In my Digital Authorship class this semester, at one point I found myself surprised by my own opinions. We were discussing library special archives, where the library buys up all the letters, notes, and artifacts of an author for preservation.
To my own surprise, I reacted negatively to the idea. In general, I’m in strongly in favor of libraries, but this rubbed me the wrong way.
libraries special archives and museums
Really, this shares much with museums, where unique, one-of-a-kind objects are collected and stored in the name of education and preservation.
I think my problem stems from those objects being unique; if museums and libraries only stored copies for educational purposes, I wouldn’t have an issue. Something about the unique real-ness of objects annoys me when collected.
objects have stories and lives
The way I see it, every object has a story and life, it has meaning brought to it by the people it runs across and how it is used or seen by them. Every piece in a museum has a wonderful story behind its creation, discovery, and its changing hands over the years.
When it reaches a museum, the story ends, with rare exceptions. Sitting in a museum is not a part of the object’s rich history; it merely provides a waiting zone for it to be seen and its past admired.
I’m an admirer of stories, more than objects. In most cases, I would rather an object’s story exist and continue to be written, even if it means I never get to hear that story.
That, I think is what rubs me the wrong way about library special collections and museums: they kill objects. More specifically, they kill their stories.
It’s a tough question in any preservation efforts: what, exactly, are we preserving, and why? With museums, we preserve the object and its past, but at the cost of destroying the object’s present and future story. It feels like hunting an animal and stuffing it for display, rather than letting it continue to live.
conclusion
If you think I’m crazy, you have a point. This isn’t the most logical view I have, it’s very emotional and opinionated, and I don’t actually expect anything to change because of it. I’m not even sure I actually want change. Museums and libraries are important institutions, and they do, in their own way, inspire new stories.
But I’ll still always feel a little wistful about all the stories they end.
