Date:         Fri, 5 Jan 2007 22:31:32 -0500
Reply-To:     Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
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Sender:       Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
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From:         "Steven C. Barr(x)" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:      Re: Libraries disposing of records
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----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom Fine" <[log in to unmask]>
> Good luck with your Utopian dreams. Fact is, things cost money and money is
limited. Saving
> "everything" willy-nilly takes space and space costs money. Genuine
preservation takes expertise and
> expertise costs money. Free market is the best way to assure what's of
value -- as in economic
> value -- gets preserved. The rest is an uphill haul. I welcome you to cart
away as much of everyone
> else's curbside boxes or dumpsters full of 78's as you wish. There is little
chance that what you
> gather up will be usable or even extant past your lifetime. I just don't buy
into the "try and keep
> everything" MO because I think it's not realistic and a foolish waste of
limited resources.
> Decisions need to be made in each era, what was really of value here? Yeah,
tastes change but some
> things are pretty timeless or made a huge impact in their time. Obscure stuff
produced by obscure
> people is simply not of as much greater-societal value so it is likely not to
survive. I know the
> culture today strives to make everyone feel "unique" and "important," but the
simple fact is that in
> every era of human activity, a few people do the heavy lifting on the agenda
and the rest lead quiet
> lives of marginal wider value (but great value to themselves and those
immediately connected). This
> might pour some cold water, but it's just how the world works. What ends up
"preserved", if history
> so far is any guide, is not the whole thing but a stilted and biased
representation of the
> time/place, which by the way is the same with the written history. Like it or
hate it, it is The Way
> It Is.
>
> Another point -- I know a few "grab everything to save it" types who call
themselves "collectors."
> They're not, they are accumulators and are so over-run with junk that they
cannot find or enjoy the
> true treasures in their piles of stuff. One of them will be very lucky if he
makes it to his natural
> death without a premature end caused by a heavy pile of books and records of
highly varied value,
> age and condition falling on top of him. As he's gotten older, less and less
joy is to be had from
> his "collection" because it is, in the end, a pile of junk and he can't ever
enjoy it because he has
> to spend so much time sifting it to find any specific thing. A collector, by
the old-school
> definition, is discriminating and limits his collection to the items he deems
finest.  A guy who
> goes and dives every dumpster to save every copy of every shellac is firstly
on a fool's errand and
> secondly nothing but an accumulator who dooms his pile to an eventual trip
back to the dumpster.
>
Taking this negative view of things essentially says that there is no
point in actively attempting to preserve ANYTHING...including knowledge!
If we assume that "value" = "MONETARY value," we preserve mainly what is
the object of each generation's nostalgia...and for only as long as that
generation, and thus its wildly inflated value thereof, lasts!

Further, monetary value quickly becomes meaningless in times of serious
crisis...when a scrap of something edible or a small amount of potable
water (both absolutely necessary for survival!) suddenly become much
more important than some theoretically-assumed "value." If one had
picked up and saved the "Mona Lisa" from a post-catastrophic unguarded
museum, and was thirstily dragging that across some post-apocalytic
desert...and one were offered a large jug of cool water in exchange
for it (the only water in sight, and the first water one had seen or
heard of for several days...)...well...

Sadly, what we haved lost...quite possibly irretrievably so...in our
age of "information overload"...is any sense that there exist certain
core values, and artifacts that express and/or define those ideas, that
essentially define our civilization itself! Built upon that foundation
structure, there are a series of historical developments that help us
to understand the history, and thus the development, of our civilization...
and are embodied in the preserved artifacts from our (and our ancestors')
history. Some such artifacts can/will acquire a monetary value...usually
transient (how much will that $50,000 '58 Impala convertible be worth
when the last person nostalgic for its era passes, and petroleum-powered
transportation is no longer a practical option...?!)

But, in some post-conflict scenario...or after a temporary ascendance of
Al Qaeda and the destruction of all things secular/non-Koranic...will we
be the worse off if the works of Shakespeare and Mozart, as well as the
less "classic" portions of our culture's past, can no longer be accessed...?!

I would say "Yes!"...

Steven C. Barr