Rusty,
Excellent, excellent message.
Chuck
"Richard
Recordon"
<recordor_@_comcast To
.net> "EL List"
<erielack_@_lists.elhts.org>
03/03/2007 10:43 cc
AM
Subject
(erielack) Archives
Please respond to
"EL Mail List"
<erielack_@_lists.e
lhts.org>
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corporations are dead and the records are historical documents or trash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The ELHS archives are now a body of historical documents cared for by an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
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