Zohar ALOUFI*
Apprisal at the Municipal Archives in Israel1
* Member of the Committee for the Destruction of Archival Material at State Institutions and Local Authorities in Israel Archivist, Tel-Aviv University Archives President, Israel Archives Association
ALOUFI, Zohaf, Appfisal at the Municipal Archives in Israel. Atlanti, Vol. 18, Trieste 2008, pp. 287-295.
Original in English, abstract in English, Italian and Slovenian, summary in English
The municipal archives in Israel are subject to the Archives Law. Therefore, appraisal is done according to the law's procedures. Appraisal has two aspects: a) examination of the archival material that were created in the local authority and its institutions; b) appraisal of archival material which were created by other creators, in order to decide which archival material will be accepted for posterity. The appraisal criteria are: why and how the archival material was created; the time of its creation; who created it, etc. On top of that are taken also into consideration special periods in the history of the municipality and/or the State; the municipality change of class; merger of municipalities etc. All of those brought during the years (1955-2008) some unique solutions to special problems.
ALOUFI, Zohar, La selezione negli ar-chivi municipali d'Israele. Atlanti, Vol. 18, Trieste 2008, pp. 287-295.
Gli archivi municipali d'Israele sono soggetti
1.	Author remark: the translation from Hebrew to English was done by me.
2.	Jenkinson, Hilary. A Manual of Archive Administration, London, 1966.
3.	Schellenberg, T.R. Modern Archives: Principles and Techniques. Chicago, 1956.
4.	Cook, T. Mind Over Matter: Towards a New Theory of Archival Appraisal. In Craige, B.L. (ed) The Archival Imagination: Essays in Honour of Hugh A. Taylor, Association of Canadian Archivists, 1992.
5.	Samuels. H.W. Varsity Letters: Documenting Modern Colleges and Universities. Netuchen, 1992.
6.	ISA/RG43.8/7090/22.
7.	Ibid.
8.	Ibid.
Appraisal of archival material concern two different fields in archives science, one is the determination of schedules and the second - is acquisition of archival material and documentation.
There are many articles and books about appraisal concerning scheduling, less about appraisal concerning acquisition.
The first rules about appraisal of archival material was written by Sir Hilary Jenkinson2 in 1928, and then by the Committee on Department Records, 1954, headed by Sir James Grieg. Later also by the American Theodor Schellenberg3. But when one is looking into those rules, it is obvious that they relate to records created at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th.
Toward the end of the 20th century when the amount of records created by all kinds of governments increased tremendously, it became clear that new rules had to be established. Thus we find the Canadian Terry Cook who developed the theory of Macro-Apprai-sal4, and Helen Samuels from the USA, who developed the conception of "strategic documentation" and "the functional institutional analysis"5. As the goal of this article is to examine the appraisal of archival material of the local authorities in Israel, we won't make a thorough analysis of these theories and conceptions.
In this article we will discuss the rules we use in Israel. Those rules had been established by Prof. P.A. Alsberg as early as 19606. At that time he was the director of Israel State Archives, and later he became the State Archivist. Prof. Alsberg based the rules on the theories of Jenkinson, Grieg and Schellenberg after perfecting them by making them suitable to the second half of the 20th century's administration, and especially to administration which create very large series of case and item files.
According to Alsberg one should determine the value of archival material only if one knows thoroughly the whole scope of the archival material created in the administration. One cannot determine its value by appraising parts of it, because one cannot analyse it without complete knowledge of this administration's archival material7. Thus one appraises files of series and not individual records. We have to pay special attention to records concerning the organization and the history of the local authority8.
The rules are as follows:
1)	The factor for the creation of the records: were they created as a result of intrinsic function or non intrinsic9? That is to say that the archivist has to know why the organization was founded, or in our case - why this particular local authority was founded and what its functions are. Thus the first question that the archivist has to ask himself when appraising the records is: why and how those records were created? When the "how" relates to the creator's functions. This analysis starts with the highest hierarchic level of the local authority; that means at the municipal council. From there it goes down to analyse the functions of the other levels of hierarchy in the municipality. The level of hierarchy determines the units (departments, divisions etc.) from which we will keep the archival material and amount that will be kept from each one. For example, as the municipal council is the highest level of hierarchy in the local authority all its records will be kept for posterity. On the other hand we will keep only a few files, mainly policy and law files from the Parking Department.
2)	The time when the records were created: we know that records that were created at the time of crisis, or when there are changes in the local authority or in the country have great value for documenting its history10.
