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 ---------- 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