This is a period of intense assessment of archivists, archival programs, and archival documentation in the United States. Most notable are the statewide historical records assessment projects supported by The National Historical Publications and Records Commission. A 1984 publication, Documenting America, summarizes and evaluates these initial twenty-five state reports. Other recent archival evaluations include the work of the Committee on the Records of Government, chaired by Ernest May; studies, reports, and hearings on the National Archives; and the work of the Society of American Archivist’s (SAA) Task Force on Archives and Society. The latter has undertaken a careful study of the opinions of high-level administrators who are not themselves archivists but are responsible for archival programs. Each of these assessments has revealed major deficiencies in the ways and means whereby we identify, preserve, and make avail able records of enduring value. Together they demonstrate a lack of public awareness of the importance of historical records, the impoverished status of many historical records programs, and the need for clearer priorities, better leadership, increased coordination and cooperation, and strengthened advocacy by the historical records community.
The GAP Task Force
The broadest archival assessment is the current work of the SAA Task Force on Goals and Priorities (GAP). The GAP Task Force has produced the first comprehensive statement of the activities needed to achieve the archival “mission” in society. That “mission,” in the words of the Task Force, is “to ensure the identification, preservation, and use of records of enduring value.” GAP’s 63-page draft statement of goals, objectives, strategies, and activities also includes a brief history of archival planning, a statement of its operating assumptions, and preliminary recommendations for an ongoing process to refine goals and priorities, and to foster action to address these priorities. A list of goals and objectives is printed on page 7. The full draft report has been sent for comment to archival, historical, library, and other organizations, including the AHA and OAH. Comments are also sought from individual members of these organizations as the Task Force refines its initial framework and suggests activities of greatest priority. In January, the SAA Council approved creation in late 1985 of a Committee on Goals and Priorities (C-GAP) to continue this work in the years ahead.
Historians and Documentation Decisions
Many activities suggested in the draft GAP report require or would benefit from the active involvement of historians. Refinement of the draft will also gain from a thoughtful critique by members of the historical profession. The Task Force invites such comments now and hopes that in the future historians will seek more actively to influence crucial decisions in the identification, preservation, and use of historical records. Historians remain chief users of historical records, and the origins of the archival profession in the United States come largely from efforts of the historical profession. Historians have a vital interest and can offer important expertise in the areas described here:
Goal I: The Identification and Retention of Records of Enduring Value.
An archivist’s first responsibility is to select records of enduring value from all available documentation. All other archival activities hinge on an ability to select wisely and effectively. Two types of activities are required to meet this goal. First, archivists must educate themselves about the records of contemporary society and improve archival practice accordingly. Coordinated documentation strategies, sound appraisal techniques, and sufficient collecting programs must be developed to ensure appropriate selection and retention. Second, archivists must educate records creators and the general public about the importance of retaining records of enduring value. The general public should be informed about the importance of archival records so that it will support archival work and will influence records creators to adopt appropriate practices. (Based on GAP draft report.)
The historian has several important roles to play if this goal is to be addressed successfully. Research by historians on the evolution of institutions is needed for the development of guidelines on what types of institutional records will have future research value. As more “public” historians observe such institutions from the inside out, their experience should be especially valuable. Historians expert in topical fields and in the history of particular geographical areas likewise should be called upon for advice in developing coordinated documentation strategies for those topics and regions, perhaps most directly by pointing out activities that are underdocumented. The archival profession must learn to develop broad documentation strategies as a basis for collecting programs and for more effectively influencing the actions of records creators. Through consistent interest, historians can become key participants in formulating and refining such strategies. Without their interest, however, a better organized effort by the archival community may result in historians playing an even smaller role in documentation decisions. Finally, historians can help assure the retention of archival records by giving more attention to their archival sources in books and articles and in classroom and public presentations.
Goal II. The Administration of Archival Programs to Ensure the Preservation of All Records of Enduring Value
After records have been judged to have enduring value, they must be preserved in facilities de signed for this purpose. Preservation, however, should. not be seen as an end in itself. It is simply the next step in the process of making information available for use. Administrators and staff are responsible for developing and implementing the most appropriate means of storing records, arranging and describing them in ways that users can exploit, providing assistance to patrons, selecting and supervising staff qualified to perform these functions, and generating and administering funds to support comprehensive archival programs. Archivists must define and maintain standards for a profession that encompasses these activities, seek improved methods to accomplish these goals, train support staff, and elicit the means necessary to support their programs. The administration of archival pro grams, therefore, is an undertaking that relates not only to the management of archival repositories but to an entire profession whose mission is the preservation of records important to the legal, economic, political, intellectual, and cultural life of society. (GAP report)
Historians can play several roles in achieving this goal. First, as customers of archival repositories, historians ought to serve as thoughtful critics of the methods that archivists employ in administering the documentation in their custody. Both archivists and historians should reconsider how this critique can be supplied in a more formal and consistent fashion. Second, even while assessing archival services to the historical profession, historians should be among the most active and articulate advocates for securing the resources needed to improve archival programs. The work of the National Coordinating Committee on behalf of an independent National Archives provides a good example of the coalition that is needed in each state and in local settings. And third, historians continue to have an important role in the education of archivists. To carry out this role effectively, more historians need to understand archival techniques and issues in archival documentation.
