The aim of this presentation is to take up the subject of selection and the criteria for selection for sound archives, a subject which has already been addressed at recent annual meetings of IASA in Budapest and Brussels, and which goes back as far as 1974 with presentations at the Jerusalem conference on “Principles of Selection” by Rolf Schuursma and “The Selection of Sound Recordings for Permanent Retention in the BBC Sound Archives” by Timothy Eckersley.
The purpose of this paper is to present a few of the considerations - none of them ostensibly new - that commonly weigh upon appraisers in judging the archival value of documents, specifically audio documents; to arrange these considerations in an order that may suggest a methodical procedure; to point especially to the need for a boldly conceived and clearly defined policy of selection at the institutional level; and to provoke further discussion in the hope that it will either refine and improve on the selection criteria being outlined or develop other criteria which gradually become more suitable to the purpose.
The basic working document being used as the framework for this paper is the selection policy developed by the US National Archives called the General Records Schedule 21. (See Appendix A, p.58) This document provides the selection criteria applied to US government produced or acquired audiovisuals. This policy document was the work of several committees over the years and applies to all AV materials considered for permanent retention in the US National Archives. It includes, for the basis of this discussion, a section on sound recordings and related textual documentation.
At the outset several general statements concerning archival appraisal and selection should be examined in order to establish a common structure for discussion. Appraisal of material for archival value is perhaps the most challenging of the tasks facing the contemporary archivist. The decision to destroy material is irrevocable; the temptation to save all documentation is untenable. We must choose. We must make judgements. We must make selections. This holds true for audio documents as well as paper archives. Either we judge what sound recordings are going to be worth to the future, or any selection is meaningless. Nothing has value of itself. Value in an object is wholly dependent upon the existence of persons attaching value to it.
As Helen Harrison has already indicated in the introduction; but it bears repeating:
“If we do not select with reasonable care then what is the point in spending resources of time and money documenting, storing and preserving material which is not of archival value.”
The task of selecting archivally valuable material, specifically sound recordings, is a difficult one. It is one of identifying, among the voluminous mass of material being created on a national and regional level, the specific types and series of recorded sound materials that are worthy of preservation. It is the function of
“reducing to the irreducible minimum the records (sound recordings) that are needed for research uses.” (Theodore R Schellenberg, “The Selective Retention of Federal Records of Continuing Value”, October 1963, unpublished, National Archives Library).
Thus we must accept the assumption that certain sound recordings or types, classes, or series of sound recordings can be judged to have enduring archival value and that the principle of using selection techniques to choose such material is a basic and necessary function of any recorded sound archives, whether on a national level or a specialized field such as a broadcast or a music archive. (American Archivist, vol. 20 No. 4 October 1957, “Archival Sampling”, by Paul Lewinson.) Without a selection policy there would simply be collections of material but no archives. It is through selective appraisal that many documents are disposed of and a few, of enduring permanent value, are retained. Those retained constitute the archives.
A number of factors enter into the judgement that documents have permanent value and appraisal tests may be applied in various ways. This was the reason for choosing the title of this paper because it suggests a knowledge on the part of the archivist or curator which comes from experience, much like that of a skilled craftsman. Appraisal cannot be done in a vacuum and definitely does not depend on the archivist’s background, education, and general work experience. Yet, on the other hand, there can be an element of science in appraisal and some guidelines which are generally safe to follow and provide touchstones or a yardstick by which to measure a decision. Certain audio documents whether individually, in series, or groups should undoubtedly be preserved; others can generally be discarded without great concern; and then there is a large area which is in limbo. It is in this grey area that general guidelines are especially helpful to the archivist of recorded sound. This is where one combines the “art” of appraisal with guidelines or the “science” of appraisal, and where one can begin to feel that an effective selection of material has begun.
The selection criteria that is used and the tests that are applied vary greatly among different sound archives depending on their acquisition policy and the objectives for which the material is to be used. But there are general selection criteria and guidelines common to the majority of sound archives and institutions with recorded sound collections that could be the basis for a common international working document. IASA should continue this dialogue and continue to take the lead in developing a statement of selection principles for sound archives.
