[Milsurplus] Archive to Donate

[COURYHOUSE at aol.com]

We save what we can but yea... paperwork consumes  space.
 
so many companies  DO NOT  want to had over  company  records...  sad  so 
many things  gone......
 
 
 
Thanks,

Ed Sharpe, Archivist for SMECC  

See the Museum's Web Site at _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org/) 

We are always looking for  items to add to the museum's display and ref. 
library - please advise if you  have anything we can use.

Coury House / SMECC
5802 W. Palmaire Ave.  Phone 623-435-1522
Glendale Az 85301 USA

In a message dated  11/11/2011 9:38:08 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, 
RAFANTINI at salisbury.edu  writes:


When I  was involved with AMSAT we had lots of people and companies that 
wanted to  donate archives. Problem was storage space was always an issue. 
Paper archives  can build up fast, quite often we are talking about hundreds of 
items so it's  not just a box of records but hundreds of pounds of papers. 
Warehouse space is  expensive, rent and utilities along with someone to 
stack, catalog and move  the stuff. Whenever you get a donated storage space 
that has a habit of going  away at some point then you're moving all that stuff 
again. We had a time just  allocating space for donated flight ready 
hardware, tools and test equipment,  stewardship of others archives had to be a 
lower priority. Then in the case of  corporate material many companies cannot 
consider giving the material to an  individual because then they have no 
control over it. What if that person goes  thru that material and finds 
information that's detrimental to the company and  publishes it? What if they turn 
around and sell 
it? In today's world any  company is going to shred something way before 
taking any chance on it coming  back to bite them. But let's not despair too 
much; there are more museums, on  line archives and collectors than ever 
before. Look at the proliferation of  museum ships and aviation museums in the 
last fifty years. I just finished  putting together some media for the kiosks 
for the Frank Perdue museum we have  here at our Perdue School of business 
that we just opened this year. That's a  three hundred thousand dollar 
investment with a third of the space for  traveling exhibits and our first one 
there is on Richard Bernstein who is one  of the founders of K&L microwave 
where they brought in examples projects  K&L manufactured. In addition to all 
this our school operates the Ward  Brothers Museum of Wildfowl Art, one of 
the largest collections in the world  of water fowl and decoy art. From what I 
recall that facility not including  the collection was around four and a 
half million, who
would have  thorough that wooden decoys are that big of a deal?  Maybe they 
would  feel the same way about electronics? And last but not least we 
operate  something called The Nabb Research Center that exists solely to preserve 
local  history. And this is just one small university. Maybe the key to 
preserving  history is to preserve it where it takes place? And to get out and 
work with  the local agencies in that community, volunteer and contribute 
but have to  wonder what if anything this ongoing thread about how the worlds 
going to hell  and how the rest of the worlds a bunch of idiots is going to 
help  anything.
Ray F, KA3EKH