"Introduction" to Burning Decisions: Case Studies on Appraisal for Access

In the United States, archival appraisal has been a key step in providing access to records, largely in response to the bulk of modern organizational records, the gaps in documenting underrepresented individuals and groups, and the shrinking of resources. With Frank Boles moderating and commenting, four archivists describe appraisal decisions that they applied while acquiring or administering large or complex collections and reflect on the selection paradigms that they applied in the decision-making process to enable access.