Arhivski vjesnik, No. 41, 1998.
Pregledni rad
Functional appraisal in National Archives of Canada : seven years of actual practice
Richard Brown
Sažetak
This article presents the model of functional appraisal adopted by National Archives of Canada in the early 90s. Canadian Macro-Appraisal Strategy is one of the models of functional appraisal being currently in use in archival institutions. Despite the differences in the approach and methodology, it is possible to identify some common conceptual elements and a high degree of agreement on several basic and interrelated points identified as theoretical and methodological foundation of functional appraisal. Having in mind the abundance of contemporary written information and their transient character in electronic form, it is not possible or practical to build the decisions on their appraisal and protection on the analysis of the documents themselves. Archival value of documents is more logically derived on the base of the organizational context and intellectual processes of their creation rather than on the base on a taxonomy of values of the documents and their potential use for historical research or other scientific or research purposes. In the modern administration, the context or provenance of the record creation is more rationally related to the systemic processus, functions and transactions that initiate the creation of records than to the administrative structure based on distribution of resources, power, authority and hierarchical relations. This concept undermines three traditional pillars of the archivy: records are the exclusive objects of the interest of archives; the concept of archival provenance is bound exclusively to the administrative context; and the value of records is based on their current or potential research value. The introduction of Macro-Appraisal Strategy transformed the acquisition of governmental records in National Archives in a way that earlier, customer driven, and often ad hoc performed acquisition, is substituted by a planned, controlled and holistic, archive driven, approach, that enables NA to fully control the processus and the results of the records acquisition from the archival perspective. It is important to stress that beside a sound conceptual foundation, a carefully designed and applied methodology is needed in order to achieve the goals of this model of appraisal. This methodology is based on two main factors: the introduction of planned procedures in cooperation with record creators, and the introduction of functional analysis as a primary means of records appraisal. NA was forced to design new tools that support the application of the methodology, including some basic documents, twenty-eight-step procedure that controls the processus of the acquisition, and a supporting data base and documentation system. Differently than in the Logical Model of Dutch Pivot project, Canadian model of functional appraisal doesn’t start with a complete and exhaustive analysis of governmental functions. It was not possible to stop the acquisition of governmental records until this analysis was finished. Therefore, the analysis starts with the examination of the functions of each creator, not by the application of a predefined functional net for the government as a whole. In conducting functional analysis, archivists and analysts have to define: which are the business functions of the creator, what is their size and priority in the sense of archival value; what office or administrative unit within the office gives the most complete record of the function or functions seen as producing records of archival value; and, the identity and size of records sufficient to serve as a prove of functions identified as having archival value. Because of the role of the analysis of the organizational context of records creation, this approach is rather functional-structural than purely functional. Methodologically, it is conducted in two basic steps: formulation of the macro-appraisal hypothesis; and, confirmation of the hypothesis by examining the documents. This second step is a point of difference of Canadian approach to functional appraisal in relation to pure functional macro-appraisal (e.g. Dutch Pivot project) where appraisal is conducted without any reference or use of the records themselves. The application of the model of functional macro-appraisal also depends on the structure of the records keeping system that determines how the records are filed and classified. If the registry system is organized by main functional areas and sub-areas the creator is responsible for, i. e. if the organization of the records follows functions and transactions records belong to, then the application of the results of the functional analysis can be done in a relatively straight-forward way, assigning to each function respective record groups or records. If the records are organized in another way, e. g. by subject, a careful analysis of the registry system and mapping to functional matrix of the originating institution are needed, as shown by two acquisition projects conducted by NA and described in this paper.
Ključne riječi
Hrčak ID:
10788
URI
Datum izdavanja:
17.3.1999.
Posjeta: 1.872 *