Thus it was established that the local authorities in Israel will retain the records from the first three (3) years of their existence, except for those concerning accounting and supply of office equipment, the records from times of war or if there is a change in the status of the local authority (from local council to town, or it was united with another one) all the records form this period will be kept too.
3)	The administrative-legal value11 of the records for their originator and others: usually we come upon a case where the originator claims that after a short period of time the records don't have any value at all. It is the duty of the archivist to check out whether these records have any administrative-legal value, as we know now that a main part of the legal value is its meaning for the rights of the individual, read the local citizen. As well as the rights of the local authority towards its citizens and towards the state as well as towards other organizations or institutions.
4)	Research value12: while the first archivists talked mainly about the historical value of the archival material, because it was clear to them that every archivist must be an historian, in order to appraise the archival material according to its use for history. Today we know that the archival material is used for many different kinds of research and not only for historical research. One of the most common examples in the local authorities in Israel is architecture and town planning, as well as research about the local population in different periods, culture and education and even geography.
5)	This rule might include the former two rules. It says that the
archivist has to take into account the potential use of the archival
material13. This is related to the function and time of its creation, as
well as the hierarchical level of its creator. According to the above
mentioned rules it was destined for destruction, but there is a thou-
alla Legislazione per gli Archivi, cost la sele-zione avviene in ottemperanza alle procedure di legge. La selezione ha due aspetti: a) esame del materiale archivistico prodotto dall'ente locali e dalle sue istituzioni; b) selezione del materiale archivistico di altri produttori, per stabilire quale materiale debba essere conser-vato per i posteri. I criteri di selezione sono: cause e modalita della produzione del materiale archivistico; tempo della produzione; produttore; ecc. Soprattutto vengono tenuti in considerazioneparticolari momenti storici del Comune o dello Stato; cambiamenti sociali nel Comune; fusioni di Comuni; ecc. Tutti questi fattori hanno portato negli anni dal 1955 al 2008 alcune soluzioni uniche a problemi particolari.
ALOUFI, Zohaf, Vrednotenje v mestnih arhivih v Izraelu. Atlanti, Zv. 18, Trst 2008, str. 287-295.
Mestni arhivi v Izraelu so predmet arhivske zakonodaje. Vrednotenje arhivskih dokumentov pa spada nedvomno v zakonodajo. Vrednotenje poteka v dveh vidikih: a) v raziskavi arhivskega materiala, ki je bilo ustvarjeno pri lokalnih oblasteh in v njihovih institucijah, b) v vrednotenju arhivske dokumentacije, ki je bila ustvarjena pri drugih ustvarjalcih. Kriteriji vrednotenja so naslednji: čemu je dokumentarno gradivo bilo ustvarjeno in kako, kdaj je nastalo, kdo ga je ustvaril, itd. Poleg tega pri vrednotenju ne smemo pozabiti na čas, kije zgodovinska kategorija, na zgodovinska obdobja arhivov in države, na družbene spremembe, na združevanje skupnosti, itd. V Izraelu je vse to v letih od 1955 do 2008prineslo edinstvene rešitve za vsako družbeno
SUMMARY
The municipal archives in Israel are subject to the Archives Law, and are supervised by the State Archivist. Therefore appraisal is done according to the law's procedures. Most of the archival material created in the local authorities has schedules as a part of the Archives
9.	Ibid.
10.	Ibid.
11.	Ibid.
12.	Ibid.
13.	Ibid.
Law. If a local authority wants to dispose of archival material which is not in the schedules, the local authority "shall submit an application for permission to do so to the State Archivist." This application is brought before a special committee and before the Higher Archives Council for confirmation. The same procedure is applied also for determining schedules. There are three types of local authorities in Israel: cities/towns, local councils and regional councils. They are divided also by the time of their foundation. There are those of thousands of years like Jerusalem and Nazareth; those which were founded at the time of the Ottoman Empire rule, like Tel-Aviv; those which were founded during the British Mandate, like the Regional Council Emeq Yizrael (Valley of Jezreel); and those which were founded after the foundation of the State of Israel, like Shderot and Eilat. The archival material in the municipal archives comes from two main sources: 1) the local authority and its institutions 2) citizens, businesses, and various other institutions and bodies from all sectors and aspects of society. Appraisal has two aspects: a) examination of the archival material that were created in the local authority and its institutions, and determining schedules; b) appraisal of archival material which were created by other bodies and institutions and by citizens, in order to decide which archival material will be accepted for posterity. These factors and others are expressed in the dilemmas that are in front of the archivists, when they have to appraise the archival material that are in their custody or the one that are offered to them. The appraisal criteria that are taken into consideration are: why and how the archival material was created; the time of its creation; who created it, etc. On top ofthat are taken also into consideration special periods in the history of the municipality and/or the State; the municipality change of class like from local council to a town; merger of municipalities etc. All of those brought during the years (1955-2008) some unique solutions to special problems, which I will be happy to bring before the conference.
