Comma

Abstract

Two archival problems faced by government organizations are the backlog of paper documents and the ephemeral quality of digital information. In 2006, the Dutch government came up with an eight point plan to deal with these problems. One of its proposals was a different approach to archival selection. 'Past Appraised', the Committee for Appraisal and Selection, was set up by the Dutch National Archivist to formulate a new vision for appraisal and selection. Comprising archivists, historians, and information specialists, it first of all critically examined the objectives of the current method of appraisal and selection, called PIVOT. The committee formulated a much broader objective in comparison to the existing selection objectives, one that better suits the principle that the archivist's primary goal is to document a certain period for the whole of society, not just government. This new objective implies that in the systems for appraisal and selection there is no difference between archives created by government bodies and those created by private institutions or persons.