"Pullen, Sharon" wrote: > > My evaluation of your two cents: > And, after they turn to dust, will the information they contain, > both historical and cultural have been microfilmed or otherwise preserved? These were copied over 30 years ago. > Your private joy hardly counts as a service to the public. You cannot call > yourself a preservationist because you have not taken any steps to preserve. Not so. You have no idea or conception or experience of what I do based on any information, from any source other than my email. That's just not enough to form an informed opinion, let alone indulge in accusations. > Collectors, as you point out are about monetary value and personal > satisfaction, not the cultural heritage and certainly not the public. If collectors did not assign a monetary value, then little of any world culture would ever have been preserved, and much would not have been created. For example, Ptolmey's Geography was preserved and his map reconstructed because a Medieval bookseller and a Medieval collector reached a financial agreement over the worth of what turned out to be a unique document. But even given that "monetary value and personal satisfaction" comprise a portion of any collector's (either individual or corporate) motivation, I would dispute that these values are worthy of any one's disdain. It's a little bit like sneering at an actor because he or she likes being a thespian. Take, for example, the Scheide Library perched above Princeton University's Firestone Library. Privately owned and operated by the Scheide family for several generations (http://www.princeton.edu/~rbsc/department/scheide/), the collection is world class, both in content, scope and monetary value. It contains a very large number of items that are unique in their class. I can probably say without fear of correction that the Scheide family derives a great deal of personal satisfaction from their collection and collecting efforts. That personal satisfaction will never diminish the value or importance of the contribution the Scheide family has given to the world at large. > Since you seem to have formed opinions regarding librarians based on > instances with no dates and documentation with no citations, I know you will > not mind that I have formed an opinion of you based on your email. Well, folks, this is hardly the place for a doctoral dissertation. And were I to mention all the libraries that have tossed (and continue to toss) culturally valuable items on to the street and into the garbage container, the list would be endless and ongoing. Most antiquarian booksellers of my acquaintance have a host of examples. Like I said in my previous emails, I have been a personal observer (and beneficiary) of such. I will give you one example, and one example only. An academic library discarded a book printed on acidic paper. The pages were brittle, cracked and detached. The photographs inside were faded, and in some cases hardly illegible. I suspect that any librarian would have discarded the book based on these factors alone. It is now in my collection. Monetarily, it's only worth a couple of hundred dollars. Culturally, it's priceless. It is a work on Australian Aboriginal languages, printed in the 19th Century in Australia. The photographs are original (i.e. not photoengravings) continuous tone photographs of Australian Aborigines in their native state. With a little bit of manipulation on my computer, the faded photography looks almost new in its new digitized format. Had I or some other collector not purchased this treasure for a nominal $1, the book would definitely have ended up in the dust bin. Because of its cultural and artistic importance, I would have gladly paid a far greater ransom for the book had it been necessary. But it wasn't necessary at all. What were this library's alternatives? The library could have had their discards/deaccessions evaluated by a competent appraiser who is familiar with the various levels of the used book/paper market: special libraries, auctions, internet sales, collectors, flea markets and then made an informed decision as to whether, or how, the book should be deaccessioned. The library could have secured the services of a competent auctioneer, had the book appraised, and sold the book at auction. This simple act alone would have accomplished several purposes: a) established a real-time monetary value to the item, thus educating the library staff as well as the general public, as to the relative market value of the library's collection. b) this, in turn, might have led to greater safeguarding of the library's collections. c) provided funds for the library's current financial needs which might not have been available elsewhere, including, remotely, an increase to library staffers' salaries and benefits. d) placed the book in the hands of a special collection (corporate or individual library) who appreciates the importance and value of the item, and will take some pains to preserve the book for future generations. I think that libraries and archives should have a discard/deaccesion policy in place that takes these factors into consideration. Library discards should never be subject to the whim of politicians, administrators or other cultural barbarians who have a full blown anxiety attack at the sight of a full or overfull book shelf. For