April 19, 2003

Here's an idea I've been mulling over in my head after the supposedly
preventable disasters to the museums and libraries in Iraq.

Since it appears on the surface that the history of a country is not
worth the temporary use of a couple of tanks or a squad of soldiers,
maybe we as museum people can make our own plans.  First of all, my
idea does not address the physical artifacts themselves.  I'm
assuming they're all gone.  Just like Iraq.  But what can we do ahead
of time to minimize the hurt.  ("Hurt" in this instance means going
into a totally empty museum or library.  "Hurt" also means what it
does to us inside.)

Here's my suggestion:  Take amazingly detailed photographs, make
photos that can be enlarged to high-quality frameable copies, make
measurements and detailed descriptions and histories of each and
every important item in your collection, starting from the most
precious - history-wise - on down.  This includes both physical
objects and manuscripts and other paper materials, plus all
documentation.  No doubt many of you do this now.

Then, send computer files of your collection to all the important
museums in the world.  For the sake of argument we'll say you send
your collection file to 50 or 100 different museums in many different
countries.

The museum receiving your collection file will in turn store it in a
safe place.  Based on the terms of your storage agreement, they can
either make use of it for themselves and their visitors or else keep
it sealed and in a vault.  Or anywhere in between.

Then when a museum or major library gets wiped out, as happened in
Iraq, access to several backup copies of the contents of the
destroyed institution would be available worldwide.  Obviously these
would be invaluable in case your documentation (card catalogs, etc.)
was looted or destroyed as well as the artifacts themselves.

That's it in a nutshell.  Granted it would take a great amount of
money to put into effect, and would have to be upgraded frequently,
but if the idea was presented to some of your major donors, perhaps a
few would be willing to dig a bit deeper in their pockets to
permanently record your collection.

Thoughts on this plan - to the group, if you will - are welcomed.

-Jim
--
Jim Lyons
[log in to unmask]
http://www.jimlyons.com

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