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Re: Death of a Senator - Advice Needed



7/24/00

Dear Mr. Moody:

In addition to whatever other advice is offered on the handling of such
papers, let me make recommendation that I pass on to others (based on
painful experience).

If any deed of gift is signed, you might want to make sure that there is a
clause that gives the institution the authority to dispose of portions of
the collection not retained by the repository.  For example, the Muskie
Archives has this passage in its deeds: "Items in this donation which are
not retained by [the institution] may be (donor to initial choice):  ____
disposed by the [repository]; ____ returned to the donor; ____ other
(explain)."  The first option is best because there is no need to explain
why you don't want some stuff.

I mentioned that this provision stemmed from an unfortunate oversight.
There was no such provision for the over 2,000 linear feet of Muskie
material when the deed was signed in 1986 (2 years before I took over).
As a result, the Muskie Archives is obliged to keep everything, including
case file and other segments that are normally pitched by an archives.
Later on, when I floated the idea to administrators that we should amend
the deed, the response has been that the issue was delicate, no doubt
because the late senator did not want to part with anything.

If you can get something like this clause into the deed during any
negotiation, you will save your self a lot of space and work later on.

Good luck.


Sincerely,


Christopher M. Beam
Director, The Edmund S. Muskie Archives
Bates College, 70 Campus Avenue
Lewiston, ME 04240-6018
(207) 786-6354, FAX (207) 786-6035
E-mail: cbeam@bates.edu
html://www.bates.edu/muskie_archives



>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Valerie Nye" <vnye@MAIL.GCSU.EDU>
> To: <ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU>
> Sent: Wednesday, July 19, 2000 12:12 PM
> Subject: Death of a Senator - Advice Needed
>
>
> > Yesterday US Senator Paul Coverdell from Georgia died after a very short
> > illness.  Our archives is to be the recipient of his US Senate papers.  We
> > have received
> > approximately two shipments (150 linear feet) of documents from his eight
> > years in office.
>
> Many years ago I worked with the papers of a rep. who had been in office for
> 25 years.  The library I worked for really had no concept of what was
> coming, which was a TON of stuff.  Room to keep lots of boxes for a long
> period is essential.  The second thing--which is probably a dream--is the
> opportunity to talk to the Senator's office manager to learn how the files
> were arranged and handled on a day to day basis, what was important to the
> staff, what "big" issues closely involved the Senator, did the Senator care
> about his "legacy" or had not reached that plateau, etc.  My person was
> around long enough to become chair of a committee, which provided a large
> part of the collection--an entire constituency apart from the home district.
> There is a GPO publication about the libraries, archives, etc. of members of
> Congress, so that may list a close-by person with experience.  Great good
> luck!  Job security!
>
> Carol L. Moody, now at St. Mary's County Historical society in southern
> Maryland
>
> 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!

To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to listserv@listserv.muohio.edu
      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>