Deed of gift

Our director is working a a deed of gift for the library as a whole.  The one line that relates to Archives directly is:

“On a limited basis, the College Archives will accept select materials that pertain to the history of the Colleges, significant members of the Colleges’ community, or materials with particular relevance to the institution.”

It covers all the regular bases on our right to keep it, trade it, sell it or dump it, (in pretty language of course) and that we will not appraise it.

It also includes a form where the donor has to fill in the list of what is being donated, and of course sign.

The piece is still in draft form.  I’m curious if making the donor fill in the list will discourage some gifts, (though this is for 10 items or less) or if just having such a form will discourage gifts.

We are actually trying to cut down on the number of items we get that are of no use to us, and we end up having to dispose of.  Of course most of those come to Archives from within the Colleges. 🙂

Do you have any suggestions?

Presentation to faculty

It’s been a busy week.  I signed up to be the speaker at the faculty luncheon for this week.  I haven’t done much public speaking, um,  in the past few years, um, but, um, I think it went,um, alright.

My objective was to make sure they know their is an archives, and to interest some in integrating our materials into their classes.  I did the powerpoint with no “bullet points”, I just used photos.  That took a lot longer that I would have expected.  I was pulling use of the rare books collection, too.  I got a few people interested, so I feel it was worthwhile.  I hope to use some of it at Reunion and elsewhere, so it was worth the time I put into it.

With 20 plus years as a public librarian, I believe in selling the importance of our services, so we don’t disappear. 🙂