Guidelines for donating your organization's records are available from the Society of American Archivists or for information on local repositories where your organization's records may be donated, contact New England Archivists. There is no sure way to determine the value of historical documents, books, or artifacts. Like any unique materials, they are worth whatever somebody is willing to pay. Libraries and archives are not able to provide estimates of monetary value for historical materials. You should be aware that appraisers do charge for their services and, on some occasions, the appraiser's fee may even be higher than the estimated value of the item.
Archivists are trained professionals who decide what records to maintain and preserve.
In doing so, they organize records according to their creator's original arrangement or a similar hierarchical scheme, and describe them to facilitate retrieval for research. Employment as a professional archivist usually requires a graduate education in library science or history with a concentration in archives management. When hiring an archivist for your organization, it is important to make sure your candidates have the proper educational background and experience. In addition to these elements, an archivist should have the research and analytical ability to understand the content of records, as well as the context in which they were created. An archivist should be able to decipher deteriorated or poor quality printed materials, manuscripts, and photographic media.