Before outlining some common criteria for selection, we should take a brief look at the selection policy developed by the National Archives for its AV material. For it is here that the experience of this author resides and we may see some criteria applicable on a general level. Note that the US National Archives is responsible by law for preserving materials that document the functions and activities of the Federal Government and its history, and that while we select for review all of the output of the government agencies, the archives ultimately retains only about 1% of the paper records and perhaps 20%-30% of the AV materials. As with any public archives the vast majority of materials created and accumulated by a federal government such as that in the US have only temporary administrative, legal, or fiscal values and are eventually destroyed when no longer needed by their creating agencies. A small portion, however, are never destroyed. These documents are appraised and selected by archivists as having enduring historical value and are eventually physically transferred to the legal custody of the US National Archives and preserved. It is in this selection process that the general selection policy in Appendix A is the most useful to the government agencies and to the archivists within the National Archives who do the appraisal.
GRS 21 specifies which types of AV records, including sound recordings, are to be offered for evaluation and selection and specifies certain categories of AV materials, which agencies can automatically dispose of without the prior approval of the National Archives. From the categories relating to sound recordings it can be seen that the National Archives collection is one of unique unpublished sound recordings as opposed to commercially produced and released multiple copy recordings. It is a collection on a national, federal wide basis, of speeches, interviews, actualities, news, public affairs, radio documentaries and spots, oral history, military recordings and information type programs. The schedule also specifies, based on other regulations, that when AV records are offered and transferred certain physical components or elements are required to be deposited for proper preservation. For sound recordings this means in effect that government agencies or donors of government related material must submit the original or earliest generation copy of each sound recording and one copy if possible for reference purposes.
Thus, using these general selection criteria as a base, and also in the actual appraisal process in the National Archives, we have often refined these criteria to apply to specific collections of recorded material, especially large collections of donated material that were not created by the federal government but which have documentation that relates closely to government activities and interests. For example, refer to Appendix B Guidelines for Evaluation of the ABC Radio Collection (P. 63) - a collection of some 27,000 discs and broadcast tape recordings made by the ABC radio network dating from 1943 to 1971. A selection was made of these recordings based on the selection criteria as outlined and developed from GRS 21 experience. As the summary reference report shows, this collection was briefly surveyed prior to its acceptance and it was felt the entire collection should be taken for several reasons:
A situation that will undoubtedly be familiar to most readers.
After acceptance and based upon a written agreement between National Archives and ABC Radio a final selection reduced the collection from 27,000 to about 20,000 items. The recordings that were weeded out to accord with the guidelines are in the process of being offered to another institution once approval is received from the broadcasting company as the donor.
This is the working process that occurs at the National Archives when appraising and selecting sound recordings for archival retention. From this we can move on to a general policy reflecting the mission of the institution; the evaluation and application of selective criteria, often tailored to the particular collection or group of sound recordings being appraised for permanent retention. In summary, therefore, appraisal moves from the general, to specific, to specialized criteria for collections. From this brief discussion of the importance of appraisal and the inevitability of selection, and after seeing how selection criteria is applied in the US National Archives, it is possible to suggest some general principles and guidelines of selection that can be considered common to all sound archives. For example:
From these three general principles we can suggest some common guidelines or signposts for evaluation and selection of sound recordings.
Uniqueness - That is the degree of rarity of the recordings. This requires some investigation and assumes knowledge of recording history and genres by the appraiser. Uniqueness involves determination of the extent to which the information in a recording is physically or substantially duplicated elsewhere.
Age - The age or date span of the sound recordings, or group of recordings will often be a natural guideline as to the value and importance. It should be recorded that age is a relative term depending upon the type of sound recording being evaluated. For example, instantaneous disc recordings of the late 1920s and early 1930s of radio broadcasts are rare and have historical value because there are so few, and would be appraised and selected quite differently from say commercial 78s from the same time period. The same test can be applied to selecting the recording output of certain record labels governed by the period of their existence, which may be quite recent. Survival rates must also be taken into account since man-made and natural disasters have created scarcities in sound recordings for particular time periods. Thus it is common sense that the appraiser working with voluminous sound recordings of recent origin will develop appraisal criteria different from those of an archivist engaged in seeking out and preserving early cylinder recordings.
Volume - This can be a crucial factor in appraisal selection. Faced with the massive quantities of recorded sound material which can be received in a national sound archives, the sound archivist must evaluate at the collection level, or at best the series level. There will simply not be enough time to arrive at a value judgement of each recording being offered. For these reasons it important to develop a specific set of evaluation criteria taking into account the administrative and historical development of the entire group or collection of recordings.
