Jennifer,
I'm going to take a risk and jump in
here.
I agree with Mark for the most part, but I
feel that preservation and public access are equally weighted. It is the institution's
responsibility to balance them, yet in real life nothing is truly balanced. Every object is composed of matter and
has a limited lifetime. Institutions
should manage their objects in such a way that they are extending that lifetime
for as long as humanly possible, and at the same time making the best use of their
objects during their lifetime.
Keeping an object locked away in a dark environmentally controlled vault,
where no one can see it, is not much different than the object no longer
existing. Each institution has to determine
how to best carry this out but it should be based on object needs, mission, and
professionalism, not on politics, power, or favors.
Alan
Alan K. Lester, Senior
Curator
The Mary Baker Eddy Library
for the Betterment of Humanity
617.450.7125