Collection policy was Re: No space for vinatge computers in

From: Hans Pufal <hansp_at_citem.org>
Date: Wed May 28 14:19:01 2003

Tony Duell wrote:
>>And worse to the categorisation and descritpion. We are in the process
>>of inventorying our collection, the PDP-9 is described as "a cabinet xx
>>cm tall, xx cm wide, xx cm deep with orange and black panels and an
>>operator console". That neatly describes a museums view of a PDP-9 !!
>>I am currently in a battle royal to get this point of view chamged.

> Argh!! I knew I disliked most museums for a good reason :-)... This is
> simply rediculous. A PDP9 is a PDP9 no matter what cabinet it's installed
> in, of even if it's jsut loose backplanes and PSUs...

Exactly...

> Mind you, I once saw a list of valves (vacuum tubes) that one museum was
> offering to another. The list had a column of 'condition'. No, it didn't
> give the emission and gm figures. It didn't even say if the heater was
> continous, and the getter silver (not white, which would indicate air had
> leaked into the valve). No, it described how clean the glass was...

Yes, exactly the same mentality.

>> Had "policy" been applied at least 90 of those tapes would have
>> been trashed on the grounds that "we already have ten of those".

> The obvious extension of this is that art galleries should throw out all
> but 10 of their paintings on the ground that they 'already have 10 pieces
> of canvas with paint on them' :-)... And that libraries only need to keep
> 10 books ('we already have 10 sets of bound pieces of paper with ink on
> them').

> Somebody is going to have to educate museum curators about the importance
> and meaning of technical and computer artefacts...

Indeed, and the battle will be long and arduous...

But we WILL prevail....

   -- hbp
Received on Wed May 28 2003 - 14:19:01 BST