[Personal_archives] general agreement

[Amy Furness]

I have to start out by saying I don't have that much to add -- everyone has
made such thoughtful comments already, and none that I'd disagree with.  At
this point in the evening I'm not sure I can muster long paragraphs, so
instead, a few point-form observations:


   - The timing of this discussion is interesting for me because I have a
   new student volunteer who's just started an A&D project on a small personal
   fonds, and I've been coaching her on arrangement to the best of my
   ability.  Her undergrad education, handily enough, is in archaeology, and
   she certainly sees its applicability as she surveys the contents of the
   fonds and writes a tentative series arrangement.  I've told her to trust
   her intuition, to look for evidence of how things may have been grouped
   (the fonds is decades removed from the creator and has been packed up by an
   intermediate custodian).  But this stuff is hard to teach.



   - Archival arrangement and post-modernity are quite the combination,
   as Catherine suggests -- sometimes wonderful, sometimes hopelessly
   self-conscious and reflexive.  Often arrangement is elusive, as Heather
   suggests.  It seems to be one of the most challenging and rewarding aspects
   of archival work for personal records archivists -- myself included -- but
   I wonder sometimes about the goal of this work.  For whom are we doing it?
   I've encountered archival creators who are politely tolerant of my efforts
   to reflect their recordkeeping habits in my arrangement structures, but
   hope that ultimately I will do something to tidy up their files for
   posterity.  Recently a prospective donor presented me with a meticulous
   finding aid to his own records that is based closely on the arrangement
   structure of an existing fonds in our collections.  Although I was
   initially startled, I've realized that for numerous reasons the whole thing
   is a great fit with this artist's practice and I'm thrilled that he's
   created his own arrangement (sort of.  Of course I had an indirect hand in
   it, but he could have taken or left that).



   - Maybe the essence of the "original order" thing is an effort to
   reflect something of the creator's recordkeeping behaviour?  If we can.
   (I'm all for documenting the environment and interviewing the creator when
   possible.  Absolutely.)



   - I think it would be a wonderful project for this group to devise a
   "best practices" publication for personal archives arrangement -- maybe
   sort of a "cookbook" with examples and vignettes, not too prescriptive.
   (Not like the NSARM "Rules.")  Maybe this is something I should initiate
   once the dissertation is put to bed (soon!).


All for now.
Amy
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