>
>I read Adrienne's most recent post on institutional memory (or lack thereof)
>with a great deal of interest since I am new in my position here at the
>Minnesota Historical Society.
>
>I am responsible for a broad variety of collections:  death and Cooties; rope
>(hangman's), soap (grooming aids)--soap-on-a-rope; dope (crack pipes, or for
>the cynical, political stuff), but not rope-a-dope (that's the sports guy)--I
>am also curator of jokes and smokes.  (Forgive me, I developed this a few
>weeks ago, and am quite enamored of it.)  I am also curator of a lot of other
>things.
>
>The curators get together each week to make decisions about prospective
>collections, and there is much discussion about what we ought and ought not
>to be collecting.  Employees that have been here much longer than I also know
>of many decisions that were made in the past regarding my collections.
>
>Therefore, I have started keeping what is essentially a "Decision journal" in
>which I record any collecting decisions that we have made about the
>collections for which I am responsible.  For instance, I took a tabletop flag
>with the understanding that we probably wouldn't be taking any more--that
>decision is reflected in my journal.  By the time I leave here (whenever, but
>someday) I should have a fairly thick book that explains many of the
>collecting decisions we have made--and it will be somewhere for my successor
>to start.
>
>I always figured that if I ever ended up in management, I would do something
>similar.  Decisions can be made so quickly, sometimes, and informally, that
>if they are not recorded somewhere, they are easily forgotten.
>
>Just one way of dealing with institutional history . . .
>
>Claudia Nicholson
>Curator
>Museum Collections Department
>Minnesota Historical Society
>345 Kellogg Blvd. W.
>St. Paul, MN  55102-1906
>      Tel: 612-297-7442
>      FAX: 612-297-2967
>      e-mail:  [log in to unmask]
>