n.the usefulness or significance of materials based on their content, independent of any intrinsic or evidential valueMunden 1954, 142The keeper of the family’s records learns also to distinguish between the materials that serve to document the family’s activities and those that serve the family merely because of their reference value. In the latter category he mentally places the whole of the family library, the extensive collection of road and street maps (although in daily use for one purpose or another), and the boxes of periodicals, prints and drawings, dress patterns, news cuttings, and music scores in attic or closet.Wilson 1966, 461. A directive, originating in the office of the president, was sent to all executive officers, administrative officers, and department heads instructing them to submit their inactive correspondence files and other records to the Archivist for his analysis and the retention of those having historical significance or permanent administrative reference value.Pinkett 1967, 42It could be reasonably concluded that correspondence file units concerning these buildings for the period in question pertained mainly to maintenance and repair activities and hence were of negligible long-term reference value.Thexton 1974, 41The great danger in permanently storing machine-readable records lies in the risk of saving masses of data that have little or no historical reference value.Sanders 1986, 181Based on these considerations, the archives at Pepperdine University has identified four critical factors to consider in determining how to acquire each type of publication: (1) the ease of collecting current copies, (2) the likelihood of loss by the publishing office, (3) the certainty of archival value, and (4) the current reference value of the materials in the archives.Evans 1990, 14In modern democratic societies, adequate recordkeeping and the preservation of archives are thus essential to ensure responsive and responsible government, apart from the memorial, cultural, research, and reference value of the records.
