helen W. Samuels, Varsity Letters: Documenting Modern Colleges and Universities (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1992).

 

Helen W. Samuels, “Drinking from the Fire Hose: Documenting Education at MIT,” Archives and Manuscripts 25 (May 1997): 36-49.

 

Alan K. Lathrop, "Appraisal of Architectural Records in Practice: The Northwest Architectural Archives," American Archivist 59, no. 2 (Spring 1996): 222-227.

 

Tawny Ryan Nelb, "Architectural Records Appraisal: Discussion of Problems and Strategies for the Documenting Michigan Architecture Project," American Archivist 59, no. 2 (Spring 1996): 228-239.

 

Nancy Carlson Shrock, "Images of New England: Documenting the Built Environment," American Archivist 50 (Fall 1987): 474-98.

 

Recommended Readings

 

James Howard Kunstler, The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape (New York: Touchstone, 1993).

 

David E. Kyvig and Myron A. Marty, Nearby History: Exploring the Past Around You (Nashville: American Association for State and Local History, 1982).

 

John D. Dorst, The Written Suburb: An American Site, An Ethnographic Dilemma (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989).

 

Kevin Lynch, What Time Is This Place?  (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1972). 

 

William Maher, The Management of College and University Archives (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1992).

 

Neil Harris, Building Lives: Constructing Rites and Passages (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999).

 

Session 12 (April 10, 2006)       

 

Archival Appraisal Case Studies: Electronic Records, Special Media, and Corporate Records

Lecture: “Are We Really Appraising Electronic Records, and Does Anybody Care?”

 

Required Readings

 

David Bearman, "The Implications of Armstrong v. Executive Office of the President for the Archival Management of Electronic Records," American Archivist 56 (Fall 1993): 674-689.

 

Philip G. Schrag, "Working Papers as Federal Records: The Need for New Legislation to Preserve the History of National Policy," Administrative Law Review 46 (Spring 1994): 95-140.

 

James M. O’Toole, ed., The Records of American Business (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 1997).  Particular chapters will be assigned.

 

Adrian Cunningham, ”Beyond the Pale? The 'Flinty' Relationship between Archivists Who Collect the Private Records of Individuals and the Rest of the Archival Profession,” Archives and Manuscripts 24 (May 1996): 20-26.

 

Richard J. Cox, "The Record in the Manuscript Collection," Archives and Manuscripts 24 (May 1996): 46-61.

 

Dan Zelenyj, “Archivy Ad Portas: The Archives-Records Management Paradigm Re-visited in the Electronic Information Age,” Archivaria 47 (Spring 1999): 66-84.

 

Roy Rosenzweig, “Scarcity or Abundance? Preserving the Past in a Digital Era,” American Historical Review 108, no. 3 (2003): 735-762.

 

Harold E. Thiele, Jr., “Appraisal, Provenance, and the Computer Revolution: An Examination of Organizational Records in the Electronic Age ,” Katharine Sharp Review No. 6 (Winter 1998), available at  http://www.lis.uiuc.edu/review/6/thiele.html

 

Recommended Readings

 

Margaret Hedstrom, Archives & Manuscripts: Machine-Readable Records (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 1984).

 

Margaret Hedstrom and Alan Kowlowitz, "Meeting the Challenges of Machine-Readable Records: A State Archives Perspective," Reference Services Review 16, nos. 1-2 (1988): 31-40.

 

John Mallinson, "Preserving Machine-Readable Records for the Millenia," Archivaria 22 (Summer 1986): 147-55.

 

Charles Dollar, "Appraising Machine-Readable Records," American Archivist 41 (October 1978): 423-30.

 

Ross J. Cameron, "Appraisal Strategies for Machine-Readable Case Files," Provenance 1 (Spring 1983): 49-55.

 

Alan Kowlowitz, Archival Appraisal of Online Information Systems, Part 2 of Archives and Museum Informatics 2 (Fall 1988). 

 

Harold Naugler, The Archival Appraisal of Machine-Readable Records: A RAMP Study With Guidelines (Paris: UNESCO, 1984). 

 

Michael E. Holland, "Adding Electronic Records to the Archival Menagerie: Appraisal Concerns and Cautions," Provenance 8 (Spring 1990): 27-44.

 

Cilla Ballard and Rodney Teakle, "Seizing the Light: The Appraisal of Photographs," Archives and Manuscripts 19 (May 1991): 43-49.

 

Rosemary Bergeron, "The Selection of Television Productions for Archival Preservation," Archivaria 23 (Winter 1986-87): 41-53.

 

Sam Kula, The Archival Appraisal of Moving Images: A RAMP Study with Guidelines (Paris: UNESCO, 1983). 

 

W. H. Leary, The Archival Appraisal of Photographs: A RAMP Study with Guidelines (Paris: UNESCO, 1985). 

 

APPRAISAL ASSESSMENTS and RESEARCH PAPERS DUE

 

Session 13 (April 17, 2006)

 

Archival Appraisal Case Studies:  Archival Appraisal and Controversies

Lecture: “Who Owns Culture?  Archival Appraisal and Everybody Else’s Business”

 

Required Readings

 

Michael F. Brown, Who Owns Native Culture?  (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2003).

 

Recommended Readings

 

Karen M. Lamoree, “Documenting the Difficult or Collecting the Controversial,” Archival Issues 20, no. 2 (1995): 149-154.

 

Frank Boles, “’Just a bunch of Bigots’: A Case Study in the Acquisition of Controversial Material,” Archival Issues 19, no. 1 (1994): 53-65

 

Pam Hackbart-Dean, “A Hint of Scandal: Problems in Acquiring the Papers of Senator Herman E. Talmadge – A Case Study,” Provenance 13 (1995): 65-80.

 

Kaplan, Diane E. "The Stanley Milgram Papers: A Case Study on Appraisal of and Access to Confidential Data Files," American Archivist 59, no. 3 (Summer 1996): 288-297.

 

Session 14 (April 24, 2006)

Course Conclusion and Discussion of Student Papers

 

Course Policies

 

Academic Integrity:

 

Students in this course will be expected to comply with the University of Pittsburgh's Policy on Academic Integrity. Any student suspected of violating this obligation for any reason during the semester will be required to participate in the procedural process, initiated at the instructor level, as outlined in the University Guidelines on Academic Integrity. This may include, but is not limited to, the confiscation of the examination of any individual suspected of violating University Policy. Furthermore, no student may bring any unauthorized materials to an examination, including dictionaries and programmable calculators.

 

Disabilities:

 

If you have a disability that requires special testing accommodations or other classroom modifications, you need to notify both the instructor and the Disability Resources and Services no later than the 2nd week of the term. You may be asked to provide documentation of your disability to determine the appropriateness of accommodations. To notify Disability Resources and Services, call 648-7890 (Voice or TDD) to schedule an appointment. The Office is located in 216 William Pitt Union.