Teaching and Learning about Macroappraisal

TERRY EASTWOODSchool of Library, Archival and Information Studies, University of British Columbia,Vancouver, Canada (E-mail: eastwood@interchange.ubc.ca)

Abstract. The author, a professor at the University of British Columbia, outlines thefoundations of macroappraisal theory within the Canadian federal government’s re-cords acquisition program, placing Terry Cook’s 1992 essay ‘‘Mind Over Matter: To-

wards a New Theory of Archival Appraisal’’ at the heart of his students’ analysis oftheoretical writings. In addition to reflecting on the importance of case studies on theapplication of macroappraisal theory and methods, he concludes by touching on theapplicability of macroappraisal to elements outside the public sphere.

Keywords: appraisal literature, archival appraisal, archival appraisal theory, macro-

appraisal, teaching archival appraisal

For several years, I have taught a course on archival appraisal in theMaster of Archival Studies Program in the School of Library, Archi-val and Information Studies at the University of British Columbia.The course aims to have students come to some understanding of theevolution of thinking about selection and acquisition of publicrecords in Canada and elsewhere. Students are expected to read wide-ly in the literature on appraisal. A significant portion of their readingaddresses the theory, methodology, and practice of macroappraisal.During my lectures, I explain the context and significance of the arti-cles on the required and additional portions of a reading list, butsome articles are discussed at length in class following a short presen-tation by one of the students on the ideas of the author and the con-text in which he or she was writing. Here follows a discussion ofsome of the important articles for students to read about macroap-praisal.

Macroappraisal is very much an invention of archivists at the for-mer National Archives of Canada (NA), now Library and ArchivesCanada (LAC). Ideas about macroappraisal grew from the efforts ofthe NA to develop a systematic program of acquisition of records of

Archival Science (2005) 5: 365–369 � Springer 2006

DOI 10.1007/s10502-005-9007-x

the Canadian federal government. Although efforts to acquire federalpublic records on a systematic basis go back to the nineteenthcentury,1 the more immediate and relevant context of ideas aboutmacroappraisal begins in 1966 with the passage of a ‘‘Public RecordsOrder’’ laying out the responsibilities of the Treasury Board Secretar-iat, the central federal government departments, and the Archives forthe disposition of public records. Thirteen years later, a major studyof the regime instituted by the regulations set out in that Order raisedquestions about the effectiveness of records scheduling to achieve acomprehensive and systematic acquisition by the Archives of federalgovernment records of enduring value.2 In his subsequent Archivariaarticle, ‘‘A Weak Link in the Chain: Records Scheduling as a Sourceof Archival Acquisition,’’ Eldon Frost, one of the authors of the ear-lier report, explains how these doubts about the operation of recordsscheduling prompted the Archives over the decade of the 1980s todevelop a new acquisition strategy for federal public records coveringall agencies of the government, not just the main, central departmentsof government.3 Frost’s article shows students that crafting an effec-tive acquisition strategy for a national, provincial, or municipalgovernment must be comprehensive and well planned. It also helpsthem to see that records scheduling alone cannot solve the essentialarchival problem of identifying which records are to be transferred toarchival care.

In the same issue of Archivaria in which Frost’s article was pub-lished, Richard Brown reflects on the theoretical foundations ofmacroappraisal.4 The term was by then in current use at the NA todescribe the new approach being forged for appraisal of publicrecords, in particular its approach to research into the structures andfunctions of government and its creation of records. Brown’s article isvaluable because it raises theoretical questions and places them in thebroader discourse about the nature of archives and of complex

1 For a good account of this background, see Jay Atherton, ‘‘The Origins of thePublic Archives Records Centre, 1879–1956’’, Archivaria 8 (Summer 1979): 61–77.

2 For an abridged version of this report, see Bryan Corbett and Eldon Frost, ‘‘TheAcquisition of Federal Government Records: A Report on Records Management andArchival Practices’’, Archivaria 17 (Winter 1983–1984): 201–232.

3 Eldon Frost, ‘‘A Weak Link in the Chain: Records Scheduling as a Source ofArchival Acquisition’’, Archivaria 33 (Winter 1991–1992): 78–86.

4 Richard Brown, ‘‘Records Acquisition Strategy and Its Theoretical Foundations:The Case for a Concept of Archival Hermeneutics’’, Archivaria 33 (Winter 1991–1992):34–56.

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modern organizations. The same can be said of his later article, inwhich he dwells on similar themes.5

Of course, Terry Cook is the archivist at the former National Ar-chives of Canada who is most closely associated with macroappraisal.He first expressed his own ideas about the ferment in his institution inan essay published in 1992.6 Because Cook advances his ideas as anew theory of appraisal, students examine it very closely for its theo-retical ideas and compare it with other writings of a theoretical cast,beginning with Sir Hilary Jenkinson and ending with contemporarywriters. In this section of the class, I ask students to pay particularattention to the distinction between normative theory and explanatorytheory, and identify ideas in each class in the writings they are read-ing; the differences between these two types of theory are explained inTrevor Livelton’s Archival Theory, Records and the Public.7 In thiscontext, normative theory aims to express a programmatic scheme ofideas about the appropriate method of conducting an archival apprai-sal. By contrast, explanatory theory aims to explain what is actuallygoing on when archival institutions and archivists carry out apprais-als. Students have a fine time wrestling with this distinction, and withthe distinction between ideas that are truly theoretical and those thatare mainly about the method of achieving results in a given contextor describing a practice in a particular setting. Cook’s fertile mind onthe subject gives them plenty to think about.

