Sustainable collecting: the importance of appraisal
‘Appraisal’ is the term used to describe the process of how an archivist assesses an item, or a collection of items, to determine its ‘archival value’ — in other words, how rare or significant the items are, and if they will be of interest to current or future researchers. It isn’t possible, or desirable, to keep everything from the past, so archives usually collect material relating to a set of key themes or geographical areas, outlined in a document called a ‘Collection Development Policy’.
The Special Collections and Archives Department at UL collects material along a number of particular research themes, which reflect the academic interests of faculty and focus of modules offered at the university. Estate and Family history is one of the key research themes in the department. Browse our other key research themes here.
Today’s image is a detail of a map of the house and demesne of Mount Eccles, Dublin, attached to a conveyance of land, 1733, from the Armstrong collection (P6/2087).
(click image to zoom)
© All images held at Glucksman Library. Please contact us for copyright information and permission to reproduce.
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