I am in charge of both records management and the archives for my museum
and its parent organization, in addition to maintaining the manuscript
collection of the museum.  As someone who serves as the records manager,
archivist, collections manager, curator, etc, I'd like to caution
against the idea that archivists want to "keep everything."  While this
may occasionally hold true on an individual basis, I wouldn't call it a
rule.  There should be policies in place that govern what stays and what
goes, and these policies should be followed (and revised, when
necessary).

>Yeah, they don't necessarily
>want to keep everything forever, but they want to keep lots of things
that
>have met their assigned retention and the creator or "owner" has
determined
>they should be discarded, because they are of no business or enduring
value.

I have never kept anything beyond the retention date except materials
that the creator thought they *might* need.  Unless something actually
has some historical or other enduring value I'm not going to waste my
precious space holding on to it.  More often than not I am the one
telling staff to let go, rather than the other way around.

> One of the problems I've seen is if the individual who generated them
>doesn't see them as having an enduring value, then how is it the
archivist
>is able to override that? And I don't buy into the concept that they
have a
>better "big picture" view, especially in a scientific, trechnical or
>research environment.

While I have been told by the powers that be to hold on to materials
that have outlasted their usefulness (very often due to political
reasons), I don't think I've ever held on to something that the creator
has said to dispose of.  The creator generally knows their materials and
their usefulness better than me.  That being said I am also the one who
receives all of the research inquiries (from both staff and outsiders),
so I have a pretty good concept of what people are interested in.  If,
on some rare occasion, I should disagree with the disposal of some
materials, I'd be able to justify it by saying that "I've have x number
of calls from people looking for information on y, so let's hold on to
it."  But that's never happened.

There are hoarders and there are tossers.  Maybe the archives profession
attracts more hoarders versus RIM.  Probably.  I think that much of the
issue boils down to the individual institution and its policies.  Many
institutions (from my experience on the museum side of things) are
constrained by their policies/mandates and politics.  Keep in mind also
that there is a huge gulf of difference between institutional archives
and manuscripts.  We have a retention schedule in place for our
institutional records and appraise institutional records re historical
importance as needed.  The museum's manuscript collections are an
entirely different creature.  I can't really imagine any professional
accepting materials without even a basic appraisal.  Who has the space
for that?  I may keep the bulk of materials sent for the manuscript
collection, but before it's even reached my desk I've done a
considerable amount of appraisal.  I find out what the donor has, how it
fits our mission, how it would fit in our collection, if it duplicates
what we already have, if there's room for it, can we care for it, and a
million other things, before its even been sent to me.  Then after I
receive materials I cull them some more.  Sometimes you have to weigh
the benefit of keeping together a collection versus weeding it, and
sometimes it does make more sense to "keep everything."  But given the
time, money, and space considerations, I need to be able to justify that
decision.

I'm sure there are plenty of archivists who keep more than they maybe
should, but then there are also many who keep only what they can justify
according to mission and policies of their institution.  I've only
worked in a museum setting, but I'm sure that it is markedly from
governmental archives or corporate archives.  To make a really long
response short, if I cannot adequately justify keeping something, I
don't.

Pamela Elbe
Collections Manager and Archivist

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