ght that it will be of use in the future. There are those who think that we don't need this rule, because the archivist has to appraise the archival material according to its value in the past and not in the future14. For example: some years ago, one of the local authorities had a special project in which high school students from other parts of the country came to study in its high school in order to strengthen it. The only remaining evidence of this project is one accounting file. Because of that it will be kept in the local archives although it has been scheduled.
There is no doubt in my mind that by setting these rules, which still are use for appraisal in Israel, Prof. Alsberg preceded Terry cook and Helen Samuels by many years.
There are 252 local authorities in Israel: 76 cities/towns, 128 local councils and 53 regional councils. They were founded in various periods in our history, a fact that influence the age and content of the archives. There are those which are thousands of years old like Jerusalem and Nazareth, those which were founded at the time of the Ottoman Empire like Tel-Aviv and Rishon-Lezion, those which were founded during the British Mandate, like the Regional Council Emeq Yizrael (Valley of Jezreel) and Local council Even-Yehuda and those which were founded after the foundation of the State of Israel, like Sderot and Eilat.
Paragraph 6 of Israel Archives Law 5715-1955, states: "The State Archivist shall supervise the modes of operation the archives in the institutions of the State, and in the local authorities, and the preservation and destruction of archives material therein"15.
The meaning of the paragraph is that the appraisal of archival material in the local authorities will be done according to the Regulations Concerning the Destruction of Archival Material at State Institutions and Local Authorities16, after the first appraisal which is done by the local archivist. The regulations state that the Higher Archives Council will determine general schedules - schedules for archival material that belong to all State Institutions and Local Authorities, like accounting records or special schedules - for example schedules for records in local authorities only - like readings of water meters. As well there is one time permissions for destruction of non-scheduled archival material such as correspondent files that were appraised to have no value for keeping for posterity but are not schedu-ed. In order to facilitate and improve its efficiency the council established a special committee, which discusses the applications for scheduling and/or destruction of archival material in State Institutions and Local Authorities. This is not the place to discuss the composition of the committee or its procedures. Enough is to say that the local authorities are represented in it. In addition, when it discusses local authorities' applications, the value to the citizen is also considered, because of the closeness between the citizen and the authority, unlike the distance between the citizen and other State Institutions.
14.	Interview with Ms. Michal Henkin. Haifa City Archivist. 18 June 2008.
15.	State of Israel. State Archivist. The Archives Law 5715-1955 and Regulations. Jerusalem, 1967. p. 7.
16.	Ibid pp. 24-29.
17.	ISA/RG43.8/7087/2.
lows17
Below are some examples of this committee's decisions: 1) In 1978 the committee discussed two applications as fol-
"The application of the municipality of Kiryat Gat for one
time destruction of archival material from the years 1957-1975
The committee heard the explanations of the State Archives' representative and had reservations about this application. Most of the archival material is likely to have value to the history of the municipality and thus it should not be destroyed. The committee recommends that files of routine and administrative nature that have general schedules be destroyed^"
Kiryat Gat was founded in 1956, thus we have here an example for a decision to preserve archival material from the first years of the municipality.
"Municipality of Haifa application for scheduling and one time permission to destruct readers cards from the years 1948-1973
According to the implication of this application of all local authorities the committee recommends issuing a general schedule for all of them as follows:
Reader card at a public library - 5 years after the imbursement of the deposit or its redemption".
This is an example of archival material which has a limited value and is of no use after doing its function.
2) On February 1958 a special committee for establishing schedules for archival material in local authorities held its meeting in the State Archives. The main issue of the discussions was schedules for archival material related to local bylaws concerning licences. The committee approved schedules for licenses such as vehicle parking, inspection of peddlers, slaughter houses etc. It did not discuss the schedules for business licenses18.
