[Personal_archives] What to do when...

[Amy Furness]

In that case I would suggest to the donor that the best context for
the letters is in the mother's fonds, which might (?) be of interest
to another repository.  I see this as archival principles cloaked in
gentle flattery -- I think it makes the message clear and maximally
palatable to the donor.  Unless there's really no place for the
mother's fonds, in which case it would of course be unhelpful to get
the donor's hopes up.

Amy

On Wed, Jun 23, 2010 at 10:50 AM, Sarah Romkey <sarah.romkey at ubc.ca> wrote:
> 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
>>
>>
>>
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