71–76 of 76 posts
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> However, I was told, they had decided to keep the plastic boxes, and were making use of them. This is more of an insult than a consolation. I'm still in disbelief that they were tossed out rather than offered back or donated elsewhere.
Looking at the response from commenters who say they were affiliated with VCF and the amount of flagged comments here, I’m inclined to believe that it was indeed an insult.
I have a storage room under the stairs which would be a vintage computer museum of its own. I am keeping it there until I downsize the house in the next 5 years. I have been delusionally waiting for that 10,000 year preservation origanization to come into existence but I am not holding my breath. If a billionaire funded museum could run into trouble ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34831880 ) what hope is there…
Jody Allen doesn't care about LCM, so she "shut it down" rather than continue paying for it, but apparently she can't completely shut it down--probably due to how its structure was set up when founded, at least Paul got that right--otherwise I expect she would.
In other words, the problem with LCM was pretty specific to the timing of Paul's death and the shiftiness of his sister, not anything to do with museums for this sort of thing as a class.
With a large (at least in kilograms) collection of vinyl and shellac records, I have looked into the 'what happens next (ie., what should my executor do)' issue. The most memorable comment was in the blog of a buyer of collections. Can't find the link but paraphrased: "I will never even look at a collection that has had anyone else peruse and buy some discs. They bought your collection." As in, most 'collections' are…
Maybe consider the Internet archive? https://help.archive.org/help/how-do-i-make-a-physical-donat...
begin-quote>>
Items donated to the Internet Archive become the property of Internet Archive, and will be recorded as an unrestricted gift. Items are not returnable after donation. We can provide a donation receipt roughly describing the donation back that can be used for tax purposes– but we can not do an appraisal.
For materials that do not fit into our collections for any reason, they are often donated to other non-profits or worthy causes, but sometimes recycled. Rarely are materials sold.
So I see nothing in this to suggest anything more than that I can donate my collection in plastic totes, and expect the totes to be re-used.
I'm not complaining, but I am pointing out that expecting more than that isn't what's on offer. The IA and the VCF may need to be more explicit in saying that "giving us your trust means accepting our judgement".
Actually, I think the IA is explicit, just 'diplomatic'.
As a former warehouse volunteer at VCF in Wall, NJ, I can attest that this blog post consists of only conjecture and no facts. Everything was checked for archiving. Everything was offered to anyone who would listen for over a year. Most of the paper found a good home. In fact, a better home as the warehouse is near the ocean and has no climate control. Not a good place to donate paper. It should never have been donat…
>> It should never have been donated and should never have been accepted (under previous management).
I recall that you were too busy, in your volunteer days there, running your mouth and telling me how to do my job. Yet the problems VCF has now never happened under my watch.
I care about vintage computers and early computing history, because quite a few people I know are aware of this I am gifted old hardware and documentation. I have nowhere to set them up or display them so they go into storage. I would willingly gift them to good homes, I feel my role is as a custodian. I cannot make use of these things, but I can ensure that they continue to exist. I can completely sympathise with th…
'Lerc' comment speaks to the key thing here: there was a miscommunication: Donor: I would like to charge you with care and control of this archival material. Recipient: Thank you for the containers and fuel. What happened then is in the past, no going back. The incident raises the bar for archive recipients ("is this an archive, what can we do with it"). Some archiving orgs now will not accept donations without a mon…