Monetary valuation of archival documents as method of determining their value categories

Abstract

The purpose of the study. The article proposes a methodology for determining the value categories of archival documents by means of their monetary valuation. The methodology of the article is based on the use of general scientific methods, in particular, systematic, conceptual analysis, retrospective and comparative. The scientific novelty of the article is to provide an innovative list of value categories of archival documents. The author hypothesizes that determination of the boundaries of value categories of archival documents is possible only if they are monetized, since it is hardly possible to formulate their qualitative features in the definitions of these categories. Using the example of statistical data on monetary valuation of the most valuable archival documents by expert inspection commissions of state archival institutions of Ukraine, the author shows the methodology of differentiation of archival documents into three value categories: extremely rare, rare and especially valuable. Recommendations are made to change the approach to ranking archival documents by their value in the Methodology of monetary evaluation of documents of the National Archival Fond. Conclusions. The author proposes the following classification of archival documents by value categories: unique, extremely rare, rare, especially valuable, valuable, and massive. Based on the data of monetary valuation of the most valuable archival documents for 2009, kept by state archival institutions of Ukraine, the array is built and ranked from the highest to the lowest valuation. Processing of this array with the help of S. Bradford—B. Vickery regularity made it possible to outline the boundaries of three value categories of archival documents — extremely rare, rare and especially valuable. Based on the table of rank division of archival documents according to their monetary valuation in the Methodology of monetary evaluation of documents of the National Archival Fond, the rank limits of monetary valuation of archival documents were specified in accordance with the categories of value of archival documents proposed by the author as of 2009. By multiplying the inflation index of each year by the indicators of value of archival documents in the collection, it is possible to determine the limits of value of each value category up to 2022 inclusively. It is proposed to make these changes to the Methodology of monetary evaluation of documents of the National Archival Fond. Current sales of archival documents at foreign auctions preserve the limits of the ranks of the above value categories.