This discussion was held only in 1969. At that time the municipality of Jerusalem asked permission to dispose of business licenses files. The inspectors at the State Archives thought that those files have research value concerning the social and urban development of Jerusalem. Thus the than State Archivist, Prof. Alsberg, decided to approach the Department of Geography at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem seeking their opinion. In the discussion held on 20 June 1969, the representatives of the State Archives and those of the Department of Geography took part. The University representatives said that they see the whole lot as a research base and they think that all of it has to be kept for posterity. But the amount of files was too large. Thus they decide that the University representative will give the Archivist his full explained report with his opinion, including agreement to keep those files at the University. Here is the place to state that for us disposition means also the removal of the records from the creator to another archives institution and not only destruction. The Archivist had to check the possibility to discuss this question later; meanwhile the material will be kept in the local authorities19.
Few years later this matter was discussed again and then it was decided that those files would be kept for seven (7) years from the last records on the file. In spite of this the Tel-Aviv-Yaffo City Archivist decided to keep those files. She claims that its research value far 18. isa/rg48.3/7088/2.
19. ISA/RG48.3/7091/27.
20.	Interview with Ms. Ziona Raz, Tel-Aviv-Yaffo City Archivist. 19 June 2008.
21.	ISA/RG48.3/7089/31.
22.	State of Israel. State Archivist. The Archives Law 5715-1955 and Regulations. Jerusalem, 1967. p. 5.
23.	ISA/RG48.3/7088/26.
succeeds the expanses of its keeping, and because of that she does not dispose of it20.
3)	On 1971 the local councils Migdal-Haemeq and Beit-Da-gan submitted applications for permissions for destruction of correspondent files from the periods 1959-1963 Migdal-Haemeq and 1952-1964 Beit-Dagan.
Both were founded in 1953.
The State Archives Inspector who examined the files in Migdal-Haemeq found that "most of those files, which concern the intrinsic functions of the council, will be kept. The only files that are proposed for destruction are those which were found useless at the inspec-tion21.
One of the members of the Higher Archives Council was against the destruction of Beit-Dagan files. Her reason was that at that time the government decided to move the population out of its place and put the citizens somewhere else, because it is at the end of our main airport runways and the citizens complained a lot about the noise and pollution, which disturbed their normal lives. After discussion with the above mentioned member the Archivist decided to keep the record, except for the archival material with were defined as "material which has no source value"22.
In those two cases we see again the influence of the time factor on appraisal. But in the case of^ Beit-Dagan there is also a second factor - the information that it is going to disappear from the map of the country. And that the archival material that they want to destroy will be the only evidence for its existence in the recent place.
As an afterthought I have to add that Beit-Dagan is a prosperous and developing town at the same place.
4)	A special committee to discuss schedules for files in welfare department in the local authorities was established on 1963. The State Archivist invited to its meeting representatives from the then Ministry of Welfare, Ministry of Health, Ministry of the Interior, the Union of Local Authorities in Israel, the school of Social Work at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and one from the Faculty of Sociology at the same university.
The background document that was prepared for this meeting is a masterpiece of appraisal that embodied in it the entire appraisal
criteria
23
It includes in it the administrative meaning as well as the research one, and especially everything that concerns the safeguarding of the citizens' rights.
5) On 7 July 1965, a discussion about scheduling elementary schools' archival material, took place in the State Archives. Here is the place to state that the Ministry of Education and the local authority have joint responsibility for elementary schools. The authority is responsible for day to day conduct and administration and the Ministry for teaching and learning. Thus the local authority is responsible for the school records management system. The proposal defines those records which will be kept for posterity. Its first para-
graph states: "(1) the entire archival material from the first 3 years of founding the school and its operation, except for archival material that was defined at the bylaws as 'schedules'^ In no way one can destroy archival material prior to 1920"24. Here we can see again the time factor in the appraisal process. It was clear to the archivists who appraised this material that the three first years of the school existence and its activities are crucial to its character and its way of functioning. 1920 is a very important year in our history. This is the year when the British Mandate begun, thus all the archival material before it belongs to the Ottoman Empire, a period in which we have a very small amount of archival material.
6) On 1979, the youth unit within the social department in Jerusalem municipality submitted an application to dispose of files concerning youths which were referred to vocational orientation and psychotechnical evaluation, except for those who were sent either to institutions or for adoption. After its discussion the committee decided to seek "professional opinion. According to this the material was examined by^, the director of Child Service at the Ministry of Labour and Welfare. According to her recommendation, psychological diagnosis and summing up reports referring to children who were taken out of their homes and adoption files weren't destroyed"25. Asking the opinion of professional bodies is used even today. In spite the fact that most of the creators tend to destroy the records a short time after they were created, their superiors tend to be more cautious. Here too we see the approach that prefers the rights of the citizen as a criterion over the request of the creator.
