Archival Theory: Notes towards the beginnings of a bibliography

Compiled by Terry Abraham
December 2002

"It is important for the profession to remember that the opposite of practical is impractical, not theoretical." --- Terry Cook, in American Archivist, 63(2000)390.

"In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is no relationship between theory and practice." --- Dan Hinsley, Usenet tag-line

Additional citations to add to this list? Let me know at tabraham@uidaho.edu.

1965

• Holmes, Oliver W.
  History and theory of archival practice. In Rolland E. Stevens, University archives: papers presented at an institute conducted by the University of Illinois Gradate School of Library Science, November 1-4, 1964 Champaign: 1965. 1-21.

  1967

• Posner, Ernst
  The National Archives and the archival theorist. In Archives and the Public Interest: Selected essays of Ernst Posner, ed. Ken Munden. Washington, D.C.: Public Affairs Press, 1967. 131-140.

  1981

• Burke, Frank G.
  The future course of archival theory in the United States. American Archivist, 44(Winter 1981)40-46.
• Pinkett, Harold T.
  American archival theory: the state of the art. American Archivist, 44:3(Summer, 1981)217- 222.

  1982

• Settani, Joseph Andrew
  To the editor (comments on Pinkett and Burke). American Archivist, 45(Winter 1982)6.
• Boles, Frank
  Disrespecting original order. American Archivist, 45(Winter 1982)26-32.
• Williams, Richmond
  To the editor (comments on Boles). American Archivist, 45(Summer 1982) 259-260.
• Lutzker, Michael A.
  Max Weber and the analysis of modern bureaucratic organization: Notes toward a theory of appraisal. American Archivist, 45(Spring 1982)119-130.
• Cappon, Lester J.
  What, then, is there to theorize about? American Archivist, 45(Winter 1982)19-25.
• Burke Frank G.
  To the editor (comments on Cappon). American Archivist, 45(Summer 1982)260-261.

  1983

• Berner, Richard C.
  Archival theory and practice in the United States: A historical analysis. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1983.
• Duchein, Michel.
  Theoretical Principles and Practical Problems of Respect des fonds in Archival Science. Archivaria, 16(Summer 1983)64-82.

  1984

• Joyce, William L.
  [Review of Berner's Archival theory and practice in the United States.] American Archivist, 47(Summer 1984)299-301.
• Peace, Nancy E.
  Deciding what to save: Fifty years of theory and practice. In Archival Choices: Managing the Historical Record in an Age of Abundance. Lanham: Lexington Books, 1984. 1-18.

  1985

• Berner, Richard C.
  To the editor (comments on Joyce's review). American Archivist, 48(Winter 1985)3-5. Also Joyce's response, pp. 5-6.
• Elliott, Clark A.
  Communication and events in history: Toward a theory for documenting the past. American Archivist, 48:4(Fall 1985)357-368.
• Kimball, Gregg D.
  The Burke-Cappon debate: Some further criticisms and considerations for archival theory. American Archivist, 48(Fall 1985)369-376.

  1986

• Peterson, Trudy Huskamp
  The National Archives and the archival theorist revisited, 1954-1984. American Archivist, 49:2(Spring 1986)125-133.

  1987

• Roberts, John
  Archival theory: Much ado about shelving. American Archivist, 50(Winter, 1987)66-74.
• Yates, Donald N.
  To the editor (comments on Roberts). American Archivist, 50(Summer 1987)303-304. Also Roberts' response, p. 304.

  1988

• Bailey, Catherine
  Archival theory and machine readable records: Some problems and issues. MAS Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1988.
• Klumpenhouwer, Richard
  Concepts of value in the archival appraisal literature: An historical and critical analysis. MAS Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1988.

  1989

• Bailey, Catherine
  Archival theory and machine readable records. Archivaria, 29(Winter 1989-90)
• Bryans, Victoria
  Canadian provincial and territorial archival legislation: A case study of the disjunction between theory and law. MAS Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1989.
• Hedstrom, Margaret
  New appraisal techniques: The effect of theory on practice. Provenance, 7:2(Fall 1989)5-6, 19.

