Thanks David.  Good advice.


------
Robert Handy
Brazoria County Historical Museum
100 East Cedar
Angleton, Texas  77515
(409) 864-1208
museum_bob
[log in to unmask]
http://www.bchm.org

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From:   David Haberstich[SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent:   Wednesday, August 26, 1998 3:44 PM
To:     [log in to unmask]
Subject:        Technical Questions re: Archivists v.s. Collections Curators

 Mr. Handy--With your current setup, it probably does make sense for
your archivist to handle both the library and your archival
"2-dimensional" document and photograph collections. As you expand,
however, I would suggest that you consider separating the library from
the archives by making this two distinct jobs in separate locations. The
reasons for this relate to the nature of the materials and how they are
catalogued, but also to issues of security. The type of security you
need in an archives is more analogous to security required for
"3-dimensional artifacts" than for books and book-like materials. Most
true archival materials are more or less unique and irreplaceable
historical evidence, whereas the bulk of "library" materials are books
and periodicals which are not unique and can be found in similar
repositories. Obviously, there will be overlap between these two
extremes, and every library/archives/museum is likely to have a "special
collections" area of items that don't fit. There are plenty of libraries
with unique artifacts in a special collections area, for instance.
    If your curator isn't going to have enough to do without
responsibility for the archival items, then that would be another good
reason to make him/her responsible for exhibits. But the most important
reason is that collecting and exhibiting artifacts is a traditional
curatorial dual responsibility (and I guess I'm a traditionalist), which
works well, in my opinion. Having the responsibility to curate exhibits
as well as to collect, preserve, and catalog (or supervise the
identification and cataloguing of) objects is a reasonable approach
which helps guide collecting and vice versa. I think it is a mistake to
give an education department primary responsibility for doing exhibits.
I think anyone should be able to curate a special exhibition if they
have the right skills and good ideas, and I would certainly welcome the
education curator on an exhibit development team or as an advisor to the
curator so there is good communication. But I strongly believe in the
concept of people with collection expertise (presumably, curators)
directing exhibitions--with the advice of other staff. (And let's not
forget the importance of the designer!)

--David Haberstich