Mike Spinelli wrote: "OK how may people here would sign over the deed to their house to the federal government, and trust that in the coming years, they will make decisions that are in your best interest? And the interest of your heirs? Anyone? Second question, WHY???" Unfortunately this analogy doesn't work when it comes to the archives and muddies the issues relevant to their preservation and future access. When the Erie, DL&W and E-L lived these weren't historical archives but a working body of corporate records and the property of those corporations, much the same as one's house is when one owns and lives in it. But now the corporations are dead and the records are historical documents or trash depending on your perspective. When one is dead one's house passes on to the living who continue to use it or sell it to someone who will. Neither the living corporation or the living house owner would sign over their property to the government. The ELHS archives are now a body of historical documents cared for by an organization, not a private individual. The current PAID physical repository of this material has become untenable and the ELHS is faced with the challenge of finding another repository that will either store the collection cold or manage them as an accessible archive either at cost or for free. The third choice is a bonfire. As the cost of the preservation most be borne by someone, private, public, and governmental institutions are all potential choices. The ELHS's continued ability to pay for such services is by no means "forever". Nor is the ELHS alone among railroad historical societies in this situation. Federal and state institutions have been in the historical preservation business for a long time and have a far better track record for longevity (the "forever" solution) than universities (witness Akron or the losses suffered by the O&W Diver collection at Cornell) and private funded organizations. The Federal government has accepted and preserved mountains of documents and other property. There was a saying around the halls of the Pentagon at Defense Budget time that "Nobody ever gets the whole loaf of bread". ELHS may not be able to preserve the archives as a working collection and keep its stated criteria for selection of a repository whole. These types of arrangements between organizations always require compromise that must be based on reason. The goal is preservation of a working archive. The choice should be based on the principle of BATNA (Best Alternative To No Agreement). Emotional dismissals of any option or a rigid insistence to the status quo are not helpful. Rusty Recordon The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List Sponsored by the ELH&TS http://www.elhts.org To Unsubscribe: http://lists.elhts.org/erielackunsub.html ------------------------------
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