  1990

• Archival appraisal: Theory and practice. Proceedings of the Joint Meeting of the Association of British Columbia Archivists and the Northwest Archivists. Vancouver, B.C., April 26-28, 1990. Vancouver: 1990.
• Roberts, John
  Archival theory: Myth or banality. American Archivist, 53(Winter 1990)110-120.
• Cook, Terry
  Viewing the World Upside Down: Reflections on the Theoretical Underpinnings of Archival Public Programming. Archivaria, 31(Winter 1990-91)123-134.

  1991

• Livelton, Trevor
  Public records: A study in archival theory. MAS Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1991.
• Stielow, Frederick J.
  Archival theory redux and redeemed: Definition and context toward a general theory. American Archivist, 54:1(Winter 1991)14-26.
• Abraham, Terry
  Collection policy or documentation strategy: Theory and practice. American Archivist, 54:1(Winter 1991)44-52.
• Menne-Haritz, Angelika
  Anforderungen der Bewertungspraxis an die archivische theorie. Archivmitteilungen, 41:3(1991)102+.
• Abraham, Terry
  Oliver W. Holmes revisited: Levels of arrangement and description in practice. American Archivist, 54:3(Summer 1991)370-377.
• Brothman, Brien
  Orders of value: Probing the theoretical terms of archival practice. Archivaria, 32(Summer 1991)78-100.
• Brown, Richard
  The value of 'Narrativity' in the appraisal of historical documents: Foundation for a theory of archival hermeneutics. Archivaria, 32(Summer 1991)152-156.
• Livelton, Trevor
  Public records: A study in archival theory. MAS Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1991.
• Russell, Peter A.
  The Manx peril: Archival theory in light of recent American historiography. Archivaria, 32(Summer 1991)124-137.
• Brown, Richard
  Records acquisition strategy and its theoretical foundation: The case for a concept of archival hermeneutics. Archivaria, 33(Winter 1991-1992)34-56.

  1992

• Cook, Terry
  The concept of the archival fonds: Theory, description, and provenance in the post-custodial era. In The Archival Fonds: From theory to practice. Edited by Terry Eastwood. Ottawa: Bureau of Canadian Archivists. Planning Committee on Descriptive Standards, 1992.
• Cook, Terry
  Mind over matter: Towards a new theory of archival appraisal. In The Archival Imagination, Essays in Honour of Hugh A. Taylor. Ottawa: Association of Canadian Archivists, 1992. 60-69.
• Eastwood, Terry
  Towards a social theory of appraisal. In The Archival Imagination, Essays in Honour of Hugh A. Taylor. Ottawa: Association of Canadian Archivists, 1992. 71-89.
• Dollar, Charles. Archival theory and information technologies: The impact of information technologies on archival principles and methods. Macerata: University of Macerata, 1992.
• Eastwood, Terry, ed.
  The Archival Fonds: From theory to practice. Ottawa: Bureau of Canadian Archivists. Planning Committee on Descriptive Standards, 1992.
• Maher, William
  The Management of College and University Archives. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1992.
  "The Maher volume is ... one of the testiest writings on the relationship of theory to practice, taking the viewpoint that most archival theory is useless for practical purposes." -- R. Cox.
• Turner, Jane
  A study of the theory of appraisal for selection. MAS Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1992.

  1993

• Eastwood, Terry
  How goes it with appraisal? Archivaria, 36(Autumn 1993)111-121.
• Duranti, Luciana
  The archival body of knowledge: Archival theory, method, and practice, and graduate and continuing education. Journal of education for Library and Information Science. 34(Winter 1993)10-11.
• Craig, Barbara L.
  Archives Theory, Archival Practice, and Archives History: Three Solitudes or a Trinity? Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science 18(December 1993)36-49.

  1994

• Duranti, Luciana
  The concept of appraisal and archival theory. American Archivist, 57:2(Spring 1994)343.
• Terry Eastwood
  What is archival theory and why is it important? Archivaria, 37(Spring 1994)122-130.
• Janzen, Linda M. Series: History, theory, and practice. MAS Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1994.
• MacNeill, Heather
  Archival theory and practice: Between two paradigms. Archivaria, 37(Spring 1994)6-20.
• Roberts, John W.
  Practice makes perfect, theory makes theorists. Archivaria, 37(Spring 1994)111-121; Also Response to Terry Eastwood's Paper, 131-133.
• Schaeffer, Roy
  From craft to profession: The evolution of archival education and theory in North America. Archivaria, 37(Spring 1994)21-34.

