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Re: Real world of way behind archives...



Allowing access to unprocessed collections should be the rule, but there are
instances where necessity rules otherwise.

Case in point is CA State Archives, where unprocessed non-restricted
legislative intent records (mostly relatively recent) are voluminous and
occupy the best part their very own stacks floor. All of these -- again,
only those which have no restrictions placed upon them by their originating
legistor, if h/she is still in office -- are made available to archives
researchers. It is a risk we must take, regardless of potential loss of
order. Most of the time, these are already in legislative bill number marked
folders supplied from the legislative rep or committee office of origin;
most are in fairly tidy form as received but there are some that are not so
neatly arranged. We occasionaly must neaten up the file(s) as they are run
through photocopy orders.

CSA does have a modern, largely state-of-the-art research room, with patron
tables under roving security cameras, lockers out front for all patron
belongings, etc. The potential for theft is not at all easy here.

But the sheer volume of legislative intent research here requires us to
comply with the present demand, and while doing so, our archivists are doing
their best to keep processing away! And as of last week, CSA is at 60% of
stacks storage capacity! This in a custom-tailored archives facility less
than a decade old.

Kevin V. Bunker
Student Assistant
California State Archives

> ----------
> From:         Roy Webb[SMTP:rwebb@LIBRARY.UTAH.EDU]
> Reply To:     Roy Webb
> Sent:         Saturday, July 07, 2001 1:09 PM
> To:   ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
> Subject:      Re: Real world of way behind archives...
>
> > You need to be careful when letting patrons look at unproccessed
> materials
> > because you have no way of knowing whether something is missing after
> the
> > patron is finished.  I know that is a bit cynical but...
> >
> I always say it's because the donor might have established an
> original order, and you don't want to disturb that; you know how
> important an archival principle "original order" is, right up there with
> "when in doubt, transfer out," and "out of sight, out of mind."
>
> Of course I don't trust patrons to look through unprocessed
> collections; sorry if it's cynical, that's the way it is.  If you say it's
> because of "original order" you don't sound as cynical as you
> probably feel.
>
>
> 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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>

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>