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Re: Museums and documents



Lee et al. -

Here in Ontario we realized long ago that many community museums AND public
libraries held significant archival materials.  Further, we knew that some
staff in archives - dedicated positions - could not afford the time and
moeny for formal academic programs.  This culminated in the devleopment of
a certificate program by the Archives Association of Ontario, which has
done much good in raising the level of practice in this province.

Still, if a curator or librarian does not attend the AAO courses, one can
still see accession numbers written (hopefully in pencil and not India
ink...) on individual documents...

One of the interesting observations which has come to me over the years in
dealing with both public library librarians and community museum curators
on archival matters is that the librarians have tended to be very
interested in access, to the detriment occasionally of preservation, while
the curators seem to be exactly the reverse.

Now to my museum and library colleagues, both in the Great White North and
south of the 49th parallel, these are only observations and should not be
taken as sweeping generalizations.

Cheers!

Mark


At 09:00 AM 03/03/2000 -0600, you wrote:
>Many museum curators seem not to understand the difference between documents
>and artifacts, nor the difference between archival and curatorial practice.
>Apart from preserving its own archives, is there a general feeling about the
>propriety of a museum collecting papers and records, as well as museum
>artifacts? Does the museum world have any ethical guidelines or standards
>about documents versus artifacts? As an archivist, I try very hard not to
>get into the museum business. Are museum curators likewise taught not to
>dabble in documents?
>
>Lee
>
>==--00--==
>
>Leon C. Miller, Manuscripts Librarian
>Special Collections, Jones Hall, Howard-Tilton Memorial Library
>Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70118
>Ph: 504-865-5685, Fx: 504-865-5761
>Leon.Miller@tulane.edu
>http://www.tulane.edu/~lmiller/SpecCollHomepage.html
>
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A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!

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      In body of message:  SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname
                    *or*:  UNSUB ARCHIVES
To post a message, send e-mail to archives@listserv.muohio.edu

Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html

Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>