  1995

• Biskup, Peter, et al
  Debates and discourses: Selected Australian writings on archival theory, 1951-1990. n.p., Australian Society of Archivists, 1995. 230 p.
• Ledwell,Mary
  The theory of reappraisal and deaccessioning in archives. MAS Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1995.
• Macdonald, Wilma
  Archival theory and oral history documents. MAS Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1995.
• Walters, Tyler
  Rediscovering the theoretical base of records management and its implications for graduate education. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, 36(Spring 1995)139-154.

  1996

• Brichford, Maynard J., and William J. Maher
  Archival Theory and Practice. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1996. http://web.library.uiuc.edu/ahx/theory.htm.
• Livelton, Trevor
  Archival theory, records, and the public. Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 1996. 178 p.
• Cook, Terry
  Building an Archives: Appraisal theory for architectural records. American Archivist, 59(Spring 1996)136-143.
• Boles, Frank and Mark A. Greene
  Et tu Schellenberg? Thoughts on the dagger of American appraisal theory. American Archivist, 59(Summer 1996)298-310.
• Ketelaar, Eric
  Archival theory and the dutch manual. Archivaria, 41(Spring 1996)31-40; reprinted in Eric Ketelaar, The Archival Image: Collected Essays. Hilversum: Verloren, 1997. pp. 55-56.
• Cook, Terry
  Archives in the Post-Custodial World: Interaction of Archival Theory and Practice since the Publication of the Dutch Manual in [1898]. XIII International Congress on Archives: Third Plenary Session Paper. Beijing: 1996.

  1997

• Graham, Nicholas M.
  The Form and Function of Archival Theory. Katharine Sharp Review, No. 4, Winter 1997. http://alexia.lis.uiuc.edu/review/winter1997/graham.html.
• Cook, Terry
  What is past is prologue: A history of archival ideas since 1898, and the future paradigm shift. Archivaria, 43(Spring 1997)17+.

  1998

• Giroux, Alain
  A theoretical and historical analysis of pertinence- and provenance-based concepts of classification of archives. MAS Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1998.
• Henry, Linda J.
  Schellenberg in Cyberspace. American Archivist, 61(Fall 1998)309-327.
• Lemieux, Victoria
  Applying Mintzberg's Theories of Organizational Configuration to Archival Appraisal. Archivaria, 46(Fall 1998)32-85.

  1999

• Mortensen, Preben
  The Place of Theory in Archival Practice. Archivaria, 47(Spring 1999)1+.
• Nesmith, Tom
  Still Fuzzy, But More Accurate: Some Thoughts on the "Ghosts" of Archival Theory. Archivaria, 47(Spring 1999)136-150.
• Maymi-Sugranes, Hector J.
  Latin American Archival Theory and Practice during the 1970s and 1980s. Libraries & Culture, Vol. 34, No. 3, Summer 1999 http://www.gslis.utexas.edu/~landc/fulltext/LandC_34_3_MaymiSurgranes.pdf.

  2000

• Duranti, Luciana
  The Impact of Technological Change on Archival Theory. InterPARES Project, 2000. http://www.interpares.org/documents/ld_sevilla_2000.pdf.
• Jimerson, Randall C., ed.
  American Archival Studies: Readings in Theory and Practice. Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2000. 658 p.
  Especially Jimerson's Introduction: American Archivists and the Search for Professional Identity. 1-17; new in this volume.

  2001

• Cook, Terry
  Appraisal Methodology: Macro-Appraisal and Functional Analysis, Part A: Concepts and Theory. National Archives of Canada, 2001. http://www.archives.ca/06/061101_e.html
• Maher, William J.
  Fundamentals of Archival Theory and Practice for Law Librarians. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2001. http://web.library.uiuc.edu/ahx/workpap/fundamentalsaall.pdf.
• Tamblé, Donato
  Archival theory in Italy today. Archival Science. 1:1(March 2001)83-100.
• McKemmish, Sue
  Placing Records Continuum Theory and Practice. Archival Science. 1:4(2001) 333-359.

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