n.the amount a willing buyer would pay a willing seller in an unregulated marketPinkett 1970, 74Robert F. Metzdorf, a literary properties appraiser of North Colebrook, Conn., outlined some of the considerations involved in establishing a financial value on manuscripts.Rendell 1983, 307Archives and manuscript collections are appraised for four principal reasons: to determine the amount of tax deduction to which a donor is entitled, to determine the fair market value an institution should pay for a collection, to meet the requirements of settling an estate, and for insurance purposes. In all four situations the actual financial value placed on the material is the same; fair market value does not change because of the purposes of the appraisal.Cameron, Ericson, and Kenney 1983, 420More than 70 percent reported inquiries about how to do oral history or genealogy and how to appraise the financial value of donations.Ham 1984, 17If they are risktakers, archivists will consider the sale of items of little informational but of some financial value: the autographed document or the stock certificate.Bearman 1995, 394Once devotion to the original medium is reduced, and preservation becomes equated with measures to ensure the continuity of evidential value, it is easier to adopt tactics that allow for the realization of the financial value of recorded artifacts without compromising the availability of evidence.Panitch 1996, 35He then introduced, and there was passed, a resolution requiring “all titles and genealogies found in public repositories [to be] burned,” pending extraction of any having potential financial value for the state.Doylen 2001, 350In the course of their daily operations, all archives accumulate material without significant informational value, but having some financial value. This material is accumulated routinely from the careful weeding of accessioned collections during processing, and from the reprocessing and reappraisal of current holdings. Such material may include vintage photographs and postcards, autographed documents, ornate corporate letterheads, or copies of popular magazines.the usefulness or significance of records containing financial information that is necessary to conduct current or future business or that serves as evidence of financial transactionsMaher 1992, 43Some records document the monetary value of property held, the receipt or disbursement of funds, or the delivery of goods or services in exchange for funds. These records have financial or fiscal value if they are necessary to account for property, receipts, and expenditures and if they permit later audits to demonstrate that funds were disbursed properly, transactions were made in an orderly way, and goods and services were actually rendered.Lasewicz 2015, 75Lastly, this review demonstrates that while progress in measuring the financial value organizational pasts hold for corporations is being made, it is still an ongoing work.
