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re: fwd: QUERY: science/technology archives 

Forwarded to STHC-L with permission.

Russell



--- Begin Forwarded Message ---
Date: Wed, 08 Jul 98 09:09:49 -0800
From: deborah_day@ucsdlibrary.ucsd.edu
Subject: Re: fwd: QUERY: science/technology archives (x-htech-l) 
Sender: deborah_day@ucsdlibrary.ucsd.edu
To: rjohnson@library.ucla.edu

Reply-To: deborah_day@ucsdlibrary.ucsd.edu
Message-ID: <9807088999.AA899914079@ucsdlibrary.ucsd.edu>



     I look at your message as an opportunity to open up an old can of 
     worms, but an important one.  It has long been general wisdom among 
     science archivists that we need not save central files of contracts 
     and grants.  I've heard several arguments about this.  One goes that 
     funded contract and grant records are saved by funding agencies (NSF, 
     NIH, ONR), thus it would be redundant for research institutions to 
     save these very voluminous files.  I've also heard that the most 
     important contracts and proposals are naturally found in the personal 
     papers of prominent pi's, so, again, it would be redundant to save the 
     files of the campus contracts and grants office.  However, I have 
     heard back from historians that it is sometimes difficult to locate 
     specific proposals (especially unfunded ones) through granting 
     agencies or in the National Archives.
     
     I work for a research institute which is funded almost entirely by 
     federal grants.  So I am interested in this question. Are historians 
     satisfied with extent documentation of federally funded research.  How 
     important are copies of grant proposals (funded or unfunded) that 
     reside in research institutions?
     
     I also think that a discussion of instruments would be helpful.  My 
     archives does not collect instruments, but we do collect blueprints of 
     instruments.  My institution has a small museum which collects 
     objects, but they have neither sufficient resources nor space to 
     collect scientific instruments.  As an archivists, can I have an easy 
     conscience that by collecting blueprints, I am sufficiently 
     documenting instrumentation on my campus?
     
     Deborah Day, Archivist Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD.  
(dday@ucsd.edu)

--- End Forwarded Message ---


___________________________________________________

Russell A. Johnson        rjohnson@library.ucla.edu

Archivist              (310) 825-3191  or  206-2753
Neuroscience History Archives
Brain Research Institute, UCLA
Box 951761     Los Angeles CA  90095-1761

Special Collections Cataloger        (310) 825-6940
Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library, UCLA
Box 951798     Los Angeles CA  90095-1798
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