[MassHistPres] The Question about Historic Documents

[Mike]

Dan Biebel of Medfield asked a question about allowing Digital Commonwealth to digitize and place on-line documents and books held by the Medfield Historical Society.
 
Many small local repositories seem content to hold onto their material with no effort at conservation (Northeast Document Conservation Center does that work but at a great cost). Following conservation to stabilize the paper and ink to halt deterioration, the material should be preserved in archival quality folders/boxes in climate controlled storage (another set of costs many small organizations cannot afford). The next step is adding the material to the National Union Catalogue of Manuscript Collections for documents and important ephemera and adding the books to appropriate library indices both are tedious and require a level of expertise (another potential set of expenses).
 
If Digital Commonwealth is offering a free service to Medfield, they would be well served to accept.
 
I have been working to convince the Trustees of the Uxbridge Library to offer the various 18th and early 19th Century manuscript material to the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester where it will get the TLC it needs and be available to scholars and other researchers.
 
Michael Potaski
Chairman, Uxbridge Hist. Dist Commission and member of the Historical Society
 
  		 	   		  
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