[PRCo] Re: Scanning Archives

[Derrick Brashear]

On May 19, 2011, at 8:03 PM, Fred Schneider <fwschneider at comcast.net> wrote:

> I am not going to tell you guys to which museum this applies ....
> But I was working in the library of another trolley museum.   They had a policy of keeping everything.   The local fans traded everything back and forth in their youth so everyone had the same pictures.   Then they died and willed everything to the museum and the library felt duty-bound to keep everything filed under the name of the contributor.   So you have five or six or seven copies of the same print filed under different peoples' names.   If you wanted a picture of Albatross Transit Company's sweeper number 49872352, you didn't you under "A" but under the names of all the people who might have collected it.   
> 
> Now sensible museum policy would dictate that you keep the very best print in your library.   Then you keep the second best somewhere off site in a fire / casualty file in case something happens to the first.    Then you auction off all the others to get money to keep the library open ... and you hope they will keep willing the same prints back to you so you sell them again and again to raise money.   
> 
> Well, when I asked why are doing it this way, I was simply told that is our way.   I then asked, "Who made that rule?"   At that point two guys pointed at each other and both simultaneous said, "He did it."   Then argument started over who made the stupid rule.   I left and never came back.   I sent my keys back.  
> 
> I think sensible policy would also dictate that you link a negative to the photographer's name but unless he had an excellent catalog system that you feel should be preserved, then integrate it into a museum catalog system.   And file the photos under subject with a tag line, gift of Mr. Oberholtzer Wheezing Funkstuhl.    
> 
> At least at PTM, when I saw a print that looked like trash, I could look at Ed and say, "Why the hell are we keeping this print?"  Invariably he would take it out of my hand and toss it in the trash.   I think we had the same standards.   You don't need a hundred fuzzy, over-exposed pictures of 1700s on a fantrip because it costs money to keep a roof over them.
> 
> On identification....   I had an obsessive compulsive mentor who labeled every print with company, number, engine class, location, date.   To carry this even farther, Edward Miller used to add time (sun time ... he didn't believe in daylight savings time), film, developer, developing time, exposure.   I've at least attempted to put location and date on every photograph in my collection and if it was not something I personally took, then the photographer's name.   I printed a lot of other peoples negatives over the years:  Bill Janssen, John Bowman, John Seibert, Andy Maginnis, Frank Goldsmith, 25 years as Bill Middleton's processor and a lot of others and every one that I made for myself should be captioned ... there are probably a few exceptions that were not done.  But you would probably astonished to see what comes over the transom into museums that is simply not identified in any way.    It is a problem with all museums.   The crack I made about Ed dumping prints on me t!
> o identify isn't unique.   It no doubt happens because you and I will get around to it some day but are too busy when we take the picture.   We never get around to it and our widows give the prints away.
> 
> I have an arrangement with the Lancaster County Historical Society to make copies of any digital images I think are miscaptioned and then go out and do the road research ... when you come back and tell the librarian ... these three houses are still standing and they are house numbers 1803, 1809, 1811 on "X" pike, they tend to listen.    I wish I had more time to devote to that.      
> 
> The problem is, there are just too many institutions that need our help.   Derrick would appreciate working for a local hysterical society.   He loves industrial archeology.   They all need help just like the railway museums.    
> 
> 

I'm now doing a quarterly newsletter for one, because I don't know how o shut up.

> 
> 
> 
> On May 19, 2011, at 7:31 PM, Edward H. Lybarger wrote:
> 
>> That's because I take it seriously, and you know a lot of the stuff that I
>> don't.  Some places wouldn't even try.
>> 
>> The other problem is prints or negatives that aren't marked, even though we
>> know full well what and where they are.  A novice won't know...we'd have to
>> spend countless hours writing it down before turning someone loose scanning.
>> 
>> The other option, which some would find abhorrent, is to pitch a lot of the
>> apparently duplicative material to minimize the problem.  I'm of a mixed
>> mind on that subject...sometimes there's something valuable on the one you
>> would logically throw away, but there are also way too many photos of some
>> subjects.  Fantrips come to mind as one source of that, yet once in a while
>> someone pointed a camera  180 degrees from where everyone else was looking.
>> 
>> Ed
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org
>> [mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org] On Behalf Of Fred
>> Schneider
>> Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2011 6:08 PM
>> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Scanning Archives
>> 
>> 
>> And how many unidentified prints have you dumped on me in the last year and
>> asked if I knew what they are?      
>> 
>> Sad thing about that is that this problem applies not just to the library
>> but to training new operators.   Those that museums got in the 1940s through
>> the 1960s had some idea how to run a streetcar just by watching revenue
>> operators in the streets; they also had mentors in the hobby even if some of
>> them presented a distorted view of the industry.   
>> 
>> Today those people who come through the door often know as much about our
>> business as a politician knows about global or national economics.   
>> 
>> 
>> On May 16, 2011, at 7:42 PM, Edward H. Lybarger wrote:
>> 
>>> Grants are pretty scarce right now.  I'd want to know more about the 
>>> partnering arrangement in any event.
>>> 
>>> One of my concerns in hiring staff to scan is that they don't know 
>>> what they're looking at, which poses a big problem where images are 
>>> not specifically identified.  There has been much written on this site 
>>> about flawed captions in the PCP material; I'd not want to see 
>>> anything like that happen.
>>> 
>>> Thanks,
>>> Ed
>>> 
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org
>>> [mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org] On Behalf Of 
>>> Ray
>>> Sent: Monday, May 16, 2011 6:27 PM
>>> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>>> Subject: [PRCo] Scanning Archives
>>> 
>>> Just asking a question. Are grants available for the museum library? 
>>> If yes can a grant be written for scanning archives and partnering 
>>> with Historic Pittsburgh?
>>> 
>>> Ray
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
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