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Re: Nicholson Baker



Foolish?
May I ask what you are "preserving" at BU?
Are you microfilming the Martha Gellhorn papers & tossing the originals
because they're acidic?
The worst thing an archives  can do is to destroy the original materials
that are entrusted to it.
Allan Goodrich/JFK Library/Boston
-----Original Message-----
From: Alex Rankin <rankin@BU.EDU>
To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU <ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU>
Date: Friday, April 13, 2001 1:36 PM
Subject: Re: Nicholson Baker


>Nicholson Baker is a joke.  His ranting and raving does nothing to aid the
>archival profession.  Preaching to the choir is a way of putting it.  If
Baker
>wants to have newspapers preserved let him try and do it and see what sort
of
>vault space problems he encounters.  His argument is  a kin to "we should
save a
>copy of every book ever written in every language for every genre,"  just
so we
>can "preserve" them. Foolish
>
>Alex Rankin
>Assistant Director
>Boston University
>********************************************************
>No comments here stated reflect the opinions and/or attitudes of Boston
>University or Special Collections
>
>"Wick, Charles Harrison" wrote:
>
>> Greetings to all,
>>
>> I am not an expert on Nicholson Baker's work, but I do know about his
>> passion for old newspaper.  If anyone has looked at his site entitled,
the
>> American Newspaper Repository, you'll see that he only has certain years
of
>> newspapers.  I had the opportunity to ask him, why didn't he have
complete
>> runs of certain issues, and his lack of response indicates to me that
only
>> wanted to keep good examples of each newspaper.  Last year he wrote an
>> article about how the British Museum was trashing large parts of their
>> newspaper collection.  I recently did a database search of the newspapers
on
>> his website, and compared them to collections in OCLC and RLIN, and found
>> that out of the nearly 200 periodical titles he claimed to have, all of
them
>> were incomplete, and all but about 20 titles were owned - in their
original
>> format - by at least 5 major repositories.  Although I do agree with him
on
>> a limited point of view that newspaper should be preserved in its
original
>> format for some artifactual value, but being a microfilm preservationist,
I
>> believe that if you preserve an artifact on archival quality microfilm,
it
>> will last.
>>
>> Harrison Wick
>> Preservation Microfilm
>> Indiana University
>> Bloomington.
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: William Ross [mailto:wer@CISUNIX.UNH.EDU]
>> Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2001 9:53 PM
>> To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
>> Subject: Re: Nicholson Baker
>>
>> Hello all,
>>
>> Although I am not a big fan of Nicholson Baker's novels (I am not a
prude,
>> but I do play one on TV -- truthfully, I am a non-fiction reader), I
believe
>> Jennifer it correct. Baker does not have fangs, nor does he have an
>> annotated card catalog in his living room. He is not a Luddite. He leads
a
>> suburban life, with kids at school, and like most writers, he prizes the
>> paper upon which his and other writers' works are written. He is using
what
>> the "powers that be" regard as the most fleeting of formats (newsprint)
as
>> an allegory for the preservation of all print materials. If he can
salvage
>> and preserve old newspapers, then how can we casually reformat and
>> "deaccession" less vulnerable library/archival materials? I have read his
>> new book, and while I disagree with significant portions of it, I believe
he
>> raises serious questions; ones which significant numbers of researchers
and
>> lay people will be asking us in the next few months. I question some of
his
>> conclusions, his casual use of quotes, and his sometimes bullying prose,
but
>> he raises questions that cut to the core of library/archival
preservation:
>> must we kill the patient in order to rid it of disease? Richard Cox has
>> provided us with an admirable and measured counterpoint to Baker's
argument,
>> but if we do not all become acquainted with the timbre of the debate, our
>> laxity places us at some peril.
>>
>> Bill Ross
>> Head, Milne Special Collections and Archives
>> University of New Hampshire Library
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Jennifer Hecker
>> To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
>> Sent: 4/10/01 4:39 PM
>> Subject: Nicholson Baker
>>
>> Howdy everyone-
>>   Just got around to reading the last few days of the list and noticed
>> that
>> nobody mentioned that Nicholson Baker is also a very fine novelist. Most
>> people have heard of one of his novels "Vox" which was given to
>> President
>> Clinton as a gift from his consort, Monica Lewinsky. The press made a
>> pretty
>> big deal about it because of the risque nature of the book (it is about
>> phone sex). He's also written "The Mezzanine" a slim volume full of
>> observations on life's minutae. The only other of his novels that I have
>> read (actually, I listened to the abridged book-on-tape version) is "The
>> Fermata" another risque piece which hinges upon a brilliant sci-fi
>> premise.
>> While I am a big fan of Baker's work, I must warn those who prefer to
>> avoid
>> literary titillation: these books are not for you (he gets pretty darn
>> racy).
>>   Also, I think that this kind of controversy is often (regrettably)
>> missing
>> from the library/archival literature. I've had some very interesting
>> conversations which were sparked by Baker's writings in this field. The
>> fact
>> that these articles ran in the lay magazines also served to raise a good
>> deal of awareness for the archival plight. I think this dude is really
>> doing
>> us a favor!
>>
>> ________________________________________
>> Jennifer R. Hecker
>> Masters Candidate in Archival Enterprise
>> University of Texas Graduate School of
>> Library and Information Science
>> PMB 292
>> 2002-A Guadalupe
>> Austin, TX 78705
>> 512.445.4373
>> geekarchivist@hotmail.com
>> ________________________________________
>>
>> _________________________________________________________________
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>A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!
>
>To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to listserv@listserv.muohio.edu
>      In body of message:  SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname
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>
>Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
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>
>Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>
>

A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!

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Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
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Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>