From their very beginning the local authorities' archives consider sighting and acquiring archival material which was created by organizations and individuals that are not a part of the authority institutions, a very important part of their tasks. The main reason is their wish to include in the archives, as much as possible, a whole and reliable picture of life in the authority. To do so "the archivist must know thoroughly the history and the development of the locality, to try and project what will be the subjects of interest of the authority's employees on the one side and on the other these of the researchers, as well as those of school students, local and national press, television channels, and inquisitive persons^ the guiding rule is that any archival material which can illuminate the local life has to be kept in the archives, and thus has to be collected26". In addition, when the archivist locates archival material that in his opinion has to be kept, he appraises it according to the above mentioned criteria. This way the archivist knows that his appraisal will be totally objective and without any personal inclinations. This is termed by us "private archival material" includes personal archives, business archives, school archives, archives of organizations and institutions. Acquisition of this material can be done either by donation or by purchasing. The main archival material that the archives purchase is photographs taken by professional photographers
This policy, conducted by Israeli Local Authorities archives is compatible with the one that is used in the United Kingdom27. On this subject there are recommendations for local authorities' archives, written by Michael Cook28. The American Richard Cox also refers to acquisition/collecting private archival material, to complement the official one. He developed "A Structure for a Model
24.	Ibid.
25.	Ibid.
26.	Aloufi, Zohar. Private Archives in Archives of Israeli Local Authorities. Arkhiyyon. Reader in «Archives Studies and Documentation». No. 8. Jerusalem, 1995. p. 99 (HEB).
27.	Cook, Michael. Archives Administration. A manual for Intermediate and Smaller Organizations and for Local Government. Flokestone,
1977. p
p. 95-98.
28. Ibid pp. 202-205.
29.	Cox, Richard, J. Managing Institutions Archives. Foundational Principles and Practices. New York, 1992. p. 94.
30.	Alsberg, P.A. Acquisition policy for Personal Archival Material. Yad Lakore. In «Israel Journal of Library, Information and Archive Science». Vol. 27. Jerusalem, 1993. pp. 44-47. (HEB).
31.	Ibid. p. 45.
32.	Ibid. ibid.
33.	Ibid. ibid.
34.	Ibid. p. 47.
35.	Ibid. ibid.
36.	Interview with Ms. Michal Henkin, Hifa City Archivist. 18 June 2008.
37.	Aloufi. p. 103.
38.	Ibid. p. 101.
39.	Alsberg. p. 46.
40.	Ibid. ibid.
Collecting Policy" for such archives29.
The criteria for appraisal of archival material belonging to private and public institutions and organizations are based on the criteria for the material which is created in the local authority itself. Another factor for appraisal is the part that the organization/institution took in the local life and its contribution to its citizens. This factor will also help the archivist in the appraisal of the personal archives. To this are added other factors30:
a)	Is the archival material substituted for an official one which was either lost or destroyed31?
b)	Does the archival material complement the official one32?
c)	Does the personal archives reflect and ideological dispute and dissention, "in the archivist's criteria system this one is probably the most important one"33;
d)	The role of the individual in the local entity: archives of a creative person such as writers or musicians, in this case the importance of the archives is because of this personality34;
e)	A family archives which "reflects the life and activities of its owner"35. For example: an archives in one of the local councils has in its custody a family archives. Five generations of this family live there. In this archives there is one series for one of its members who was head of the local council for many years36;
f)	Very valuable collection. For instance: in the Haifa City archives there is a private archives of one of the local musicians. In this archives there are two series for two collections of great value. One is a collection of Yiddish songs, the other of cantorial music37.
For several reasons there are instances when official archival material is held by private persons.
(1)	The most powerful man in the organization thinks that the organization is him and he is the organization. Thus when he retires he takes the archival material with him. For example, the first mayor of Netanya was the founder of the Diamond Industry in the country and the founder of Israel Diamond Manufacturers Association, therefore when he retired he took the association's archives and kept it with his private archives38.
(2)	the official archives did not want the old archival material, therefore they gave the one that relate to his term of office, to the higher office bearer in the organization, as he wanted to write his memoirs or a local monograph. The rest of the archival material was destroyed. This was the situation is Rishon-LeZion and in Hadera39.
