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Re: Help needed



Tom,
     One thing to keep in mind is that you *are* the full time archivist.
Even if you spend only 60% of your time doing archival-type work that's more
than many people spend doing what they consider they were hired for.  My
mother is a good example, she was head of the public libraries for a small
county in Kansas.  She spent very little time being a "librarian" and a
*lot* of time dealing with boards, Friends groups, city/county councils,
etc.  Archiving is still your profession and you can offer the expertise
that the current owner cannot, and as Richard Lytle said, it's better than
the alternative.

My own two cents,
Tom Anderson; Collections
American Museum of Science and Energy
300 S. Tulane
Oak Ridge, TN 37830
(865) 576-3228 (Voice), (865) 576-6024 (Fax)

-----Original Message-----
From: Thomas Berry <tberry@WCNET.ORG>
To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU <ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU>
Date: Wednesday, January 31, 2001 5:40 PM
Subject: [ARCHIVES] Help needed


>Good afternoon again!
>
>I am once again in need of the collective wisdom of the list.
>
>A county historical society in a nearby state has been given a very large
>(by our standards) collection of records from a major manufacturer that was
>formerly based in their county. One of our directors has been in touch with
>them about the collection, and the folks there apparently do not have the
>staffing, the space, the time or the expertise in the subject matter of the
>collection to do anything with it. He has asked them to consider
>transferring the collection to us, and they seem to be open to the idea.
>
>Here's where it gets difficult. Aside from expertise in the subject matter
>of the collection, we are just as unable to take this on as they are. We
>would have to rent space to store it (which can be done), but otherwise we
>can do nothing with it. I have been told to write the society a letter
>expressing our interest in the collection. My first problem is how to
>express that interest in light of the fact that it will simply go into
>storage until we have a bullding finished here, probably two to three years
>from now at least.
>
>My second problem is a bit dicier. I am expected to use my title as
>archivist as bragging rights - "We have a full time archivist, so we should
>have your collection," to put it a bit crassly. If I worked in the
>collections full-time, that would be fine. But I have a problem making such
>a claim when, over a given month, 40% of my time is spent in anything but
>archival work.
>
>I can usually be fairly tactful and diplomatic in my writing, but this has
>me stumped. Any ideas or advice?
>
>Best wishes,
>
>Thomas Berry, Archivist
>Historical Construction Equipment Association
>16623 Liberty Hi Road
>Bowling Green, Ohio 43402
>Phone 419-352-5616
>Fax 419-352-6086
>tberry@wcnet.org
>http://www.hcea.net
>
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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>