Sir Hilary Jenkinson and Theodore R. Schellenberg, the two leading archival theorists in the English-speaking world in the twentieth century, held strikingly different opinions on the subject of the appraisal of archival records. This paper examines their views on the nature of archival records, the reasons for their retention, and the role of the archivist in the appraisal process. It then traces the evolution of their ideas through the subsequent archival discourse on appraisal in order to identify their continued relevance and lasting contributions, particularly in light of the current debates surrounding the management of electronic records.

Based on the work of the first phase of the International Research on Permanent Authentic Electronic Record Project (InterPARES 1), this paper argues that emerging considerations specific to electronic records necessitate that the archival community delineate mechanisms for establishing, maintaining, and certifying the authenticity of preserved and reference copies of electronic records. The paper reviews how the InterPARES 1 Project identified such mechanisms through the conduct of a series of case studies of electronic information and record-keeping systems. The paper places a discussion of the case study data collection, analysis, and outcomes in the context of the quest and rationale for effective methods and a research design that would allow InterPARES researchers to discern the parameters of the electronic record and what supports a presumption of its authenticity.

The authors argue that finding aids present only singular perspectives of the collections they describe and fail to represent the impact of archivists' work on records and subsequentreinterpretations of collections by archivists and researchers. The authors place these criticisms within the burgeoning postmodern discourse in archival studies and make two concrete suggestions for finding aids that would allow practicing archivists to acknowledge the inherent subjectivity of archival work and to incorporate multiple perspectives into the description of records.

Collecting policies have been advocated as tools to help archivists build stronger collections. The model proposed by Faye Phillips in 1984 is the most detailed framework for collecting policies in the archival literature. This paper presents the results of a pilot study of the collecting policies of college and university archives available online to investigate whether a consensus has been reached about the content of these documents. Future studies of this kind for other types of archives could facilitate the identification, refinement, and dissemination of professional best practice and standards for collecting policies.

While EAD has been warmly embraced by larger archives and libraries, smaller institutions have hesitated to implement the standard. The EAD Cookbook was developed to encourage such acceptance. But does it provide an adequate tool to meet the archival profession's descriptive needs? This paper addresses the question by reporting the results of a survey of Cookbook users, reviewing literature related to the usability of archival on-line resources, and evaluating the usability and retrievability of EAD finding aids created by institutions responding to the survey. It includes specific usability recommendations and concludes with a recommended approach for further work to simplify EAD encoding and improve display.