Form - The physical form of the sound recording can be a factor in establishing criteria for appraisal and selection. Here the appraiser must determine whether he is dealing with originals, or copies, or copies of copies in various recorded formats. It touches upon the questions of origin and source, recording generation, or even reissues. With originals the type of physical format will often be a factor in determining preservation costs and priorities. For example a collection acetate base audio tapes, mini-cassettes or field cylinders, will require different handling and preservation work on a higher priority than a collection of relatively stable vinyl disc pressings.
Accessibility - The research value of sound recordings depends on their accessibility. Perpetual, indefinite or long-term restrictions on access and use significantly reduce the value of a collection and could be a factor on determining whether or not it is accepted. In addition, accessibility could be hampered, impeded or obscured by disarrangement or peculiarities of arrangement in the recorded sound collection being appraised. This may require rearrangement back to the original order, if it can be determined; or in exceptional case a new arrangement in order to make the recordings useful to researchers. This makes it important for a proper appraisal to have paper documentation offered with the recorded sound items.
Relationship to other recorded sound holdings - The sound recordings being appraised should be evaluated against the total holdings already accessioned by the institution. Gaps in existing archival series or time periods, or record label runs are a major consideration in doing a thorough appraisal.
Preservation costs - The cost of staff, and the degree of technical expertise and equipment needed to preserve or restore audio documents must be considered as a selection criteria. Information of a permanent value recorded on impermanent non-archival media presents a serious and expensive problem for sound archives. Such costs must be a factor in determining whether it is worth keeping the sound recordings in their original form once an acceptable archival quality copy has been made and it has been determined that no intrinsic value remains in the recordings themselves.
Having elaborated some common principles and guidelines of selection, let us now look at some selection criteria or approaches to criteria for thought and discussion.
Given the scope and amount of commercially produced recordings accumulating yearly (current industry figures estimate that in 1982 2600 LPs and 2800 45s were released by American record companies alone), as well as the output of unpublished recordings from radio programmes and of oral history materials being produced worldwide. Wherever possible a selection scheme on a national level should be considered similar to one advocated in a symposium on selection held by FIAF in 1980; and perhaps this should be geared in stages, with one generation of archivists reviewing the selections of their predecessors in order to deselect materials judged unimportant after the passage of 50 or more years. To do this, greater co-operation is needed among established institutional sound archives in various countries that have recorded sound archives and perhaps even the development of specialized archives working in concert with the existing institutions in a co-ordinated network, to document various types of recorded music and speech. Some of those networks are already being nurtured, for example in the US, where the five leading institutions with the largest collections of sound recordings are working together under ARSC (The Association of Recorded sound Collections) to create an index to their holdings of 78 recordings. Such an index will be a prime tool, not only for researchers, but also for appraisers to use to locate sound recordings and in developing selection criteria, at each institution, applying the test of uniqueness, allocating preservation monies, and eliminating duplication.
It is useful at this point to consider the question of reappraisal and further selection and weeding of sound recordings already on deposit in our sound archives. It is often the case with the collection of all AV materials including those of recorded sound, that material is accessioned, acquired, or gathered over the years without ever having a proper evaluation. Historically, many archival collections have been formed as reference collections for one purpose or another and only later have they evolved into an archive with preservation materials and responsibilities. Thus it is a necessity that we must consider re-examining, reappraising, and re-evaluating sound recordings already accessioned and sitting undisturbed and deteriorating on our shelves. And let us face it, the longer they are there, the more they gain a cloak of respectability. They become old friends and we seldom think to question why they are there in the first place.
Reappraisal may be necessary because, perhaps, the original appraisal was faulty. Material was thought to be worthy of accessioning, when in fact, by the standards of the time of appraisal they were not. Or the appraiser judged the material correctly by the appraisal standards of the time, but standards have changed and by today’s standards they are not worth keeping. But most often, as we know, material is accessioned without any really careful appraisal. Demands on time, shortage of staff, pressure from the agency or donor, the particular and, perhaps, peculiar collecting focus or mania of certain archivists, officials and administrators or the lack of a well-defined acquisition policy all contribute to the fact that we have collections of sound recordings occupying space in our archives that need to be re-evaluated. Reappraising is most important, especially prior to spending preservation funds or going through the cataloguing procedure. It is possible to perform a full reappraisal or in some instances put forth a set of guidelines that can be used for dealing with previously accessioned materials. The National Archives has put together a draft document, a compilation of criteria distilled from the selection criteria in GRS 21 and on-job experience, and formatted into a physical format category and subject matter category. Refer to Appendix C .
