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Re: Thanks for the advice on "Too Many Copies"



I sympathize with Alan Divack's comments, but I'm not in total
agreement with them.  Most archival establishments are not
generously funded with staff (thus time limits what we can and
cannot do) and we don't often have large clientele that could
justify increased staff.   When I count up the hours and time
spent in getting Mrs. Smith to donate her husband's Civil War
letters so they could be preserved and made available to
scholars ... that time is an investment of resources.   To justify
this "expenditure," I'm careful to let my bosses and the University
know that we have been entrusted with an important historical
collection that both helps researchers and enhances our own
image as an institution to be trusted to preserve the cultural
heritage.   Now in return, should I let every researcher that
comes in door walk out with a photocopy set?   How should I
react when someone tells the donor 'that's a great group of
letters, I've got a whole set of them.'

I agree wholeheartedly that we exist for researchers to use
us, but the issue of wholesale copying of massive parts of
collections is an issue that I think is too complicated to simply
suggest that we're ignoring the researchers by not doing the
copying.    We had a case here where a faculty member assigned
a class to look at the personal papers of Mr. XYZ ... the faculty
member wanted the class members to trek to the archives,
learn where we were, how to find materials, etc.   That was fine,
but when the eighth request came in for a complete photocopy
of the personal papers of Mr. XYZ because 'oh we were told to
look at these, and I don't have time to stay, here's my copy card,
just make me a set"... well, that's where I drew the line.

I think there are much larger issues here.  We are NOT simply
saying that bulk photocopying is an inconvenience on staff,
because most of us know that that is precisely our job.   What
we ARE saying however is that there are other constraints such
as copyright, ownership, donor relations, preservation of the
materials, feelings of the institution, that come into play here.

I often sit at meetings where university administrators are un-
happy that some fly-by-night educational competitor has moved
into the area and is offering "competing" classes in various topics
and attracting students with advertising, shiny billboards, and low
costs.    How would the same administrators feel if they learned
that I had committed eighty staff hours to acquiring and processing
a collection, supplies, etc., just to turn around and make complete
photocopies for every request?   Their question would be why did
we accept the collection in the first place?   Let the donor give it
away, or better yet, sell it off on ebay.  Why should we be spending
limited dollars on something we're giving away?

There is no answer in this message, and I DO appreciate Alan's
response.    By the way, I've been slowly gathering these messages
for my "file" in discussions with archives classes!

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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