Re: [ARSCLIST] Interesting WSJ Article on when libraries should discard their holdings.

[Karl Miller <karl.miller@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

RA Friedman <rafriedman@xxxxxxx> wrote:    >The value of material is usually not known by the people who >collect it. What's has no research value now, may have huge >potential later on.

How does one decide what might have research value in the future?
   
  Will not what is to be preserved determine what can be researched in the future?
   
  How does one decide what to research? I remember when I was a Freshman in music school. Our library had a truly odd assortment of sheet music. I would scan the shelves and sight read whatever piano music I could find. I still remember encountering first editions of the music of Leo Ornstein. I had never seen anything like it, so I started looking into his life and works.
   
  So how many places can you find the music of EB Hill (answer, mainly two libraries hold his manuscripts) or Emerson Whithorne, a composer who was rather popular in his lifetime...and not a bad composer I might add...at least in my opinion. So, I managed to get a broadcast recording of one of the Whithorne Symphonies, and a few other things. I made a CD and placed it in our collection...something our new director sees as being unimportant, hence something I can no longer do. So, if you check in OCLC, the only citation for any orchestral music of Whithorne is that one CD I made. Will that stimulate some research, I hope so. 
   
  For me, those who preserve will, in part, determine what will and can be researched. That is quite a responsibility.
   
  So shall I tell you of the music librarian who threw out boxes full of rare piano music (which we didn't otherwise have) because the paper was acidic?  and didn't bother to make photocopies...
   
  Karl