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Re: Help needed--try try again



Whoops!  "Reply-to" errors aren't the only ones we make; I was
going to respond to this, got the address all right, and then got
distracted and sent it out unshriven, so to speak; so my mistake,
mea culpa, and my apologies!

Anyway, a similar case a few years ago here.  Then I was also in
charge of architectural drawings, for which I was ill-prepared and
not that enthusiastic about anyway.  One day we get a call from a
son of an architect who says the building, in another city in Utah,
in which dad's and grandpapa's collection of drawings from years of
business was being sold and the drawings were to be tossed
unless we took them.  Well, I didn't really want them NOT because
they weren't valuable but because it was (a.) a huge collection--this
was before we had remodeled and before we had remote storage
and (b.) because the drawings were all of buildings in this other
city, which happens to have a major educational institution which
has a Special Collections department and has existing collections
of architectural drawings.  So I called the folks down there and they-
-I was going to say weaseled out of it but that's unfair and unworthy
of our profession--declined the collection, saying they didn't have
any room, any staff, any time to process it, yaddayaddayadda.

So I took the stuff, thinking of that old archival principle of "Bring
'Em Back Alive," and a major job it was!  We drove our big van
down to this other city, hauled all of this stuff out of a basement, I
mean that van was groaning down on its springs and we had to
stuff the part-timer who went to help us spread-eagled up on top of
the boxes and drawings to get home.  I kept it for years until a
change of administration at the other major educational institution
brought in a guy I knew who not only owed me a favor but was a
specialist in architectural collections.  So I convinced him that this
collection really belonged in his library, and after reviewing the
contents--which included drawings of all of the major public
buildings in this other city, many of the schools, and a number of
the buildings on his own campus!--he agreed.  Again, we hauled
this stuff down there and another major job it was, but I felt then
and still feel good not only about saving it in the first place but
getting it in a place where  it truly belonged.

And just to show that no good deed goes unpunished, just a month
or two ago the donor called and chewed on us for transferring it!
But I still feel it was the right thing to do, even though it was a great
inconvenience and a back-breaking job.

Again, my apologies for sending the first message back empty.


Roy Webb, C.A.
Multimedia Archivist
Special Collections
J. Willard Marriott Library
295 South 1500 East
University of Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah   84112
(801) 585-3073  //  fax (801) 585-3976
rwebb@library.utah.edu

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