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Re: Stupid question, probably



Judith's email gives me an opportunity to clarify a few points

> I hope you don't mean it when you say that you "don't collect from
> individuals."  Officers, employees and other associates are an excellent
> --
> and sometimes the only -- source of material that has not been retained by
> the creating departments.  Perhaps you meant that you don't seek to
> acquire
> collections of personal papers?  That's a limitation you may want to bend,
> sooner or later.  Consider.  How important is this fellow to your
> organization?  If the answer is "very", why not ask him to complete the
> collection by donating the rest of his papers?
>
I am following your second interpretation.  Space concerns and the needs of
institutional collecting prevent me from collecting groups of materials from
individuals.  I hope to change that someday, but for the moment that's the
approach we're taking.

> Always respect the donor's wishes.  But his "thinking"??  If you don't
> have
> a deed for this gift, get one! If you did not promise that the material
> would be kept as a discrete collection, then you have no obligation to do
> so.  On the other hand, if you believe that the donor does expect  this,
> then talk to him.  Tell him your needs.
>
The donation was made long before my time, and I believe the donor is since
passed on.  Any agreement now would be somewhat anticlimactic. :)

Someone else asked if we had collections from the trustees, and we do have
significant trustee material.  It all comes from the legal and community
relations departments, including board minutes, committee meetings, etc.
rather than from the individual trustees.

So I think, following the many useful replies I've gotten, that I'm going to
file everything under it's respective subject.  I should also point out,
incidentally, that each folder in the collection is entered into a database
(longtime list members will be shocked to hear I use Inmagic) with an
"office of origin" field, so in any event I would add the donor's name to
this field, wherever the materials got filed.

Many thanks all, as always.

DS

______________________________________
Daniel Sokolow, Archives Coordinator
David Taylor Archives
North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System
155 Community Drive
Great Neck, NY 11021
mailto:dsokolow@nshs.edu

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