The following factors should be kept in mind when deciding what to keep and what to destroy:

1. What is the administrative, evidential or informational value of the records to the organization?

Are the records required for the on-going administration of the organization or to protect its financial and legal interests? E.g. board minutes, by-laws, charter of incorporation. Do they document an event that is of cultural and/or historical significance to the organization? E.g. photographs of an awards banquet.

2. Do the records meet the terms of your mandate and acquisition policy?

Certain records may seem interesting but they may not belong in your archives. Do you have a mandate to acquire them? This speaks to the need to have a policy in place against which acquisitions can be reviewed. All records in your holdings should reflect your mandate and should be created by or pertain directly to your organization.

3. Are the records primary or unique?

Archives do not preserve published materials such as books and magazines, but rather primary records. The only exceptions to this apply to items such as annual reports, financial statements and newsletters (to name but a few) where one copy is being preserved for archival purposes even though the original was created in multiple copies. These types of records, however, must be unique to your organization. Scrapbooks of activities and functions can be considered archival, but only if the clippings are no longer attainable or are annotated.

4. Is the information in the records duplicated in another set of records?

For instance, most financial information is summarized in financial statements. For archival purposes, it is therefore not necessary to keep all bills and receipts. Also, most committees in an organization keep the same types of documents. It is not necessary to keep more than one copy of a report if that report is already being preserved in another set of records.

5. Can the records be properly preserved?

Occasionally records arrive at the archives in extremely poor physical condition. Do you have the resources to conserve and/or preserve them to make them useable? Will their presence in the archives jeopardize other records? For instance, mould on records can often spread.

6. Can the records be made available?

Undue access restrictions may be cause to question if the records should be acquired in the first place.

Summary

Although it is often difficult to turn away certain records, keep in mind that archives are an on-going function. By keeping acquisition activity focused, one is able to ensure future growth to the collection and better service on the existing collection. The archives should never be a "dumping ground" for items that happen to be old. There must be some redeeming quality to the records to merit the investment into their preservation and care.