Re: [ARSCLIST] unknown artists and archives

[Matthew Snyder <msnyder@xxxxxxxx>]

David Lewis wrote:

>You can't know what future generations are going to find important. It's 
all
>part of the game of running an archive - you take everything you possibly
>can, and you run out of room. You pick too cautiously, and you run the 
risk
>of having to ruminate on "the one that got away." By virtue of working 
with
>or establishing an archive you are accepting this condition that you 
can't
>know everything about everything and some good things will get away. And
>others which may seem attractive will only serve to deceive you. 

>I think its wrong to deduce, as Steve does below, that "archivists think 
in
>terms of what is already viewed as 'worthy'." Some things, such as E.J.
>Bellocq's Storyville Portraits, we only know about at all, because the
>archive (in this case, MoMA) took a chance on something that wouldn't 
have
>looked like it was worth preserving. Photographs of prostitutes, anyone? 

David is basically correct, but I must add that the greatest tool an 
archivist has in appraisal (an archivist's term; it's what we're talking 
about here) is a MISSION STATEMENT. Meaning, your collection has a set of 
collection criteria. You collect within a certain time frame, or national 
origin, or cultural affiliation, or artistic movement, etc. The more 
specific your collection criteria is the easier it is do decide what you 
take and what you don't. Space, resources for processing, and other 
factors also come in, of course, but the collecting criteria you set out 
for yourself is in many ways the final arbiter of what comes in the front 
door, because you don't take "everything you possibly can"; that' s 
impossible.  You take what best fits your collecting policy. NYPL Music 
Division concentrates on American music, a broad mandate, but then it's a 
big institution with (comparatively) deep resources in terms of processing 
capacity and storage.

This doesn't mean that agonizing decisions don't have to be made (fairly 
often, in fact), but it is indeed a mistake to think that there is a 
preconceived notion of what is "worthy" on an artistic basis. It has much 
more to do with what is "worthy" according to your institution's mission.

Matt Snyder
Music Archivist
Wilson Processing Project
The New York Public Library
www.mattsnyder.net