The reappraisal suggestion is a healthy one for any recorded sound collection and should help to determine the priorities for preservation in different collections of sound recordings. It may be heretical to say so but all accessioned sound recordings in our collections are not of equal value; why then should they be given equal preservation treatment or even equal storage space. There are different preservation options available. Perhaps it is time to abandon the idea of retaining all sound recordings in the best possible quality, in the original speed and track format, in exchange for the ability to keep quantities of material readily available for access and reference use. It might mean in effect that we have to consider the trade-off between preservation according to high quality standard (i.e. expensive) of a small amount of rigidly selected material versus a system of conservation and retention for the records, sacrificing quality for the ability to retain a maximal portion of the recorded sound heritage of the twentieth century. After all, preservation techniques are really designed to extend public access are they not, to a public remote to our time if not geographically remote so that our successors have as much right to the products of our culture as we do.
A related item is also to consider the application of the concept of determining whether or not archival recordings have “intrinsic value”. What is meant by this term is simply that all materials appraised for retention in archives, including sound recordings, do not have to be accepted and continue to be preserved in the original format. Some archival materials have intrinsic value, others do not. This means that applying the test of intrinsic value (and for the characteristics and qualities needed the reader is referred to Appendix D “Intrinsic value in archival materials”), applying the test can enable the appraiser to determine and recommend that once an acceptable archival quality copy is made then there is no obligation to continue to preserve the original recordings. This concept is worth considering for sound recordings. It can be applied at the time of appraisal and selection and restoration techniques are used on material that is archivally valuable for its information content alone.
For example, let us suppose you are offered a collection of audiotape recordings from the 1950s recorded on deteriorating acetate based tape stock. The appraiser applies his selection criteria for archival value including the test as to whether the recordings to be kept from the collection have any intrinsic value. It the archive items do not have any of the qualities or characteristics such as unique physical form or features; no aesthetic or artistic quality; no value for exhibits; no authenticity problem; no direct association with famous people, events or things; and so on, then the appraiser can recommend the original acetate recording be transferred to a new archivally accepted medium (whatever that may be) of equal quality and the original recordings can be considered for disposal.
Every archivist in a recorded sound collection would find it easy to pick out those groups of recordings that have an obvious intrinsic value and should be kept in their original form. We all have our versions of Mapleson cylinders, or Nixon White House tapes, where authenticity requires the originals to be kept; or our examples of kinetoscope cylinders -special or unique collections, which must be kept.
The concept and test of intrinsic value can be of most help in determining the retention or rejection of large groups and series of sound recordings where only the information is of value. An example of this would be the ABC radio collection of 27,000 discs already discussed; applying the criteria of intrinsic value to any part of this collection one would conclude that there are no recording of intrinsic value in that collection where any of the actual recording would have to be kept in original format once copies of archival quality had been made. National collections all have this type of material, thousands and thousands of hours on instantaneous discs and tapes, long-playing reference formats and mini-format cassettes of meeting and sessions of government legislatures and law-making bodies (whether national or international such as the united nations), or thousands of hours of certain radio series on glass-acetate transcription discs. Once this type of material has been re-recorded and preserved in an acceptable format according to archival standards there is no value in keeping and preserving the original material, thus avoiding costly conservation, restoration and storage costs.
Finally another technique and selection tool, which could be utilized more often, is that of archival sampling. This is a valid technique in archival appraisal, which is often easy to apply to voluminous groups or collections of permanently valuable sound recordings. The classic definition of archival sampling is “Sampling of archives consists in the selection of some part of a body of homogeneous records (files) so that some aspect of an organization’s or government’s work or the information received or developed by that organization or government may be represented or illustrated thereby” (Lewinson, “Archival Sampling”). Sampling is appropriate and has been used by archivists for years on large series of paper material, case files, registration and application files, correspondence files and so on. The same sampling philosophy and technique can be more widely used as selection criteria for recorded sound materials. For example large series of transcripts of radio broadcasts or recoded monitoring of radio broadcasts, or large series of recordings put out by broadcasting organizations such as Voice of America or the BBC. The aim of this technique is to carry out an archival (not statistical) sample on a body of material when the total volume is very large compared with the importance of the content and the degree of research interest in the subject matter, or put another way, “If it is inconceivable that all can be kept, but undesirable that none should be”.
