Management Creates Meaning
The management and creation of meaning for a collection in an archive are interdependent. The very way in which the collection is managed creates its meaning.
For example, Amy Dankowski of the Cleveland Orchestra Archives admitted that she cannot save everything that comes through her office. She must analyze the material and ask what will be most valuable to future generations. This process determines what will be available to those looking through the archive in the future, and is the first determinant of what is meaningful in the collection. The things that are guessed to be worthless in the future, as valuable as they may have been in the present, are gone - poof - and vanish forever. Ms. Dankowski told us that she doubts anyone will want to look at room rental agreements in fifty years, and destroys these immediately. Other documents are let go of in a systematic fashion – financial information is kept for 10 years before it is destroyed – and other documents are kept without question, such as program materials.
Though the aforementioned stage in the process of managing the collection is crucial to determining what is important to the archive, there is further organization that creates the meaning of the collection.
Once she determines what is worth saving, Ms. Dankowski organizes the documents she receives first by type and then by time. For example, programs and financial information from 2006 are kept in different locations, even though they are from the same year. Large, sturdy folders hold the programs from Cleveland Symphony concerts in order, by year, from the present through the orchestra’s first season. Large tabs stick out from the shelves and label each program box for easy viewing and access. Separate folders hold the programs from Blossom, with the same organizational scheme. There are no lids on these boxes, because program information is some of the information she needs most often. In contrast, Ms. Dankowski decides that some material needs to be kept off-site. Though this material has not been destroyed, she anticipates that questions about it will be few and far between, and opts to keep it outside of the limited space in her office. This secondary organization further creates the meaning of the orchestra archives.
One can see the “meaning” of the archive by examining its physical coordinates.
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