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Re: [ARSCLIST] Libraries disposing of records
LOL well, i'm holding out for a record collector (male) who might understand
the cultural connotation of boy band appreciation. Of course, gender
identity is a whole other aspect of the commercial pop field amongst many
people...another reason to preserve even the "crap" (my parentheses) because
it may have significant value to understanding a particular paradigm (ie I
really wouldn't want to listen to disco unless it had an influence on a
later band/culture I wanted to know more about.)
I guess this boils down to divorcing the music as personal collectors and
fans to preserving the music as cultural anthropologists. There needs to be
the supercollector/superfan to archive the material, and what may not be
"needed" immediately, or even in a decade or two, may be needed generations
away. We are living in an incredible time when the cost of digitally
archiving material is very accessible. I ackowledge the concerns about
longevity and quality of digital media, however, even if the
superfan/collector can network and let people know their collection is
available we are at an incredible time to NOT LOSE STUFF.
That sums it up. I love that this list is archived by the LOC. If someone
twenty years from now needs mid-nineties queer punk bootlegs, I've got em. I
know they should be in a vault, but is it worth it yet?
The look on the teen girl's face when I handed her a ten year old punk band
bootleg was worth it. I'm dealing with issues of copyright whey I do that,
but as a (soon to be) librarian I want people to access the information they
need. I don't take it for granted that people in cities have more access
than people in rural areas to this material. It pains me to weed anything at
the library, but it is my greatest happiness is to disseminate
information/media that people might not otherwise have access to. I think
all librarians are really working from their heart when they cull their
collections. Sometimes it will fall back on the
collector/researcher/archivist to complete the story, but the history of the
world has been told in incomplete records. We're still here.
Courtney
On 1/5/07, phillip holmes <insuranceman@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Wow, I've had my layup rejected into the tenth row! Good points that I
can't refute, cause I'm a guy and still don't have girls figured out. I
did sucker one into marrying me. Poor her. You should hear her bitch
about all the records.
Phillip
Miss Q wrote:
> Dear Phillip,
> How would a researcher truely understand the intersection of
> sexualization,
> racial identity, commercialization, media consolidation, marketing, and
> identity development amongst pre-teen girls if pop records were not
> preserved? I think that is a reason to save the Backstreet Boys and
> Vanilla
> Ice. Their cultural impact goes far beyond radio hits because it
> represents
> so much else that was going on during the 1990s.
>
> Courtney B
> (NKOTB expert, very happy to drive by the historical marker for Mario
> Lanza's home this afternoon)
>
> On 1/5/07, phillip holmes <insuranceman@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>> You know, I'm sure there were hundreds of sides that were the
equivalent
>> of Britney Speers' "oops i did it again". Pop music doesn't
necessarily
>> need to be preserved if it takes resources away from something truly
>> unique (interviews, broadcasts, lectures, etc.) or productive. I'm
>> sure many of us got into this because of a love for music, but you know
>> there's lots of crap out there that doesn't merit being saved. Maybe
>> one of you can look me in the face and tell me that we MUST preserve
the
>> outputs of The Backstreet Boys and Vanilla Ice. I say fine, YOU pay
for
>> it. But if their entire catalog was "sent to the cornfields" by Billy
>> Mumy, I wouldn't miss a minute of sleep.
>> Phillip
>>
>> Steve Ramm wrote:
>> > I specifically said "I don't want to start a discussion" but I see
>> I did.
>> >
>> > My only take on this is that when the Temple University library
needed
>> to
>> > dispose of their 78 rpm records (to build a new Student Union) they
>> called 5
>> > local knowledgeable person here (I was one but less knowledgeable
than
>> the
>> > others). They said "take what you want". I know that when it got to
me
>> (5th) I
>> > could only find about 75 records I wanted for FREE! The rest were
>> duplicate runs
>> > of Carusos and other common Red Seals and lots of 10in and 12 in
>> classical
>> > 78 sets. The pop stuff was mostly pop vocals and bands on red label
>> Columbias.
>> > Many of these were "donated" to the Temple library. They didn't even
>> have a
>> > 78 player. My guess is about 10,000 remaining records were
discarded.
>> >
>> > I took a few interesting records which will be preserved but the cost
>> of the
>> > University maintaining the collection was too much.
>> >
>> > By same token the Frankllin Institute here in Philly needed to build
>> an Imax
>> > Theater and - since overy few were using their library they auctioned
>> off
>> > the contents. I was lucky to get their run of Talking Machine and
>> Phonograph
>> > Weekly from 1918-1942 (they broke up in lots). But no one was
>> asking to
>> use them
>> > so they may be better off this way. Think of all the kids learning
>> about
>> > space, etc at the Imax theater. Certainly more than used the
library.
>> >
>> > It seems to me that general libraries might cull out things which are
>> > duplicated. If they have the 12 CD set of Victor Carusos they can
>> discard the 78s
>> > -(I know the sound transfers may be controversial), and they can sell
>> them at
>> > book sale to raise money for others. Believe me the Harry Potter
books
>> will
>> > be sold in a few years also. Just go to Blockbuster and see the extra
>> copies of
>> > previously-rented DVDs being sold for $5.00 two months after their
>> > popularity has peaked.
>> >
>> > Well, I guess I rambled more than I wanted.
>> >
>> > Anyway... I'm not sure those on the list have an answer to the
>> problem.
>> > We're too close to the subject to understand why folks throw things
>> out.
>> >
>> > And we haven't discussed the need for libraries to keep encyclopedias
>> when
>> > everything is on the Internet! And the World Book fits on ONE CD-ROM
>> (which
>> > seems to come with EVERY PC you buy.
>> >
>> > Steve Ramm
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>>
>
>
>
--
<a href="http://www.axisoftweevil.blogspot.com"Axis of Tweevil: Music,
Community, and Spirit</a> <br> <a
href="http:://www.librariness.blogspot.com"> Librariness: Library
obsessiveness </a>