Monday, November 09, 2009

Sustainable Access

In library, museum and archival circles there appears to be a conflicting dichotomy between Access and Preservation: between the goal of using rare materials and the goal of keeping them from being damaged. Professionals see these goals as two sides of the same coin, but patrons encountering limited or no allowable access might view preservation measures as "hiding things away so no one can ever see them."

In actually, preservation is nothing more than a long-term access strategy. Or to put it another way, the dichotomy is between ensuring both short-term access and long-term access. We want things to be accessed and used, of course, but also need to provide for access and use in the near and distant future. It is a continuum of access over time that I've taken to calling "Sustainable Access." We want to sustain the same level of access and use over an unspecified length of time and employ preservation methods to this end.

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posted by Bill Barrow @ 6:49:00 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Must-read for archivists

Just in case you having come across this seminal 2005 article on project priorities for processing historic collections, I thought I'd share it. This is something everyone working in archives, special collections and historical societies should be conversant with.

Mark A. Greene and Dennis Meissner, "More Product, Less Process: Pragmatically Revamping Traditional Processing Approaches to Deal with Late Twentieth Century Collections." (2005)

Their point is that if we insist on processing 20th century corporate records with the same exacting standards as we would say Washington's correspondence with Lafayette, we'll never get the job done, even with foundation support. We must not apply item-level processing expectations to these larger collections and instead process them at least at the collection or series levels to facilitate patron access and use. But they say it better, so read the whole article.

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posted by Bill Barrow @ 2:31:00 PM 0 comments