How do archivists decide which records are worth preserving forever?

Only a small fraction of records are ever kept permanently. Deciding which ones is the work of appraisal — the process archivists use to judge whether a record has enduring value worth the cost and effort of preserving it forever. The rest are kept for a defined period to meet legal, business, or accountability needs, then disposed of under an approved schedule.

What “permanent value” means

Records are typically judged worth preserving forever when they hold one or more kinds of enduring value:

• Evidential value — proof of how an organization was created, structured, and how it carried out its core functions.
• Informational value — significant content about people, places, events, or conditions, useful for research beyond the original purpose.
• Legal and fiscal value — documentation of rights, obligations, or financial accountability that may outlast routine retention needs.
• Historical and cultural value — records that document significant decisions, milestones, or the experience of a community or nation.

Archivists weigh these against practical factors: uniqueness, completeness, the condition and stability of the format, and whether the same information already survives elsewhere.

How the decision is made in practice

Appraisal is rarely an item-by-item choice. Archivists usually evaluate series and record types — whole categories of records produced by a function — rather than single documents. The judgment is documented in a records schedule, which sets retention periods and identifies which series are temporary and which are permanent.

In the U.S. federal system, agencies propose these decisions and the National Archives reviews and approves them, so disposition is authorized rather than arbitrary. Standardized schedules cover records common across many agencies. Private organizations follow the same logic through their own retention schedules grounded in recognized records-management standards.

Why so little is kept forever

Permanent preservation is expensive and ongoing, especially for digital records that require active management to stay readable. Keeping everything would bury the truly significant material and inflate cost and risk. Disciplined appraisal ensures the records with lasting value survive — and that routine, duplicative, or transitory records are responsibly destroyed when their useful life ends.

For more on long-term care of records, see the archives and preservation hub.