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Re: Help needed



Thomas:

Look at it this way,  by getting the collection now, you can see what you
need to house, display, utilize, etc. it and make plans in advance.  If the
building were complete, it might be more difficult to change the facility.
Of course, I am saying all this without knowing anything about the scope of
the collection, the media involved, etc.  But being in the planning stages
of a new facility could be looked at as an advantage rather than a
disadvantage.

You are the archivist for an association.  You are full-time.  You are their
full-time archivist.  I doubt any of us get to devote as much of our time as
we'd like to our primary job responsibility.  I am the Supervisor of Records
Management for a school district.  I spend an inordinate amount of my time
handling facility related issues.  It just makes time spent on the RM stuff
more appreciated.

Robin Tew
Pinellas County (FL) Schools

From: Thomas Berry <tberry@WCNET.ORG>
Reply-To: Archives & Archivists <ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU>
To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
Subject: Help needed
Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2001 17:22:57 -0500

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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A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!

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Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>