Our institution is soliciting advice in order to decide what course of
action it should take with regard to accessioning future technology
collections.

Past (pre- '97) curatorial thinking was that the our facility should limit
technology collecting due to the rate at which it evolves and its potential
to dominate shrinking storage space. Existing thought, however, is that
technology, predominately computers, have an important place in our cultural
collections.  In addition, technologies are valued only as long as they
cutting edge, which was yesterday, with the result that objects (eg. game
systems) are quickly disposed of in favour of the faster, more impressive
ones.  The question is where do we draw the line?

What is the viewpoint of your facility re. contemporary collecting?  Do you
have a cut-off date re. contemporary collecting and how would you approach
the processing of a large computer collection?  Do you have a policy solely
related to collecting the technologies which have dominated the last 25
years.

Good luck answering.  Kevin

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