A fuller partnership, however, will require the historian to act less as the archivist’s professor or student and more as a colleague addressing shared goals.
Historians can and should play a more active role in improving archival administration. A fuller partnership, however, will require the historian to act less as the archivist’s professor or student and more as a colleague addressing shared goals.
Goal Ill. The Availability and Use of All Records of Enduring Value
The use of archival records is the ultimate purpose for which all efforts to assure their identification, retention, preservation, and proper administration are intended. Outreach—promoting the greatest possible use of these materials—is a fundamental goal of the archival community. This commitment rests on the belief that the widest possible access to information contributes to the strength and well being of a democratic society and that an informed knowledge of the past contributes to a better future. In addition, archivists recognize that greater use of archival records is essential to increasing public awareness of their value and of the urgent need to provide adequate resources for their care. Finally, the archival community should actively support legislative, regulatory, and professional actions which promote the maximum access to records consistent with the protection of privacy, confidentiality, national security, and other institutional and individual rights and interests. These efforts should include critical evaluation of archival practices and laws and regulations governing access in order to develop access and use policies that encourage the fullest use of archival records. (GAP draft report)
This goal, which relates most directly to access issues, has been the area of greatest interest and involvement by historians in recent years. This interest, and the dialogue between historians and archivists that it provokes, needs to continue. It clearly benefits both partners. Again, however, historians can play a more effective role. They can, for example, work more closely with the archival community to encourage student research in archival repositories and to prepare students for such research. Historians also can work with archivists to ”package” historical records for use in educational programs, both in college classrooms and in nonacademic settings. On access issues, historians should be advocates as well as complainants. Federal and state laws and regulations often determine how archivists administer their holdings. These are more likely to be modified, in ways that serve historians, if the historical community joins hands with other groups to bring their interests to the attention of key decision makers in politics and government. Finally, the more use historians make of historical records in ways that serve the needs of citizens outside the historical profession, the more likely it is that both the historical and archival professions will prosper. Both professions will gain if the public better understands the contributions of historical research, based on historical records, in areas as diverse as the safeguarding of public health and the administration of cultural programs.
Historians and the GAP Report
Historians and their organizations are urged to comment on the draft report of the Goals and Priorities Task Force. The Task Force will refine its initial statement of goals, objectives, strategies and activities this summer. A revised statement, and an initial list of recommended archival priorities drawn from this framework, will be issued in early fall of 1985.
Please send your comments to The Society of American Archivists, 600 S. Federal St., Suite 504, Chicago, IL 60605, or call (312) 922-0140. A copy of the draft report may be obtained by writing to the same address.
From the Gap Report
Goal 1: The Identification and Retention of Information of Enduring Value
Objective A: Understand the Characteristics and Uses of Information in Order to Guide the Evaluation, Selection, and Retention of Documentation of Enduring Value
Objective B: Develop and Apply Appraisal and Documentation Strategies to Ensure the Preservation of Information of Enduring Value
Objective C: Influence Records Creators to Accept Responsibility for Saving Their Documentation of Enduring Value
Objective D: Obtain Public Support for the Retention of Documentation of Enduring Value
Goal II: The Administration of Archival Programs to Ensure the Preservation of All Records of Enduring Value
Objective A: Establish and Evaluate Programs for Archival Education and Training
Objective B: Develop and Apply Guidelines and Standards for Archivists and Archival Repositories
Objective C: Undertake Research and Development Programs to Support Archival Administration
Objective D: Assist and Educate Archival Administrators to Become Better Fund Raisers and Better Advocates for Archival Programs
Objective E: Promote Cooperative Activities and the Sharing of Expertise and Resources among the Archival Community
Objective F: Establish and Maintain Appropriate Activities to Improve the Management of Archival Records
Goal III: The Availability and Use of All Records of Enduring Value
Objective A: Develop Educational and Promotional Programs to Encourage the Maximum Use of Archival Records and Integrate these Programs into Archival Practice
Objective B: Disseminate Bibliographic and Descriptive Information About Archival Records
Objective C: Initiate and Support Legislation, Regulations, and Professional Practices which Allow Access to Public and Private Archival Records which Appropriately Balances the Need for Maximum Access and Protection of Individual and Organizational Rights and Interests
Objective D: Identify and Publicize Innovative Uses of Archival Records
Objective E: Promote and Develop Means for Interinstitutional Sharing of Archival Records
Larry J. Hackman, State Archivist of New York, is the deputy chair of the SAA Goals and Priorities Task Force. He is a member of the Council and a Fellow of the Society and was formerly director of the historical records program of the NHPRC.
