Institutional Functional Analysis at Northern Michigan University: A New Process of Appraisal and Arrangement of Archival Records

The identification of recorded information with continuing value that documents corporate and cultural memory is one of the archivist's primary tasks, and they accomplish this mission, in part, through the process of appraisal. But with options as diverse as documentation strategies, black boxes, functional analysis, macro-appraisal, and Theodore Schellenberg's evidential and informational values, how does the "lone arranger" in an institution of higher education settle on an appropriate course of action? The Central Upper Peninsula and Northern Michigan University Archives faced this decision when reconfiguring its process of appraisal and arrangement of archival records. This article details how the archives adapted elements of Helen Samuels's concept of institutional functional analysis and Terry Cook's macroappraisal into a model tailored for use in university and college archives with limited financial and human resources.