To the list,
At the risk of speaking out of turn here....I'm a librarian "lurking" on
this list because of my love for museums, special collections, etc. and
their importance in our understanding of current "history"
I'm seeing this same sort of eagerness to deny our history as "dusty old
stuff" and charge ahead with technology and the current view of the world as
the only game in town in the field of library and information studies. If
one mentions preservation in the library world you're looked at as some sort
of worm, unless you're moving in the rare books circle. I hope this trend is
short lived, because as was pointed out here, there will be very few left
with the skills and knowledged needed to properly manage and protect
important collections, not to mention presenting them to a deserving public.
At 09:15 AM 11/1/96 -0600, you wrote:
>I am forwarding this from the Civil War Reenactors discussion list.  Please
>reply to that list (address below), not to me.  I didn't write it.  Any
>NMAH people out there who might want to respond?
>
>>>[log in to unmask] says:
>>>
>>>Just to prove some of the poor museum work that goes on these days. Someone
>>>recently got hold of (he/she is mailing it to me) a copy of an internal memo
>>>from the Smithsonian directors regarding the choice of a new head of the
>>>Military History dept. This document will shake up all those interested in
>>>the preservation of American military history. In short they are planning to
>>>close down the military history displays and gradually disssolve the dept.
>>>The new curator is being chosen based on study of political sciences and they
>>>specify that curatorial skills and knowledge of the materials are NOT
>>>desirable......
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 Daphne Worsham                          Education Assistant
 [log in to unmask]              South Lane School Dist.
                                           Cottage Grove, OR
"My library was dukedom large enough." - William Shakespeare
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