Re: [ARSCLIST] What to Keep and Why....was now why preserve

[Matthew Snyder <msnyder@xxxxxxxx>]

Don Andes wrote:

>P.S. I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel here so if someone knows of a
>accepted method that libraries/archives are currently using please let
>me know.

In addition to Don's list of criteria I would add that if we're talking 
about a collecting research library or archive, a very important filtering 
device for what to collect/save is what most fits your mission statement, 
i.e. what areas your institution collects in and regards as most important 
to its mission. This kind of falls under Don's "personal taste" category, 
but it's more strongly-defined. So if your area of collection is American 
country music of the mid twentieth century, as opposed to Balkan music or 
American oral histories of the 1970s, you would err on the side of 
preserving those items in your collection that most fit that bill. This is 
why mission statements are so important: they make the archivist's job 
that much easier and let him or her off the hook in many cases.

Matt Snyder
Music Archivist
Wilson Processing Project
The New York Public Library