Sampling is something which is already being applied in the broadcasting area. The Public Television Archives of the Public Broadcasting System has a selection criteria which states:
“With regard to program series, the Archives will generally preserve the first and final episodes and such other episodes as are necessary to document changes in plot, setting, characterization, technique, etc. In the case of daily series, a full week of programmes will also be selected. Where series run for more than a season, each season will be considered as a separate entity in order to ensure a full record of the programs over their full span of time.”
It is also interesting to note that the Public Television Archives have ten-year appraisal and reappraisal reviews for long-term value and significance. If material fails the review after ten years it is de-accessioned.
The CBC, Museum of Broadcasting, and American Radio and Television Archives at the Library of Congress are all using and considering methods of selection of broadcast programming. The BBC Sound Archives typically selects and retains only 2% of its yearly output 1. What has been done for broadcasting can be applied in all sound archives.
1. [Note added in 2010] Digital storage now allows the BBC Sound Archives to retain 100% of output.
As sound archivists we should all become more fully aware of what is being created now in our particular countries and areas of collecting interest, and how it is being created. We are so often occupied with collecting what ought to have been selected and preserved in previous years that we ignore and fail to take into account material which is currently being generated. We need that are being created before they are offered for inclusion in our institutional archives. This will help make what is often now a most difficult task, a much simpler one for those archival appraisers who follow in our footsteps.
Leslie Waffen is an archivist in the Motion Picture, Sound and Video Branch of the National Archives and Records Service, Washington DC.
This paper was first given at the IASA conference in Washington DC, 1983.
GENERAL RECORDS SCHEDULE 21
Audiovisual Records
SCOPE
This schedule covers audiovisual and related records created by or for agencies of the federal government as well as those acquired in the course of business. Audiovisual records more than 30 years old must be offered to the National Archives and Records Service (NARS) before applying disposition instructions set forth in this schedule.
Audiovisual records include still and motion picture photography, graphic materials, and sound and video recordings. Related documentation includes:
(1) Production files or other files documenting the creation, justification, ownership, and rights to the records and (2) finding aids used to identify or access the records.
This schedule does not cover: (1) cartographic records; (2) remote sensing imagery recorded on film or magnetic tape; (3) microform copies of textual records; or (4) research and development data. Cartographic records and remote sensing imagery recorded on film are covered by GRS 17; digitised or computerized data are covered by GRS 20; microform copies of textual records may be covered by other general records schedules, depending on the informational content of the textual records; and research and development source data are covered by GRS 19.
RECORD ELEMENTS
For each type of audiovisual record, the specific record elements (originals, negatives, prints, dubbings, etc.) required by 41 CFR 101-11.411-4 for preservation, reproduction, and reference are listed. Since audiovisual records covered by this schedule include those produced under contract, by grant, and acquired from outside sources as well as those produced internally, maintenance and control of these record elements for records subject to the disposition “Submit SF 115” are essential, whether the record elements are stored in agency or contractor facilities.
DISPOSITION INSTRUCTIONS
The word “destroy” is used to authorize destruction of data or information. Erasable media such as magnetic tape should be reused whenever practical. Silver-bearing photographic film must be destroyed in accordance with 41 CFR 101-42.3, “Recovery of Precious Metals and Strategic and Critical Materials”.
The instruction “Submit SF 115” requires that the records be included in either an agency’s comprehensive records schedule or a specific request for disposition authority, unless they have been described on an agency records schedule approved by NARS after May 14, 1973. The introduction to the General Records Schedules provides additional information on scheduling records, which have no authorized disposition in this general records schedule. When describing these records in a comprehensive records schedule or a specific request for disposition authority, agencies may be guided by the categorical descriptions in this general records schedule, but these descriptions are not a substitute for specific agency prepared descriptions that are required to schedule the records.
This general records schedule authorizes the disposal of certain records without further concurrence from NARS. Agencies are encouraged to include specific series descriptions for such records in their comprehensive schedules while citing the governing disposition instruction from this general records schedule as the authority for destroying the records.
SOUND RECORDINGS
RECORD ELEMENTS
(a) Conventional mass-produced, multiple copy disc recordings: the master tape, matrix or stamper, and one disc pressing.
