INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL ON ARCHIVES Committee on Appraisal Meeting of 23 27 August 2004, Vienna, Austria Decisions

1. Membres du comit The members present at the Congress in Vienna will be continuing with their membership of the Committee. Luis Cermeno, of Barcelona, will be invited to join the Committee. It would be desirable to attract members from Canada, Germany, China, Russia and the Arab world. 2. The future of the Committee and integration in the ICAs new strategic programme The International Council on Archives has developed a new strategic programme for the future beyon the Congress of 2004. This programme consists of four priority areas. Committees will be mostly replaced by projects that will sit under one of these priority areas. Existing Committees will, however, complete work that is already underway The members of the Appraisal Committee considered how its work would fit under the priority areas. These areas are : 1. Advocy and promotion, 2. Electronic records and automation, 3. Preservation and protection, 4. Education and training. The Committee considered priority 3 and in particular point 3.2 to be most relevant to its work. That is, the preservation and protection of records and archives. This is a very broad theme, and it need not be limited to physical preservation. In fact the work of the Committee touches on most of the priority areas. This should facilitate collaborative work with other Committees / projects, such as the electronic records and legal matters Committees. The Committee prepared a text on how its work fits with the ICA pritory on preservation and protection:

Strategic objectives and priority areas of the ICA

Proposition of ICA CAP for placement in priority area 3.2 : Preservation and protection To protect and preserve records and archives it is necessary to determine what records to keep, for how long and how they should be managed. It is not possible to keep everything, even in the electronic environment. Cost, liability, accessibility, volume and redundancy are all reasons to implement systematic appraisal and disposal. Archives have a responsibility to select the small part of all records that are permanently retainedas societys memory. Current projects : - regularly updated bibliography on appraisal, - guidelines on appraisal. New project : - survey on the appraisal and preservation of personal files (records containing personal information) ; selective case studies ; recommendations on best practice.
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This proposal regarding the future work of the Committee is to be sent to the ICA programme executive for consideration. During the Congress the Committee was also informed of the possibility of its work being managed under the new Section on professional standards and best practice, along with the work of other committees such as the Committee on Descriptive Standards (CDS). Future work could include the development of an appraisal standard. The Committee was generally in favour of this type of arrangement. 3. Bibliography Responsibilities for further work on the bibliography were assigned : Virginia Castillo Sahun can do some translations of abstracts from French into Spanish Rosine Cleyet-Michaud and Vincent Doom can do some translations of abstracts from English into French Cassandra Findlay to look at how to complete the index Jurgen Treffeisen will be contacted to supply German references and abstracts Markku will coordinate new additions to the bibliography, and will ensure it is up to date 4. Guidelines Introduction: Definitions, history (Vincent Doom) Legal envrionment (Rosine Cleyet-Michaud et Cassandra Findlay) General principles: 1. Different approaches / Bases for appraisal* (Tom Mills) 2. Processes : who, what, when. Implementation and documentation of appraisal decisions (Cassandra Findlay), consultation (Stephen Twigge) 3. Criteria (Vincent Doom) 4. Sampling (Markku Leppnen) 5. Appraisal in the electronic environment (Stephen Twigge) Case studies : - Related records of elections in France (Rosine Cleyet-Michaud) - Documentation strategy in the State of New York (Tom Mills) - Appraisal as part of the design of a new system for Fisheries (Cassandra Findlay) - Appraisal in Spain (Virginia Castillo Sahun with Ana Mara Herrero Montero) - Prisoner files in Finland (Markku Leppnen) - An example from the UK (Stephen Twigge) Case studies will also be sought for the Natherlands, Canada, Germany, Poland, Tunisia, China. Case studies not to exceed 3 pages. The guide will be published in French, English and Spanish. It will be published on the ICA website in English and French in June 2005.

Revised Different approaches section :

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Bases for the choice of an appraisal strategy

1. Introduction 2. Different approaches - prioritising by records - prioritising by functions and activities - prioritising by documentation of a theme or territory - prioritising by risk 3. Choice of appraisal strategy - how - recommendations of ISO15489 5. Calendar Introduction and general principles: - January 2005, send sections to Rosine Cleyet-Michaud - January to April 2005, sections on ICA website for comment - April to May 2005, finalisation of sections, - June 2005, publication of guide. Case studies : - April 2005, send to Rosine Cleyet-Michaud. The case studies will not be placed on the ICA website for comment. 6. Next meeting The next meeting of the Committee will be in London in April or May 2005 at the National Archives of the UK.

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