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



(I've left Dean's message here, since it raises some other interesting
threads inthis discussion...)

There are, obviously some other threads in here. At the risk of making it
all sound very biz-speakish, an archive's collections are its assets...those
assets have value so long as they are maintained. In order to maintain them,
the archives must exert a level of intellectual control, as well as physical
control, over their collections. They must, in fact, do a balancng act
between preservation and access.

But archives, especially those in more academic settings, also have another
responsibility and this is one that Dean has pointed to: educational. If a
researcher has never had the experience of working directly, and in an
unmediated manner, with primary sources they are missing out in their
intellectual development. What happens when the student/scholar who has a
complete set of second-generation photocopies (you don't think that students
don't make photocopies for others? especially when there is class work
involved?) realizes that theirs is not a "true and fair copy?" Will they
even understand the distinction or significance? Thank heavens for
instructors who insist on student's using primary sources!

Electronic access only exacerbates the issue...and we are grappling with it
as we drift into digitazation of materials. Yes, there are a number of good
reasons for treating the local researcher with a degree of preference over
the mailed-in request for 1000 photocopies...

-----Original Message-----
From: Dean DeBolt <ddebolt@MAIL.UWF.EDU>
To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU <ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU>
Date: Friday, March 24, 2000 3:15 PM
Subject: 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
>
>A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!
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>Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>
>

A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!

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      In body of message:  SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname
                    *or*:  UNSUB ARCHIVES
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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>