[Personal_archives] What to do when...

[Sarah Romkey]

Thanks for the responses so far! I realize that I didn't describe the 
offered donation in much detail- it comprises three letters written by 
the fonds creator to the potential donor's mother. There is definitely 
not enough research value for us to consider acquiring the letters as a 
stand-alone fonds (at least in our circumstances... too much backlog, 
etc). The mother's archives more generally, even if it were on the 
table, would be out of our mandate.

We also have a collection similar to your Bethune collection- the 
Malcolm Lowry collection. It has had a lot of valuable additions to it 
over the years, but I think it would be too difficult to manage many of 
our collections in this manner.

Thanks again everyone- glad that we can use our listserv like this!

Cheers,

Sarah

Sarah Romkey
Archivist
Rare Books and Special Collections 
University of British Columbia Library
Irving K. Barber Learning Centre
1st Floor, 1961 East Mall Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1Z1
604-822-2232 / sarah.romkey at ubc.ca



Pamela Miller wrote:

>Dear SISPA members,
>
>We have a similar situation with our Norman Bethune material. I'm attaching the link to our web page and you will see that we have all sorts of "contributions". This pretty well lines up with Amy's experience and suggestions. And of course, Bethune's public and private lives were very controversial but he was wise enough to leave no known descendants, which really helps in privacy issues.
>
>http://osler.library.mcgill.ca/archives/index.php/search/query/
>
>To summarize, if the potential donation is a fonds, it can stand alone. If it is not, it could be considered as part of a collection, in Bethune's case, made up of material from many sources.
>
>Good luck,
>Pam
>
>
>Pamela Miller
>History of Medicine Librarian
>Osler Library, McGill University
>514-398-4475 ext. 09861
>fax 514-398-5747 
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: personal_archives-bounces at mailman.yale.edu [mailto:personal_archives-bounces at mailman.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Sarah Romkey
>Sent: June 22, 2010 8:02 PM
>To: personal_archives at mailman.yale.edu
>Subject: [Personal_archives] What to do when...
>
>Hello SISPA members,
>
>At the section meeting in Halifax, we discussed using the listserv more 
>often to ask for opinions, advice, etc. So I'm going to get the ball 
>rolling!
>
>One of the discussions at the meeting was about what to do when someone 
>offers to donate items to another person's fonds. I've just had such an 
>offer today. Assuming that you consider this to be undesirable, how do 
>other folks handle this?  This is my current draft response to the offer:
>
>"It is very generous of you to think of us, however we do not as a rule 
>add documents to a person's or organizations fonds that did not 
>originate with the creator or the original donor, for a variety of 
>reasons including privacy and the  provenance of the documents. I do 
>thank you very much for the offer."
>
>Privacy is an issue in my mind in this case because the records offered 
>would reflect an aspect of this particular creator's life that he never 
>chose to contribute to his own fonds.
>
>Any thoughts or suggestions? I'd be very happy to hear them.
>
>Cheers,
>
>Sarah
>
>  
>