While talking about searching a database for art and the need for a controlled vocabulary (in other words, we agree to
use only "board" not "panel" for paintings on flat bits of wood), my teacher drew my attention to the search by colors feature
at
The Hermitage. 842 Special Collections While reading
this about the use (vs. non-use) of special collections, I was struck by the familiar realization that not everyone is living
in my world. Just because
my history professors, back in the 1980s, required use of primary sources (generally, or
specifically of manuscript collections) doesn't mean that's how all undergraduate students are taught.
So, on the one
hand, I say, What is this Traister talking about? I never felt especially unwelcome at
MHC's, or Smith College's, or William & Mary's, or the State Library of Va.'s special collections reading rooms. Sure, there
was a little more due process at the state library, and I was probably briefly miffed, but not so much as to keep me from
future research there.
And on the other hand, I say, well, yes special collections staffers do need to collect our
addresses and purposes; they do need to watch us and count the pages in the file when we hand it back. I'm a goody-goody living
in a world the bad kids created, anyway. I am used to all of us being "punished" for a few, in this case, collectibles thieves.
I'm not sure about letting faculty browse: accidents do happen - is it better that SC staff who signed up for the gig take
the responsibility for things dropped and torn when retrieved? But then again, why not?
