Archival Musings

Last week, I attended a conference on Archives, organised by Unisa's Department of Library and Information Science. I presented a paper called Policies and Services in the Reading Room. Here in our department, we're always debating what kind of services and policies we should have, so I was interested to find out what policies and services existed in other academic archives in South Africa. I looked at issues like whether gloves are required for the handling of photos and documents, whether digital cameras and personal scanners were allowed in the reading room for copying of archival material, and charges for basic services like photocopying and scanning.

Here's my powerpoint presentation: Policies and Services in the Reading Room web version.ppt

I've submitted the paper for possible publication, so I'll include a link to that if it gets published. 

In September, I'll be presenting a paper at a conference on policies in South African academic archive Reading Rooms. Which is a mouthful, but it's basically a look at what South African archives allow and don't allow in their Reading Rooms: do they allow use of digital cameras? Do they restrict access? Do they allow researchers to handle photographs with their bare (gasp!) hands? That sort of thing.

I prepared a little survey - just 10 questions - that I asked my population to fill in. (Can you see I've just recently been on a statistics course? I can now throw words like 'population' and 'sample' into casual conversation.) 

The response hasn't been great. It's been 3 weeks and I've received 2 replies. 

The exercise got me thinking about communication amongst archivists and librarians. I've been a librarian for 18 years and I've worked in the archives for 8. How many of the people that I contacted for my survey have I met and chatted with? Two. How many librarians and archivists from other institutions do I speak to on a daily basis? None.

I'm all for exchanging of ideas. It's ridiculous to think that when we're creating policies, or starting a new venture, we have to flounder around as if no one before us has done exactly this and might be able to help.

I read the blogs of archivists and librarians daily. But they're all American. They're helpful up to a point - I've contacted one or two of them to get tips and advice or to comment on their ventures - but it would be wonderful to have a similar conversation happening in South Africa.