(b) Magnetic audio tape recordings (reel-to-reel, cassette or cartridge): the original or earliest generation of each recording, and a dubbing, if one exists.
| ITEM NO. | DESCRIPTION OF RECORDS | AUTHORIZED DISPOSITION |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Recordings of meetings made exclusively for note taking or transcription. | Destroy immediately after use. |
| 2 | Dictation belts or tapes | Destroy immediately after use. |
| 3 | Pre-mix sound elements created during the course of a motion picture, television or radio production | Destroy immediately after use |
| 4 | Library sound recordings(e.g. effects, music). | Destroy when no longer needed |
| 5 | Daily or spot news recordings available to local radio stations on a call-in basis | Destroy when six months old or when no longer needed |
| 6 | Duplicate dubbings in excess of those elements required for preservation, duplication and reference by 41 CFR 101-11.411-4 | Destroy when no longer needed |
| 7 | Agency-sponsored radio programs intended for public broadcast | Submit SF115 |
| 8 | Agency-sponsored radio news releases and information programs. | Submit SF115 |
| 9 | Agency-sponsored radio public service (or “spot”) announcements. | Submit SF115 |
| 10 | Internal management news or information programs. | Submit SF115 |
| 11 | Recordings of public meetings or speeches, agency-sponsored conferences, guest speakers, testimony of agency officials before congress and other hearings. | Submit SF115. |
| 12 | Oral history collections | Submit SF115. |
| 13 | Recordings or programs produced under grant that are submitted to the agency. | Submit SF115. (see also GRS 3, item 18) |
| 14 | Recordings or programs acquired from outside sources that document or are used to carry out agency programs | Submit SF115 |
| 15 | Media appearances by top agency officials | Submit SF115 |
| 16 | Documentary recordings made for fact-finding or other studies | Submit SF115 |
RELATED DOCUMENTATION
| ITEM NO | DESCRIPTION OF RECORDS | AUTHORIZED DISPOSITION |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Production files or similar files that document origin, development, acquisition, use and ownership.(May include scripts, contracts, transcripts, releases, etc.) | Dispose of according to instructions covering the related audiovisual records |
| 2 | Finding aids for identification, retrieval or use. (May include indexes, catalogues, shelf lists, log books, caption sheets, shot lists, continuities, etc. and may be in text, card, microform or machine readable format.) | Dispose of according to instructions covering the related audiovisual records |
General categories retained by NARS:
General categories designated for transfer to the Library of Congress:
The is a compilation of appraisal/disposal guidelines that have been developing over the past few years as based on the FPMR, GRS 21, and specific criteria from several appraisal projects. Cataloguers should become familiar with the general categories loosely divided into subject matter and physical format approach.
It must be stressed that these lists are only suggested guidelines for cataloguers and other staff members to pinpoint items already accessioned that may have slipped through and require reappraisal. This should lead to recommendations for disposal. Approval and review for disposal must be done by an archivist before any actual disposal is accomplished. Remember the goal is to re-evaluate this material before costly cataloguing and preservation work is performed.
Physical types of audiovisual records that may be destroyed:
General subject-matter categories for audiovisual records that may be disposable:
Examples:
• Sports including amateur and college sports, non-championship professional or matches, and regularly scheduled sports programs and commentaries.
• All regularly scheduled entertainment or music programs broadcast on network or local radio or television.
• All local, regional, or radio and television affiliate programming or coverage unless there are broader implications.
• Coverage of disasters, weather stories, beauty and fashion show and human interest type stories.
INTRINSIC VALUE IN ARCHIVAL MATERIALS
STAFF INFORMATION PAPER 21
NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORD SERVICE
GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION
WASHINGTON DC, 1982.
The term “intrinsic value” has long used by archivists to describe historical materials that should be retained in their original form rather than as copies. In 1979 the term gained particular importance for the National Archives and Records Service (NARS) as it began to consider possible large-scale replacement of paper records with miniaturized or other copies. To meet the challenge of distinguishing between records that need not be retained in their original form after an acceptable copy has been created and those that require preservation in the original, NARS established the committee on Intrinsic Value. The Committee’s work was three-fold:
The Committee completed a preliminary report in January 1980 and its final report in September of that year.
The committee intended that its work should be useful for decisions relating to all physical types of records and manuscripts and should be relevant under varying and unforeseen circumstances. The Committee sought, therefore, to first establish the theoretical basis for the concept and then to be as specific as possible in identifying the qualities and characteristics of historical materials having intrinsic value. The Committee recognised that application of the concept of intrinsic value would be subjective and must always be dependent on trained archival judgment and professional debate.