that matter, circulation or the absence of circulation of a book should never be a criteria for discard either. Here is a question for you: Which library schools in the United States REQUIRE that their graduates take a course in special collections, document preservation or in archive management? Please let me know, because if I should ever become a library trustee, one of the questions I will ask of any applicant for a position is whether or not they have taken such a course. > Archivists are usually a complete mystery. I suspect that the best archivists are trained historians, not librarians. On the whole, I have found that archivists are the better preservationists. If they have any collective fault, it is that in some cases, their collections may be accessible only to themselves. > Do you serve as a library trustee? No, and don't have to be in order to form an opinion based on my experience and observations. > Are you a member of your local > library's friends group? About five or six of them. So many that I have long since lost count, even tho I write the checks. However, that fact, either alone or in the company of others, does not affect the validity of my opinions nor detract or add one iota to my experience. > Are you aware that in today's technological > culture the public library is the only source of hands-on computer > experience open to many members of the community? And your point with reference to this discussion is....? > Unlike collectors and self-styled documentarians, librarians, both > public and academic serve an entire community. All the more reason that librarians should be ardent preservationists, collectors, and the like. But here's another fast fact for you: The very best, world class collections in libraries are rarely put together by librarians or by libraries. They are, in fact, donated to libraries by those very same collectors that you disparage. A wonderful example would be the Cotsen Children's Book Collection at Firestone Library ( http://www.princeton.edu/~cotsen/research/index.shtml )in Princeton, NJ, or maybe the Morgan Library in New York City. The Cotsen collection is especially relevant because the donor donated many millions of dollars for the continuing maintenance of the 23,000 volume collection. > I firmly believe in the importance of preserving the past. However, > there is a vast difference between intrinsic and informational value and an > even vaster one between what serves the public and what serves a personal > preference. Today's treasure is yesterday's trash, literally and figuratively. Interestingly enough, the collecting marketplace is on the cutting edge of determining what is culturally relevant and in need of preservation. By the time that the average library or archive wakes up to what should be preserved, too much has been lost. I am happy to say that there are a very many libraries which are enlightened preservationists. If they acquire an item that is not appropriate to their collection, they trade it for one that is. Some libraries will actively collect in an area that is on, or long before, the cutting edge of popularity, and build a world class collection when the collection can be built for pennies. I suspect that the number of such libraries, and librarians is very, very few, as a percentage of the whole. > As I type this a vast community of public servants struggles to > recover lost history and preserve current history connected to the September > 11 attacks. What were they doing before September 11? It is precisely because War, Flood and Fire are the enemies of culture that all possible efforts should be made to preserve originals, duplicate them when possible, but above all, preserve them. So don't store your books and papers in basements in flood zones (Colorado Librarians, please take note.) > Will they be vilified by future generations because the manner > or media they choose to use does not suit personal preference? I certainly > hope not. There is no vilification here. I never got personal. I believe that my previous email described my own behaviors, opinions and beliefs, and those of persons that I had directly observed. That's good enough for a court of law, by the way. Why not stop being defensive? Nobody was attacking you! That said, I believe, from all my experience and personal observation that public libraries in general, and some very good academic libraries in particular (which I will not name here), have had serious system failures in the preservation of books and documents. The world would benefit greatly from librarians not being defensive, and doing, instead, something about the problem. Tom Perrin Ardent Preservationist and Documentarian (or is it the other way around?) By the way, I worked in a library for five years. I am married to a librarian. I owe my ability to read, and probably my life to my local public library (I was bedridden with polio BTV (before Television). One of my first jobs was as an archivist, an occupation in which I could have willingly, but not easily, spent a lifetime. I have written and had published one book, which was well documented, received a great deal of professional praise, which died in the marketplace and thus failed to make me either rich or famous. I personally own some 30,000 books, more than I can ever read, but I hope to die trying.