Kevin McElhone says:

> Perhaps a donation before you die to the Archives ...

Kevin's suggestion is honorable, desirable, appropriate and should be
supported.  Regrettably, vast majority of donors naively perceive that
once their prized collection is donated, that it is good hands and will
be freely accessible to researchers.  The reality is that vast majority
of target archives do not have sufficient staff, equipment of budget
to make access a reality.  The only real benefit is to the archival
institution itself that can now claim that it is the chosen repository
of the "ABC Collection".  Looks good on their CV.

Within the world wide array of such document collections, it is quite
common that access takes the form of a physical visit to their premises,
file a request for a specific document, and come back days later when
advised that the document has been found and now available for viewing
in their premises during their open hours.  This means quite simply
that one must physically reside in the general proximity of the
institution.  Research from long distance becomes pretty close to an
impossibility, even given inter-library loan processes.

Vast majority of target institutions will require a donor to sign a
waiver that permits the institution to do to the collection whatever it
wishes.  That could be do nothing, outright sale to a collector, or
trade with another institution for whatever, or dispose of in some
manner.  All of which may well not be what the donor wishes.

It is important that donors negotiate an agreement up front that
ensures that their collection will in fact be freely accessible to
researchers.  In the presence of such a condition, be forewarned that
an automatic response from the institution will be a requirement that
the donor also provide a sufficient endowment to fund access.  In the
absence of such an endowment, the institution may well decline to
accept the collection if access is a condition.

Within the world of archivists and librarians, there is a growing array
of "Digital Archivists".  This does not mean that such a group will
convert your paper collection to digital files to facilitate access.
This group is basically charged with responsibility to managing and
administering documents that are "born digital".  They are not
ordinarily equipped to convert paper documents to digital form.

Those contemplating donating their collection of original literature to
an institution may wish to inquire if that institution has the ability
to convert paper documents into freely available digital files.  The
moment "freely available" emerges in the negotiations, an instant
impediment will be imposed: "copyright protection".  The institution
will argue that it does not have the resources to determine if a given
document is out of copyright protection.  They fear copyright
infringement litigation.

The reality is that the vast majority of the original literature we
cherish is long since out of copyright protection.  The all-important
argument has to be positive in favor of access, rather than negative
favoring do nothing.

The process I use to convert my collection of original literature to
digital form is to scan the documents with my HP 4670 flat bed scanner.
Unlike most flat bed scanners, this unit is "see-thru", extremely well
suited for scanning books and pamphlets with minimal handling, and
remarkably swift.  The scanning software I use is ABBYY Fine Reader
which facilitates OCR and/or graphics scanning, directly into a word
processor, or into Adobe Acrobat.  If direct into Acrobat, it in turn
provides for OCR processing to facilitate future search capability
within a target PDF digital document.

What we do not need is for collections of original literature to
languish inaccessible long after the original donation.  It would be
useful if the archivists and librarians within our group be encouraged
to offer their advice on how best to enhance access to a collection of
original literature.  Thoughts of others?

Regards,
Terry Smythe
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
http://members.shaw.ca/smythe/rebirth.htm