Guiding principles for archival appraisal
- Archival appraisal shall take place before acquisition, and may also take place after acquisition.
- The focus of archival appraisal is the context of the creation and use of the records, not the medium, genre, or form of the material.
- The monetary value of an appraisal unit shall not be considered in an archival appraisal. Archival appraisal always takes place before monetary appraisal.
- Appraisal and selection decisions shall be documented.
- Portions of the appraisal unit that have physically entered the University Archives and are not selected for the Archives Permanent Collection shall be returned to the primary office or donor.
- In such cases where such material is not desired by the primary office, it shall be destroyed.
- In cases where such material is not desired by the donor, it shall be transferred to another archival institution or destroyed.
- Records that require long-term or permanent retention because of their continuing legal value or fiscal value do not necessarily have archival value and do not necessarily enter the Archives Permanent Collection.
- Archival sampling may be performed on records in all media and more than one sampling technique may be applied to the same unit of records, provided the systematic sample is taken first.
- At the discretion of the University Archivist, reappraisal and evaluation of the Archives Permanent Collection may be conducted to eliminate materials that have proven unwanted and to improve the overall quality of the collection.