Whilst going through our own archives of correspondence at the Library, it
struck me that this was the kind of data that we probably should not be
keeping: people's requests for information, with additional information
about their research interests, academic biography, future travel plans,
and of course name and address (and often telephone number). Occasionally,
health details also given. It also struck me that this is exactly the sort
of data that some of our collections of third party manuscripts are made up
from. These collections are of scholarly interest to researchers, and it
is difficult to imagine academia without the legacy of letters and diary
extracts that enrich research. If the DPA was to be implemented with
Draconian verve, what would happen to the correspondence based archives of
the future? And what should I do with our own correspondence chains which
stretch back to the 1940s and show, amongst other things, how cooperative
the library community remained during the Cold War, or how research
interests and communities in Scotland have developed? I think about the
purpose of the correspondence in the first place, and have to concede that
retaining the correspondence we receive for the purpose of scholarly
research in the future would not comply with the 2nd principle. And what
do I do with the masses and masses of third party correspondence?
Any thoughts very welcome.
Cheers
Graeme
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