In light of the many natural and man-made disasters that have happened in
the past ten to twenty years (not to mention millennia aforehand), it might
be a good practice for an institution's archives to exist in more places
than just the institution's holdings.  This may be overkill, but if you are
a large university, it might be a good idea to keep these types of materials
from other cultural institutions in your own holdings, knowing full well
that originals or other copies exist in the cultural institutions
themselves. 
 
Of course, what you collect may be different, but documenting the existence
and operations (i.e., business transactions) of these cultural institutions
in your area may bode well for the twenty-second century historian who, a
century from now, finds that the smaller cultural institutions dissolved and
their archives were destroyed or disseminated in some funky fashion, but the
rock-solid archives of the large university are intact, complete with
materials pertinent to the history of the smaller now-defunct cultural
institutions.
 
Having a solid institution like a college, university, or public archival
facility that collects materials of other cultural institutions may prove a
wise choice in the future.
 




Russell D. James

 


Russell D. James, M.A.
MLIS student 
Louisiana State University
 
President, SAA-LSU
Student chapter of the
Society of American Archivists
at Louisiana State University

 
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