Getting the Lead Out: The Appraisal of Silver-Lead Mining Records at the University of Idaho

The application of Schellenbergian appraisal doctrine to nongovernmental records has been challenged on the basis that the dual classification of evidential and informational values is relevant only under the institutional mandate of the National Archives. This paper describes the appraisal portion of a project for the processing of 1,600 cubic feet of records of mining corporations in the University of Idaho Library and asserts that informational values depend for their validity upon the evidential values in the same records, that both kinds of value are logically related to the principle of provenance, and that these relationships are implicit in the works of T. R. Schellenberg and other traditional writers on the appraisal of public and corporate records. These values derive not from any particular institutional mandate but from the organic character of the records. It is futile to attempt appraisal of the informational value of records without considering their evidential value.