A Study On The Life And Contributions Of T.R. Schellenberg

The history of the world archival undertaking is like a book being written without intermission, and this great work’s formation and development is inseparable from the efforts of generations of archivists in the world. As a junior majoring in archival science, the best way to show my respect to those senior scholars who made contributions to the archives is to inherit their academic heritage and conduct a comprehensive and systematic study on their theories. Although Schellenberg has always been concerned at home, there is less systematic and comprehensive academic research results. This paper is to study the subject of Schellenberg’s life and contributions systematically and comprehensively. From the viewpoint of practice and knowledge, the author writes the paper in the background of the development of archival undertaking in the United States.In this paper, the author adopts many research methods, such as literature review method, comparative method, and so on. The chapter two begins with the information of Schellenberg’families and the experiences of his father, which can provide a good explanation to his rigorous working style and persistent spiritual beliefs. And then, the author introduces his schooling and work experiences in chronological order. The third chapter focuses on the theoretical contributions of Schellenberg, highlights his two main books—Modern Archives:Principles & Techniques and The Management of Archives, and at last the paper discusses the theories on archival definition and appraisal. The main contents of the fourth chapter is the contributions he made to the archival undertaking in the United States, by the way of giving examples and references, the paper demonstrates his efforts on archival education, archival profession and archival international cooperation. The ultimate goal to study Schellenberg is to apply his theories and thoughts to our own profession, so the last chapter focuses on the influence and revelation to China.Schellenberg is not only a famous archivist of the United States, but also plays an important role in the world archival history. He establishes their own principles and techniques of archival management, and has achieved great success in the filing, verification, storage, publication and access. He is a pioneer in education, and bring the principles and methods of archival management to the classes of the universities, library colleges, records centers. It is him who let the archivist become an independent and dignified career. Besides that he is a messenger of international exchanges and cooperation, spreading his new archival theories and thoughts in Latin-America, Australia, New Zealand and other foreign countries. It is the 60th anniversary of the publication of Modern Archives:Principles & Techniques, the author writes this paper to salute those scholars who devotes their all life to the development of archival undertaking.