Date: Fri, 09 Apr 2010 08:01:05 -0500 From: sara steele <smsteele@wisc.edu> Subject: Excellent Dialogue!!! Message-id: <A7ABBD6C00C5468FAC66DB8661D5AE9E@SaraPC>
The recent responses to the question about charging for sharing material from a local archives (sought by others in various forms) brought out excellent points both from those trying to pay for space and materials to preserve records and fugitive papers, and from researchers and writers dedicated to finding and sharing information about local history. I pasted all of the responses into a word document to share with others in our society.
To me its main contribution is the clarification of whether a historical society should get caught up in owning or whether it should view its role as a steward. Whether our role is one of building collections or maintaining historic houses for the sake of owning, or if our goal is preserving sources from which we and others can distill, share, and encourage an interest in INFORMATION about the history of the community. Whether increasing knowledge of the residents of the community should take precedence over preserving papers and other physical things.
It was heartening to find that there are Societies across the state dedicated to maintaining paper and photographic artifacts; and that there are others in societies. who like me, most enjoy the role of digging out information and communicating what we find. We do our share of the work of preserving, but our real joy comes in the piecing together and sharing information.
A healthy society needs people with a variety of talents and interests: those who preserve and build the supporting society, those who do the physical work of collecting and preserving, those who raise money for supplies and space, and those who dig out and share information from the collections.