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
[log in to unmask]
617.450.7125
 

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