Intrinsic Value in Archival Materials
Intrinsic is the archival term that is applied to permanently valuable records that have qualities and characteristics that make the records in their original physical form the only archivally acceptable form for preservation. Although all records in their original physical form have qualities and characteristics that would not be preserved in copies, records with intrinsic value have them to such a significant degree that the originals must be saved.
The qualities or characteristics that determine intrinsic value may be physical or intellectual; that is, they may relate to the physical base of the record and the means by which information is recorded on it or they may relate to the information contained in the record. Records with intrinsic value may be retained for either their evidential or informational value.
The archivist is responsible for determining which records have intrinsic value. Ordinarily this determination is made at the series level. As in all other archival appraisal activities, context is the key to making these determinations and context is normally best preserved by considering the entire series. The archivist, however, also may determine that certain individual record items within a series have intrinsic value, especially those items to be retained because of special physical characteristics.
Qualities and Characteristics of Records with Intrinsic Value
All record materials having intrinsic value possess one or more of the following specific qualities or characteristics. These qualities or characteristics relate to the physical nature of the records, their prospective uses, and the information they contain.
Documents may be preserved in their original form as evidence of technological development. For example, a series of early press copies, glass-plate negatives, or wax-cylinder sound recordings may be retained. All records having a particular physical form would not be considered to have intrinsic value because of this characteristic; however, a selection broad enough to provide evidence of technological development would be considered to have some value.
Records having aesthetic or artistic quality may include photographs; pencil, ink, or watercolour sketches; maps; architectural drawings; frakturs; and engraved and/or printed forms, such as bounty-land warrants.
Physical features that are unique or curious might include quality and texture of paper, colour, wax seals, imprints and watermarks, inks, and unusual bindings. All records having a particular physical feature would not be considered to have intrinsic value because of this feature; however, an exemplary selection of each type would be considered to have such value.
Age is a relative rather than an absolute quality. Generally, records of earlier date are of more significance than records of later date. This can be because of a historical change in the functions and activities of the creator of the records, the scarcity of earlier records, a change in record keeping practices, or a combination of these. Age can be a factor even with comparatively recent records. The earliest records concerning, for example, the development of the radio industry or of nuclear power could have intrinsic value because of age.
Records used frequently for exhibits normally have several qualities and characteristics that give them intrinsic value. Records with exhibit value impressively convey the immediacy of an event, depict a significant issue, or impart a sense of the person who is the subject or originator of the record. In these cases, the impact of the original document cannot be equalled by a copy.
Some records are of doubtful authenticity or have informational content that is open to question. Although it is impossible to foresee which documents will be questioned in the future, certain types of documents are well known to have the potential for controversy and, if the original records are extant, handwriting and signatures can be examined, paper age can be ascertained, and other physical tests can be performed. In some cases the controversy can be resolved by recourse to the original item (such as by an examination of the handwriting, the age of the paper, or the original negative of the photostatic print), while in other cases the item will not be conclusive but will provide the researcher with the best evidence from which to draw conclusions (original photographs of UFO’s, for example).
This criterion is not only the most difficult to apply, but also the most important in terms of the volume of records to which it could be applied. It could be used to justify preserving in original form almost all permanently valuable records because of their historical importance. On the other hand, if limited to records of unusual significance, it would be used to justify disposal of almost all original records. Archival judgment is the crucial factor in determining whether there is general and substantial public interest, whether the association is direct, and whether the subject is famous or historically significant. Generally, those series with a high concentration of such information should be preserved.
Agencies or institutions are founded and acquire or lose functions and responsibilities through the actions of executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the Government. Records documenting these actions may be found concentrated in series or scattered in various series. They have in common the characteristic of documenting the shifts in function of the agency or institution at the highest level.
Application of the Concept of Intrinsic Value
Records that possess any characteristic or quality of intrinsic value should be retained in their original form if possible. The concept of intrinsic value, therefore, is not relative. However, application of the concept of intrinsic value is relative; opinions concerning whether records have intrinsic value may vary from archivist to archivist and from one generation of archivists to another. Professional archival judgment, therefore, must be exercised in all decisions concerning intrinsic value. Co-ordination between units holding records within an archival institution also may be necessary. For example, members of units holding similar records whose form may be the subject for study (quality 1) should consult one another to ensure that an adequate but not duplicative selection of records in that form is preserved. Although the concept of intrinsic value may be easier to apply to older records, decisions concerning intrinsic value can be made for all records determined to have sufficient value to warrant archival retention.
