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Preserving an Archive of the British Library

Preserving an Archive of the British Library Preserving an Archive of the British Library Andrew Griffin Archivist, The Cayman Islands formerly Archivist, The British Library HENRY FORD MIGHT have been pleasantly surprised had he met some of the British Library's senior and middle managers of today. For he would have found among the keepers of one of the world's great reference collections, a view of the Library's archives that apparently supported his own valuation of history. While many British Library staff, probably the majority, would take the view that archives are a good thing, that a record of the Library's past must be kept, they would have no idea how the record should be compiled or what it should contain. Until recently, if there was any policy for archives, it was what archivists like to call 'fortuitous survival': let us get on with today's business and leave archives to take care of themselves. With the setting-up in 1991 of a high-level committee to shape a Library-wide policy for both current records and archives, this position is at last being rectified. The sorry truth is that the British Library, since its birth in 1973, has failed to provide either for the archives it took with it from http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Library History Edinburgh University Press

Preserving an Archive of the British Library

Griffin, Andrew
Library History , Volume 9 (1-2): 7 – Jan 1, 1991
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Publisher
Edinburgh University Press
Copyright
Copyright © Edinburgh University Press
ISSN
0024-2306
DOI
10.1179/lib.1991.9.1-2.52
Publisher site
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Abstract

Preserving an Archive of the British Library Andrew Griffin Archivist, The Cayman Islands formerly Archivist, The British Library HENRY FORD MIGHT have been pleasantly surprised had he met some of the British Library's senior and middle managers of today. For he would have found among the keepers of one of the world's great reference collections, a view of the Library's archives that apparently supported his own valuation of history. While many British Library staff, probably the majority, would take the view that archives are a good thing, that a record of the Library's past must be kept, they would have no idea how the record should be compiled or what it should contain. Until recently, if there was any policy for archives, it was what archivists like to call 'fortuitous survival': let us get on with today's business and leave archives to take care of themselves. With the setting-up in 1991 of a high-level committee to shape a Library-wide policy for both current records and archives, this position is at last being rectified. The sorry truth is that the British Library, since its birth in 1973, has failed to provide either for the archives it took with it from

Journal

Library History – Edinburgh University Press

Published: Jan 1, 1991

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