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Re: Real world of way behind archives...



I started to send this only to Bridgette, but then I thought it would be
interesting to hear others' reactions to these thoughts.  Please be gentle
with me!

Holly

________________
Bridgette,

Wow!  What a mess!  You've about hit it on the head--this is the real world
and the textbook world is a virtual unreality.

How much space do you have for the special collections?  I ask this because
if you don't really have your dream archives (yes, we'd all like to have such
a thing and if these ever happen, it's usually not in our lifetime...) you
may not have adequate space for all this stuff as yet.  And it sounds like
they've been pretty protective of their stuff for some time.  Most situations
like there are where well-intentioned folks mess up.  They want to do it
"right" which seems to everyone else doing it opposition to how they've been
doing it and they don't like hearing the implication that they've been doing
it wrong.  If you do persuade the big boss that it's going to be done "your
way" in the future, you can be sure these folks will remember and you won't
have real cooperation when you need it most in the future.

My first thoughts (and I may have other ideas later) are to not try to take
their stuff away--at least not right off.  My guess is that you wouldn't have
enough space, and even more, you don't have enough staff.  (Another real
world of archives:  too much stuff, not enough staff).  Tell them that your
most critical need is intellectual control.  Keep in the back of your mind
that physical control will follow after you've gotten past the first hurdle.
Ask them for descriptions of the stuff they have -- do they have lists?
notes?  series of files?  all the kind of stuff you're going to need from
them when you do get the stuff and do processing.  You just need copies of
this info.  In short, you want finding aid/intellectual content stuff.  Keep
that in your dept so folks coming to you for research can get the info from
you that what they want is in the Horticulture dept.  rather than having them
find out from the Horticulture dept.  They'll end up wanting to talks with
the folks from Hort. but if they get the info from you then you won't be left
out of the loop.  This can be presented to the big boss/bosses as a valuable
statistical control.  If all researchers have to start with you (before
ending up where they probably will anyway, sooner or later) then the
researcher use statistics can be compiled in one place and surely they want
to be able to know how many researchers they are serving.  One call to you at
it could be at their fingertips instead of having to call around to seven or
eight depts missing some and counting some twice.  All researchers start with
you.  You know where they have all gone when they leave speccol.  -- to
Hort., to B&G, to PR, etc,

As for the photo handling with gloves, order some extras, make a point to
visit the depts that have photos (yeas, of course that's everyone) under the
guise of doing a check of the stuff that they describe for you--remember your
plan to have them give you descriptions of their stuff?  go around and do a
look-see (this is called a "preservation survey" and it doesn't have to be
physically located in speccol for you to do it).  Take gloves with you.  Make
sure at least the dept head sees you using them.  Comments along the lines
that you hope that when the material is transferred to speccol that the stuff
is still in the same shape as when you saw it at "preliminary" and leave a
pair of gloves with them--you can add that if they need more gloves to please
let you know; you have an interest in making sure that the stuff is still
usable for future researchers in later years.  This plants the seed that you
expect them to handle it responsibly--you expect the material to come to
speccol at some point in time (be vague) and you've seen what it looks like
and it better look like that when it gets to speccol.

Don't be condescending about it, talk to them as if of course they understand
what you're talking about.  Let them ask questions.  When instructing them as
to why phrase it indirectly--"I don't know how often you get asked by
researchers why they're supposed to use gloves for photos, but this is how I
explain it to them"  And act like you're just giving them hints as to good
ways to explain it, rather than it being the case of you're explaining it to
them because they don't know themselves.  Helps them save face and I
guarantee there'll be those who appreciate it!

But then, my approach has always been to not be confrontational if there's a
way to get the point across by providing them face-saving measures.  And not
take on too big a chunk at once.  Right now I'd only want to know what they
have so I could direct people to the right places and to have all the
intellectual control in one centralised location.  And when you get more
staff and space, then you'll be in a better position to establish priorities
about what to transfer to speccol when you're ready for it.  Heck, you don't
want it all at once anyway, do you?  But the preservation education needs to
get underway--very subtly, and in the guise of "preservation survey"

Just my thoughts,

Holly

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