Type of Culminating Activity
Graduate Student Project
Graduation Date
3-2014
Degree Title
Master of Applied Historical Research
Department
History
Major Advisor
Leslie Madsen-Brooks, Ph.D.
Abstract
This project develops a policy and question-based procedure guide for archival appraisal—the decision-making process for what is preserved or conserved, and what is destroyed in an archive—for the City of Boise Department of Arts and History. Due to resource constraints, the department needs a clear appraisal policy as well as a procedure guide that could be used by someone new to appraisal. The project theorizes that in a small institutional setting, lack of space can drive focused collecting goals. Focused collecting goals can help achieve a cohesive and useful collection. Drawing from the ideas of Frank Boles and Julia Marks Young, and Helen Willa Samuels, I processed the Thomas Byrne Collection, and analyzed that process. Based on that analysis, I produced an appraisal policy section recommended to the department for inclusion in its collection development policy, and developed a procedure guide to accompany it. I developed the policy and procedure guide together, harmonizing the documents to create an example of appraisal in a small archival setting.
Recommended Citation
Brown, Zachary M., "A Project to Develop a Documented Appraisal Section within the Collection Development Policy of the City of Boise Department of Arts and History" (2014). History Graduate Projects and Theses. 3.
https://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/history_gradproj/3