On Fri, 4 Aug 1995, John Edward Simmons wrote:

> At this point in time, nothing produced electronically is as permanent as
> data written by hand, in acid-free carbon ink, on acid-free 100% cotton
> paper.

I have yet to find any instance of hand-written records at our almost 70
years old institution.  From the beginning the accession records (when
done) were typewritten.  These records have stood the test of time--even
the ones that are mimeographed.

Who has the time to handwrite accessions?  With fewer workstudies, etc. I
find that I can just keep up with current records by typing them in once
and then creating the paper copies for the accession file, the accession
notebook, and the catalogue card (we'll always have hardcopies.)  The added
benefit is I that I can now do searches oh so much easier.

And as for the "thrill" of seeing original catalogue cards...I'd personally
like to shoot the secretary that did a goodly amount of our catalogue
cards ("a pretty doll," "I'd hate to use this iron" for
decriptions,) but she's already dead.  But I'm not bitter....

Sally Baulch
Texas Memorial Museum
Anthropology & History Collections
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