After briefly identifying some of the problems archivists face in administering modern records, the author discusses six elements of archival collection management: inter-institutional cooperation in collecting, disciplined and documented application of appraisal procedures, deaccessioning, pre-archival control of records, reducing record volume, and analysis and planning. The author suggests that there may well be other factors involved in collection management but concludes with an admonition to all archivists to seek alternative courses of action rather than habitually following practices of the past.

Includes index.

Deciding what to save : fifty years of theory and practice / Nancy E. Peace -- Records management as an appraisal tool in college and university archives / John Dojka and Sheila Conneen -- An agenda for the appraisal of business records / Francis X. Blouin, Jr. -- Appraisal of twentieth-century congressional collections / Patricia Aronsson -- Appraisal of literary manuscripts / Philip N. Cronenwett -- Deaccessioning collections : a new perspective on a continuing controversy / Lawrence Dowler -- Archival choices : managing the historical record in an age of abundance / F. Gerald Ham.