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Re: What do you tell a 9-year old?



I did a presentation for early elementary school students several months ago. In addition to showing them the kinds of things we keep in an archives, I also talked about the difficulties of preserving records. To illustrate the point, I took a document printed on a sheet of new, good-quality paper (this obviously wasn't a real archival document) and tightly wrinkled it into a small wad. I then tossed it to the students and asked them if I had completely ruined it. Once the page had been opened up and somewhat flattened out, they agreed that it really hadn't been completely ruined. I then took a page from an old, highly-acidic book (a portion of which I keep for exactly this purpose) and wadded it up in my hands. This time, of course, what I tossed to the students were thousands of tiny paper fragments. They were all quite impressed with the terrible mess it made. I then showed them a roll of microfilm and a microfilm reader as an example of how we might preserve very fragile paper.

Just talking about these ideas wouldn't have meant much to them. Throwing paper wads and paper confetti at them made it all pretty clear and even entertaining.

I took the example one step farther to illustrate the difficulty of preserving computer  records. I retrieved my wad of paper and this time cut a slit down the middle of it with a scissors and then cut off one corner. I gave it back to them and asked if I had ruined it yet. They agreed that, while it was getting worse by the minute, it wasn't completely ruined even now. Most of the information could still be read. I then took a (blank) 3.5" computer disk and cut a small slit in it. They were sufficiently knowledgeable about computers to understand that this disk was a complete loss. Not a bit of that information was now readable. This illustration gave real meaning to the otherwise abstract idea that computer records are very easily damaged and therefore difficult to preserve.

A few example of obsolete technology such as 5.25" computer disks ("hey, my grandma has a computer like that!") and Beta video tapes quickly and clearly communicated the idea that records aren't worth much if you don't have machines to read them.

I got the impression that the kids really enjoyed this part of the presentation, and plan to make it a regular part of future presentations.

--
Kevin Enns-Rempel, Archivist
Fresno Pacific University
Fresno, CA
kennsrem@fresno.edu

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