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corporate archives



From: Daniel Sokolow@MCGRAW-HILL on 03/30/2000 09:52 AM


To:   archives@listserv.muohio.edu
cc:
Subject:  corporate archives

Ahem.

Hello?

Anybody out there?

Just checking - I'm starting to feel a little ignored in this whole
conversation.  I admit I haven't been following the whole discussion very
carefully, but I got the sense from Richard's posting that the poor corporate
archives will disappear if we ("the profession") don't take action.  May I point
out, gently, that I am, officialy, a _CORPORATE_ archivist.  That is, it is my
official job to take care of the company's archives.  Many corporations are
taking active steps to preserve their own history without asking for help from
university archivists.

I've been getting the impression that there's a bit of a gap (I'm being polite)
between the corporate and the academic archivists, and I certainly get the sense
that many academic archivists refuse to admit that a for-profit organization can
have any interest or concern in their own histories or archives.  Those of us on
this side of the fence can point out that some are taking steps.  And quite
frankly, there's nothing wrong with working for a corporation.  The pay is often
better, the system (occasionally) works more efficiently, and I for one - and I
swore before I got this job I would never work in corporate America - am quite
happy in my corporate job.  Sometimes the job sucks, but so does everybody's.

I don't want to misinterpret Richard's comments, but certainly I don't think we
need to sound a panic alarm about the influx of the evil corporations.  That
academic chairs are all donated by corporations instead of protesters from the
picket lines is a matter of money, and corporations have it.  What difference
does it make anyway?  At least there's another academic opportunity, even if it
was created by an evil corporation.  I suppose academic freedom is at risk, but
anyone who thinks that's not the case in the rest of the university is just not
paying attention.  Everyone makes compromises, ethical and otherwise, whether we
admit it or not.

A corporate archivist's job is the same as an academic's - manage and maintain
the records of your institution.  The uses of the collection are different, the
patrons are different, and the needs are different, but it's just a job the same
as any other.  Good, competent archivists do their job properly whatever the
setting - yes the pay sucks sometimes, yes the demands are unreasonable, but you
do your job because that's what you get paid to do.

DS


Daniel Sokolow
Corporate Archivist
The McGraw-Hill Companies
1221 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
daniel_sokolow@mcgraw-hill.com

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