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Re: Who let Gandalf in the Archives? (Friday Funnies)



A group of us from work went to see "Fellowship of the Rings" yesterday.  If
my archival brethren and sisthren of the list have seen it, has anyone
noticed the archives scenes?  Galdalf is roughly handling primary source
records, he is smoking and drinking around them, there are candles
everywhere, and he is not being monitored. My boss would have a cow!


I think archivists need to pay attention to the library world, where
academic libraries are now instituting coffee bars, allowing (usually
closed containers) for beverages, and generally wanting to make
things more user friendly.  I'm not proposing any of that for
archives, but like it or not archives are often perceived by
potential users as very un-user friendly, and that perception may
only be growing with the more relaxed regulalations of research
libraries. As a profession, we may have to do some more thinking
about how we are perceived and how we can convince people our concern
for preservation is not inconsistent with our concern that people use
our materials.






By the way, I rarely go to or like movies, but this one is fantastic.

Err, isn't it supposed to be?

Christopher Densmore, Curator
Friends Historical Library
Swarthmore College
500 College Avenue
Swarthmore, Pennsylvania 19081-1399

E-Mail: cdensmo1@swarthmore.edu
Telephone: 610-328-8497
Fax: 610-690-5728
Web: www.swarthmore.edu/Library/friends/

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