[A2k] Fwd: selling off culture: emptying the archive at Karlsruhe

[Jeremy Hunsinger]

>
> This is more for the archivists, and those with interest in German/
> international issues.
>
> There is a current issue with Badische Landesbibliothek of
> Karlsruhe selling off 3000+ medieval manuscripts.  Apparently, they
> are contentiously held by the Counts of Baden, but may actually be
> state-owned.  In any case, they are selling them for reasons
> unrelated to the preservation of the collection and archive.  More
> info at: http://www.cronaca.com/archives/004613.html  English
> version of the letter of protest: http://archiv.twoday.net/stories/
> 2743873/
>
> In the next few years, as maintenance costs for physical
> infrastructures increase, I suspect we will be seeing more tendency
> toward the centralization of manuscripts, and barring that, a
> tendency toward selling off manuscripts.   The case of  Karlsruhe
> likely isn't unique, of course, as this sort of thing has happened
> in the past, but we've never seen the legal issues, nor the amount
> of capital involved in this.  What happens when people sell
> collections for this level of profit?   How will that affect
> archiving and archivists?   should we work to prevent this, now,
> and in future situations?
>
>
> Jeremy Hunsinger
> School of Library and Information Science
> Pratt Institute
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>

Jeremy Hunsinger
School of Library and Information Science
Pratt Institute
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http://www.aoir.org The Association of Internet Researchers
http://www.stswiki.org/ stswiki
http://cfp.learning-inquiry.info/  LI-the journal
http://transdisciplinarystudies.tmttlt.com/  Transdisciplinary
Studies:the book series