Teaching Appraisal in an American (U.S.) Archives Program JEANNETTE ALLIS BASTIAN Simmons College, Boston, Massachusetts, USA (E-mail: bastian@simmons.edu) Abstract. The author, a professor at Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts, dis- cusses the use of selected archival literature to nurture an appraisal mindset, particularly within the American context. She then addresses in some detail types of appraisal case studies and the variety of ways that they may be used as teaching tools. Keywords: archival appraisal, archival education, case studies, pedagogy Appraisal is a state of mind as well as an archival process, eminently theoretical but urgently practical, an art and a science. Teaching apprai- sal likewise runs the gamut from prescribed categories of record types and disposals, 1 to the postmodernism implicit in macroappraisal. On the appraisal continuum, which at its most basic is about selection and evaluation and at its most complex about societal values, the challenge for educators teaching appraisal lies in presenting this broad spectrum to students while at the same time instilling an appraisal mindset that will guide them throughout their archival careers. In the ideal educa- tional apotheosis, students begin the learning process by recognizing and acknowledging basic appraisal issues and then move through sev- eral knowledge stages to arrive at a deep appreciation of appraisal com- plexities, armed with a varied and ever-filling box of analytical tools. My assignment for this review article was to discuss the readings that I use in teaching macroappraisal at the Graduate School of Li- brary and Information Science at Simmons College in Boston. I quickly realized that in an American (U.S.) archives education pro- gram, any discussion about the teaching of macroappraisal must take place within the context of appraisal teaching generally. While macroappraisal strategy is one of several appraisal strategies routinely taught in appraisal courses, in terms of practice, it is still gaining 1 For an example of appraisal categories, see Maynard J. Brichford, Archives Manuscripts: Appraisal Accessioning (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 1977), pp. 22–23. Archival Science (2005) 5: 371–378 Ó Springer 2006 DOI 10.1007/s10502-005-9008-9