The Research On The Theory And Practice Of Documentation Strategy Of America

Since documentation strategy was introduced to archival theory in the1980s, it has generated considerable debate within the archival community in North America, garnering both advocates and critics. Therefore, it also raised a lot of written and oral discussions, with some people supporting it and some people opposing it. The discussion has been so widespread and heated that Terry Cook has called documentation strategy "the single most important North American contribution to a growing debate on appraisal theory, strategy and methodology".The documentation strategy is an analysis of the universe to be documented, an understanding of the inherent documentary problems, and the formulation of a plan to assure the adequate documentation of an issue, activity, or geographic area. The changing structure of modern institutions and the use of sophisticated technologies have altered the nature of records, and only a small portion of the vast documentation can be kept. Archivists are challenged to select a lasting record, but they lack techniques to support this decision-making. Documentation strategies are proposed to respond to these problems.First the paper introduces Samuels and her documentation strategy specifically, including the context of documentation strategy, its definition, characteristics and implementation steps so that people can have a preliminary knowledge of documentation strategy. Second the paper described in detail the practical application of documentation strategy in the real world, including the Project of History of Recent Physics, the Project of documenting Western New York, the Project of documenting Metropolitan Milwaukee, and the Project of study of Multi-Institutional Collaborations. Through the analysis of the four projects, the paper obtains the application situation of documentation in practice, and intends to provide some learning experiences for the next researchers. Finally the paper describes the impacts and estimates of documentation strategy. Most archivists agree that documentation strategy is not a new appraisal theory, it is the supplement of traditional appraisal approach rather than replacing it. Documentation strategy provides archivists with a new way of thinking archival appraisal approach, it also turns archivists from passive custodians to active documenters. Although documentation strategy inevitably has some shortcomings, such as the selection of subjects, the definition of function and the participants are always controversial, it is undeniable that documentation strategy has become part of archival appraisal theories, especially the important part of macro appraisal.