(3)	We also know that officials like ambassadors or government ministers take home archival material because "they look at it as a very confidential material and do not want to leave it in the institution or the organization after their retirement40".
There is no doubt that acquisition of private archival material is a very important component at the archivist policy. All the more so when it is about archival material that was taken out from the local
authority and its institution during various periods of time and by different people, as the law also recognizes it as one which belongs to the authority and not to the person.
Below you will find some examples of private archives within local authorities' archives:
1)	Jerusalem City archives keeps the archival material of Beit-Yaakov ("^e Ruin") synagogue from the years 1896-1940, as well as archival material of the Greek-Orthodox Church - 1890-1978, the Anglican Church - 1837-1861 and the Russian-Orthodox Society for the Holy Land 1890-195541. ^ere is no need to explain the meaning of this archival material to the understanding of the social and religious fabric of this particular city.
2)	One of the first private archives that were acquired by Haifa City archives was the archives of David Hacohen42. He was a municipal council member from 1929 - 1950, a Knesset (Parliament) member and for many years the Chairman of its committee for foreign affairs and defence. On top of that he was very active in the public scene in Haifa from the 1920s until his death in 1984. And indeed there are very important records to the history of both the city and the country in his archives.
3)	Tel-Aviv-Yaffo city archives keep the archives of "Tel-Aviv Commerce and Economic Club". ^is club meets almost every Friday to discuss economic or political matters. Among the participants are heads of State and the economy. There is a great importance to the speeches in this club. The archival material enables us to look into the role that various persons took in the history of the State, as well as knowledge and understanding of the urgent matters that were on our agenda43.
4)	Rishon-LeZion was founded in 1882 as a village. In 1889 a winery was founded there. This winery had a very important role in the village and town since 1950. Because the founders did not always keep the official archival material, the one which was kept by the founding families is the main source for its early history. Therefore one of the first activities of the archives was to collect the archival material of the families. ^is material was given a place of honour in the archives and as we speak it is going on the municipality web site44. The archives also acquired the winery archival material, which is very important for the local history as well as that of the country.
In addition to collecting private archival material, the local archives deal also with documentation. It is also concerned with appraisal, but in this case the appraisal is done before the deed. The documentation is mostly planed photography of the place and its day to day life. Here the most important rule is the future and/or potential use of it, as well as to give a more complete image of the place and its development.
Another way of documenting is to prepare subject files that are related to history and the present day of the place. Those files are mostly in use by school children, but also by journalists. When one prepares this kind of file, one also adheres to the rule of their potential use. For example: Kfar Tavor (Tabor) Local Council was founded in 1901. ^is is a small place. In 2006 its population was 2600
41.	^e city of Jerusalem web site: http://www. jerusalem.muni.il/jer_main/TopSiteJeru. asp?newstr=2&src=/jer_sys/publish/HtmlFi-les/5583/results_pub_id=5586. html&cont=232
42.	Aloufi. pp. 99, 103.
43.	Interview with Ms. Ziona Raz, Tel-Aviv-Yaffo city archivist. 19 June 2008.
44.	Municipality of Rishon-LeZion web site: http://www.rishonlezion.muni.il.
inhabitants. This is the reason why the archivist could document every family in the place. Thus one finds in this archives a record group of individual files of the families. This documentation contributes to the knowledge of Kfar-Tavor and its citizens.
In recent years there is a lot of writing and talking about "TOTAL ARCHIVES". At the Society of American Archivists' Glossary, it is defined as: "A strategy to document the historical development and all segments of a community by acquiring official administrative records as well as related personal papers and corporate records45". Thus we have the proof that the Israeli local authorities' archives, by employing the above mentioned criteria, both for disposition of records and for acquiring them, are truly "total archives".
Appraisal of archival material in the local authorities in Israel, both of the one which is created in the authority and its institutions, and the one which is created by the private sector and persons and the archives acquires or purchase it, is based on the criteria/rules that were formed by Prof. Alsberg and have stood the test of time. The best evidence is that the later theories by Cook and Samuels strengthen those rules which were determined already in 1960. The local authorities in Israel have benefited from the use of them for last 48 years.
In memory of Prof. P.A. Alsberg Teacher and mentor
45. SAA web site: http://www.archivists.org/ glossary/term_details. asp?DefinitionKey=1188.
y
prof. Paul A. Alsberg (1919-2006)