n.the process of identifying technological characteristics and needs of archival records to determine whether the records can be preserved by the archivesStielow 1992, 336As Charles Dollar pointed out long ago, archivists actually take on the added burden of a technical appraisal and sampling to ensure readability of the information at the time of transfer.Trace 2020, 337In addition, archivists learned that as part of the technical appraisal of machine-readable data files, varying types of technical documentation had to be used that indicate how data could be read and understood, including in terms of their organization. Indeed, as data files were accessioned and processed into an archival master data file, the archivist had to draw from knowledge of how the data were initially created to document any data checking, correction, or compaction carried out before the data files were made available to researchers.
