Personally I would love to be able to preserve and listen to everything but
it just ain't gonna happen! I have come across gems in the past and was
glad to be able to find something important and rare. I once spent almost
80 hours untangling an analogue tape from a 10.5 inch reel so we could get
30 mins of audio. It was important to the client and believe you me, they
paid a lot for it! That was when I was in the USA.

Cheers
Marie

On Sat, Aug 7, 2010 at 3:20 PM, Steven C. Barr <[log in to unmask]>wrote:

> "Marie O'Connell" <[log in to unmask]>
>
> Why would I, as an archivist, waste my time on undocumented material as
>> opposed to documented? If there is documentation with the item that is
>> relevant to our archive, then yes, I will. But a random tape with nothing
>> written on the box, no notes or anything becomes a lower priority. Some
>> of
>> our accessioned tape may say one word on it.....I look it up and go to
>> many
>> lengths to find anything to link it, and if it does I move on. afterall, I
>> am one person dealing with hundreds and thousands of hours of accessions
>> with very little documentation.
>> Unfortunately we do not have funding for mass analogue tape presently. If
>> I
>> had my way we would do it all regardless, but I have constraints with
>> management who seem to think content is more important than fragile media.
>>
>> Because all too often this "undocumented" material is the only extant
> audio copi of an event...which MAY be vital in retrospect! My personal
> cassettes (which I HOPE I still own, after my ars**ole "landlady's" efforts
> to "clean up the house")...
> (may she die slowly and painfully...!) are AFAIK the only extant evidence
> of the very popular efforts of my/our blues band to entertain the half-vast
> folks of Toronto & district...!
>
> The point is this...EVERY "document" of ANY sort is (and may be the
> ONLY extant?!) a record of something that happened...that is, a part
> of history which to some extent defines our current existence!
>
> Sadly, we live in a world where objects are defined as:
>
> (1) New enough to be current...?!
> (2) "Old," obsolete and thus worthless...?!
> (3) A "valuable antique"...see my eWotsit posting
> and bring a LOT of money...?!
>
> It is only us pack rats that save things in stage 2 until they
> reach stage 3!!
>
> Steven C. Barr