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Re: Museums and Archives



The organization I work for started out with a museum and developed an
archival collection that was considered part of the museum. Both of Dean's
observations were true here. Now that we have an archivist, it's a consant
battle to try to change this unfortunate way of thinking, even though some
fairly clear boundaries between the archive and the museum have been
established.

Best wishes,

Thomas Berry, Archivist
Historical Construction Equipment Association
16623 Liberty Hi Road
Bowling Green, Ohio 43402
419-352-5616
tberry@wcnet.org

Dean DeBolt wrote:

> Having been out-of-town, I returned to an interesting discussion of
> museums and archivists.   My experience with museums that collect archives
> and papers (without an archivist position) is:
>
> 1)  Each paper item takes on the persona of a museum artifact. Each item
> is inventoried, numbered, etc. etc. ...   These individual
> treatments futher fragment a group of materials, because museums, like
> libraries, like to segregate items by type.   Thus what would have been
> "Papers of Bill Smith" with five folders... become Bill Smith Accession
> 2000.03.06.115, 2000.03.06.116, etc. The organic unit is lost in many
> respects.
>
> 2)  Since the paper materials are treated as individual objects, there is
> often no impetus to make retention decisions.   Everything
> is kept, because as separate items, each may have worth.
>
> Dean
>
> Dean DeBolt
> University Librarian
> Special Collections and West Florida Archives
> John C. Pace Library
> University of West Florida
> 11000 University Parkway
> Pensacola, FL  32514-5750
> Tele:  850-474-2213;   Fax:  850-474-3338
>

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