Hi Shelly:
This is not an easy question to answer. I think you have a copy of Art Museum Libraries and Librarianship (to which you contributed a "thumbnail sketch" of the Meijer Gardens). Pages 152 - 166 ("Institutional Archives") includes four essays on different aspects of archival collections in large and small museums. Starting on p. 255, Appendix C includes several sample documents for use with archives. And there is a bibliography on page 287, which includes not only articles published in Art Documentation, but also publications of the Society of American Archivists, which has many types of publications aimed at people who may not have archival training or experience but who, nevertheless, are put in charge of "pulling together" the organization's archives. One of the best books on the subject is Museum Archives: An Introduction, edited by Deborah Wythe (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2004).
Keeping just the published pieces and not the "minutia" will make your job much simpler, but it will leave out what may be, for a future scholar, a future administrator, or even a current staff member of the Meijer Gardens, the most important items. Remember that publications are produced in multiples and so, though necessary for the record, may not be as valuable historically as the correspondence, the memos, etc., that actually tell the story of the development of the exhibitions. And what about clippings and press releases, posters, photographs and other types of images? Are you only focusing on exhibitions or will you be archiving the records of the education curator, the development officer, the publicist, the registrar, the volunteer group, etc.? If either the Gardens or the volunteer group has published a newsletter of some type, this can be invaluable for being able to date various events in the history of the organization. I have found that an organization's announcements do not always include the date; the year is often left off.
If you have not done so already, doing a "survey" of the types of materials available in all the staff files and any other files in storage, making a list of the major types and (if possible) the estimated range of dates of materials, and then having, first, a conference with the administrator(s) and then with the staff as a whole would be the first step to making sure that they understand what they have and the implications of keeping or discarding types of materials. You need to make decisions about the format of the finding aid also. Will you want it to searchable online, if not now, eventually? By the way, have you looked into getting an agreement with a university archives or historical society to take the older materials and then the later materials on a scheduled basis? Creating a "retention manual" that will act as a guide in the future for all staff in knowing when and how to prepare and schedule files to transfer to you will (at least theoretically) make it simpler for you in the future. Probably you will not want to or be able to take on the most complete kind of institutional archives without additional staff--and probably additional space--but it will be important to the institution to think about what they want to do with their history. It should probably be a decision that would involve the board of trustees as well.
Good luck!
Joan
----- Original Message -----
From: Shelly Kilroy
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Monday, March 19, 2012 11:59 AM
Subject: [ARLIS-L] Archives
Hello,
I have been asked to pull together the archives for our organization and would like some help from those of you who have archives in your organizations. My question is, which items from the exhibition files should end up in the archives? Would it be just the published pieces like the exhibition catalog, invitations to openings, etc or should other information related the creation of the exhibit be included? My inclination is to include just the published pieces, just what shows the exhibition took place and other basic information and not the minutia of how it was all put together. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Shelly Kilroy
Shelly Kilroy, MLIS, Librarian
1000 East Beltline Road NE, Grand Rapids, MI 49525
PH 616.975.3144| TF 888.957.1580 | FX 616.975.9545
[log in to unmask] | www.meijergardens.org
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