An article by Bruce Wilson follows very nicely on themes broachedby Frost in his article on records scheduling.8 Wilson explains howthe NA developed its Multi-Year Disposition Planning process as acentral mechanism of its acquisition strategy for public records. Hisarticle is a useful counterbalance to the heavy emphasis on large andsometimes (to students at least) seemingly insoluble theoretical ques-tions. It also very usefully reinforces the sense that appraisal in alarge government bureaucracy requires careful planning of the workin order to deploy effectively the always limited resources of archivalinstitutions to complete the task.

5 Richard Brown, ‘‘Macro-Appraisal Theory and the Context of the Public RecordsCreator’’, Archivaria 40 (Fall 1995): 121–172.

6 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.

7 Trevor Livelton, Archival Theory, Records, and the Public (Lanham, MD: TheScarecrow Press, 1996), pp. 9–21.

8 Bruce Wilson, ‘‘Systematic Appraisal of the Records of the Government of Canadaat the National Archives of Canada’’, Archivaria 38 (Fall 1994): 218–231.

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Several archivists from the NA have written case studies of theapplication of macroappraisal theory and methods. Articles by Jean-Stephen Piche and Catherine Bailey provide very useful discussion ofa real situation, the problems encountered, and solutions devised dur-ing an appraisal. In his study of the records of the federal govern-ment’s management of real property, Piche discusses a problem oftenencountered by archivists: duplication of information. He shows verywell how the method of analysis espoused in macroappraisal helps re-solve the problem in this case.9 Bailey’s detailed analysis of fourappraisals in the field of health and social welfare allows her to dis-cuss the strengths and weaknesses of macroappraisal.10 I find thatstudents are very attracted to Bailey’s forthright and intelligent dis-cussion. They regularly seize on her arguments that appraisal hypoth-eses developed during functional analysis have to be tested by theactual reading of records. They are also intrigued by her discussion ofthe issue of balancing the need for extensive research, which virtuallyevery writer says is the sine qua non of the macroappraisal, and theneed to accomplish the task in a reasonable amount of time.

Brian Beaven, also from the NA, adds a somewhat skeptical voiceto the discussion of macroappraisal.11 Indeed, it is quite clear thatarchivists working at Library and Archives Canada do not have amonolithic view of the task of appraisal. Students enjoy the cut andthrust of discussion of macroappraisal ideas, even if they often needhelp to understand the sometimes muted way in which disagreementsare voiced. More than anything, exposure to different ideas serves theoverall aim of the course, which is to allow students to begin formingtheir own understanding of and stance towards this important archi-val function, and how thinking about it has evolved.

Is macroappraisal peculiar to the NA, which over the last fewyears has transformed itself into an element of the new institutioncalled Library and Archives Canada? John Roberts addresses thisquestion in an article comparing the Canadian, South African, andNew Zealand experience.12 Roberts’s article opens up the even largerquestion of whether elements of macroappraisal are applicable to

9 Jean-Stephen Piche, ‘‘Macro-Appraisal and the Duplication of Information: Fed-eral Real Property Management Records’’, Archivaria 39 (Spring 1995): 39–50.

10 Catherine Bailey, ‘‘From the Top Down: The Practice of Macro-Appraisal’’, Ar-chivaria 43 (Spring 1997): 89–128.

11 Brian P.N. Beaven, ‘‘Macro-Appraisal: From Theory to Practice’’, Archivaria 48

(Fall 1999): 154–198.12 John Roberts, ‘‘One Size Fits All? The Portability of Macro-Appraisal by a

Comparative Analysis of Canada, South Africa, and New Zealand’’, Archivaria 52 (Fall2001): 47–68.

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appraisal of records outside the public sphere. It is clear that many ofthe elements of macroappraisal methodology were indeed developedto meet the particular circumstances the NA faced. It is a useful exer-cise for students to ponder what is universal about macroappraisalideas. Some see old wine in new bottles; others become converts tothe macroappraisal cause. One thing is clear, for Canadian students atleast: they must have a thorough understanding of the theory, meth-ods, and practice of macroappraisal, for it commands centre stage inthe professional discourse in their country. To help them achieve this,they need to go beyond the published archival literature to read insti-tutional policies, strategies, criteria, guidelines, statements of method-ology, and actual appraisal reports, and consider them carefully. Atthe end of the course, I find that students very well appreciate thatappraisal is a complex and demanding archival task. They are alsobeginning to develop their own ideas and are eager to test them inpractice, which is the very outcome I aim for at the outset.

Biography

Terry Eastwood is Associate Professor in the School of Library,Archival and Information Studies at the University of British Colum-bia, Vancouver, Canada. He is the founding professor in the School’sMaster of Archival Studies Program, which he directed from itsinception in 1981 until 2000. Before becoming a teacher of archivalstudies, he practiced as an archivist for 8 years in the Manuscript andGovernment Records Division of the Provincial Archives of BritishColumbia. In addition to his interest, writing, and teaching on archi-val appraisal, he has had longstanding interest in the theory, method,and practice of archival arrangement and description. He was a prin-cipal in the Canadian Working Group on Archival Description thatpublished Towards Descriptive Standards in 1985, and a member ofthe Planning Committee on Descriptive Standards of the CanadianCouncil of Archives that produced the Rules for Archival Descriptionduring the 1990s. He has also written about archival public services,archival education, and the history of archival institutions andsystems. Lately, he has written about another longstanding interest:the role archival institutions and programs play in democraticaccountability. He also wrote the introduction to the recent reissue ofthe Selected Writings of Sir Hilary Jenkinson.

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