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RAIN Comment



I have to say I found the following article in today's RAIN a bit
disturbing:

St. Louis American 10/25/01
State's Aftrican American history archive going online, into classrooms
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=2535258&BRD=2207&PAG=461&dept_id=4
44751&rfi=6

Perhaps it was just the author's writing, but there was something about them
calling this the Secy of State's "directive" to the State Archives to
promote their Black History (in & of itself a fine idea) I found a bit
presumptuous.  Later in the article he said the Secy had "proposed" some of
these ideas, in which case that's perfectly reasonable.

If, however, the Secy decided that this would happen, it smacks again of
another one of those "Hey, let's digitize everything" statements from some
dope that doesn't know what he's talking about.  I don't like the idea of a
political appointee, probably ignorant of the work the archivists are doing
there, unconcerned about the budgetary issues raised by such a huge project
offering the archivists and their time for a pet project.

Is there anyone in listland familiar with the situation who could explain
how this project came about?  I can live with it if the journalist wrote a
poorly worded article, but I'd hate to see this kind of ignorance forcing an
unwanted project on the people there.

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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