n.Chiefly Britishthe ongoing usefulness or significance of records, based on the administrative, legal, fiscal, evidential, or historical information they contain, justifying their continued preservationSaunders 1983, 5Work has begun on those records and archives which have permanent or indefinite value for historical or other purposes. But there are still many problems which need attention.Beagrie, Beagrie, and Rowlands 2009Question 13: For what period after the conclusion of your project will the long-term research data remain useful for research and need to be retained either for yourself or others? 48.9% of data is seen as having a useful life of under 10 years. Only about 27% is seen as having indefinite value and retention.Svärd 2013, 164–165They explored the strategies for long-term preservation and the need to embrace the RCM [Records Continuum Model] in order to manage information/records as a societal resource, pluralized and used in different contexts and hence giving it indefinite value.van Bussel, Smit, and van de Pas 2015, 192For the purpose of this paper, only the processes of data appraisal, data selection and data disposal are important. In the data appraisal process the short- and long-term (or indefinite) value of data and records is defined in order to retain and preserve them for later (re-)use. As stated above, this data appraisal defines the archival value and results in a retention schedule.
Notes
Although this term is little used in archives literature, such use appears to be limited to the English-speaking world outside of the United States of America.