Copies of records having intrinsic value may be made for necessary archival purposes, including use by researchers. In fact, the fragility, rarity, or significance of the records may require that researchers normally work from reproductions.
Records that have intrinsic value should be considered for conservation or restoration; however, the determination that records have intrinsic value is only the first step in a decision-making continuum for preservation activities. Priorities and order of preservation activities should be guided by additional factors such as significance and frequency of use, rate of deterioration, seriousness of potential future preservation problems, and efficacy and expense of available treatments.
Although records with intrinsic value constitute the core of the holdings that archival institutions should maintain in original form, institutions also must retain records for which archivally acceptable copies cannot be made. This report does not attempt to establish comprehensive standards for archivally acceptable copies. At a minimum, however, such copies should have durability and utility for research use and for duplication equivalent to the records in their original form. If adequate copies of such records cannot be made, originals lacking intrinsic value may not be considered for disposition. For example, because, at present, reproductions made from duplicates of audiovisual records normally are of lower quality than reproductions made from the originals, most audiovisual records should be retained in their original form. When copies with equivalent or superior quality can be produced from reproductions, the originals could be considered for disposal.
Some records without intrinsic value must be preserved in original physical form because such preservation is required by law.
Following are three examples of the use of the concept of intrinsic value in the decision-making process as applied to particular series of records in the National Archives. In these examples, archivists first reviewed the series in accordance with the intrinsic value criteria. Second, if the records lacked intrinsic value, archivists then determined whether any statute required retention of the records in their original form. Finally, if the responses to the first two inquiries were negative, archivists examined the archival adequacy of the copies of the records. While archivists may not prepare formal papers such as those that follow, similar questions should be asked and answered for any proposed disposition of original records.
RG 33, Records of the Federal Extension Service, Farm Labor Program. Prisoner-of-war-program, 1943-46. 1 ft.
Arranged alphabetically by state.
Correspondence regarding the needs, placements, and status of prisoners of war employed in agriculture. The records reflect the relationship between the use of prisoner-of-war labor and migratory labor from Mexico and the Caribbean.
A . Intrinsic value criteria
CONCLUSION: this series of records does not have intrinsic value.
B. Are these records covered by a statute requiring retention in original physical form? No.
C. Can adequate copies be created? Yes. The records do not vary in size, there are no problems of scale or colour coding, and the ease of reference is not impaired by use of a reproduction. There is no privacy problem that would bar reproduction at this time.
CONCLUSION: the custodial unit can duplicate and request disposition of these records.
RG 49, Records of the Bureau of Land Management, public Land Disposals. Abandoned Military reservations, 1818-1945, 60 ft.
Arranged chronologically by date of initial disposition or activity on the reservation land. Executive orders, correspondence, title papers, plans, maps, blueprints, tracings, and printed items that document the General Land Office’s role in the creation of military reservations from public lands and its responsibility for the disposal of reservations or portions of reservation abandoned by the War and Navy Departments. The records include information about goods and services available on the posts. Related records are found in other series of records of the General Land office and among the general records of the Department of the Interior, the office of the Chief of Engineers, the office of the Quartermaster General, the Adjutant General’s office, United States Army commands, and the office of the Judge Advocate General (Army).
A. Intrinsic value criteria
CONCLUSION: the records have intrinsic value.
RG 341, RECORDS OF Headquarters US Air Force, Air Technical Intelligence Centre, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. Aerial Phenomena Branch. Three related series of audiovisual records composed of photographs (7,280), sound recordings (23), and motion pictures (20) from “Project Blue Book”, 1950-67. 7,323 items.
Arranged by case number.
Audiovisual records in different formats created, acquired, or collected by the US Air Force during its official investigation into the existence of unidentified flying objects (UFOs). There are photographs (35mm negatives) of 21 alleged sightings of UFOs, including some photos recorded on roll film that show timed radar responses of the observed phenomena. The motion pictures (8mm and 16mm) are composed mainly of original camera footage (unedited) filmed by military personnel and civilians. The sound recordings were recorded or acquired by the Air Force and contain interviews with individuals claiming to have seen UFOs as well as sound recordings made at the time of the alleged sightings. Related textual records are in accompanying series of case files and project files of “Project Blue Book”.
A . Intrinsic Value Criteria
CONCLUSION: the records have intrinsic value.