has sent along a link that will leave the transportation buffs (like my Dad) glued to their computers for a day or 70:
London Transport Museum
Your spouses will hate me forever, or thank me for getting you off facebook for a while.
Nothing ever dies in this modern media world, as Wally World found out:
Candid Camera: Trove of Videos Vexes Wal-Mart
It's a marvelous tale of handshake deals, unintended uses, unintended consequences, and the ability of Americans to turn lemons into lemonade.
I imagine the exec who killed the arrangement with this video company is no longer a "new Walmart Exec" but an "ex-Walmart Exec." This highlights a real problem in all organizations regarding institutional memory and the dangers of losing it or missing the value in it. Chances are the exec looked at costs and said "we can get this cheaper." Not a ridiculous idea, but it REALLY would've been worth investigating the parameters of the deal, not to mention saving the tapes for posterity, archival use, etc. Lessons to learn, folks.
Thanks to an archive buddy for passing this one along.
I'm just back in the office after an offsite meeting, the door is closed, and somebody knocks.
There is New Executive Recently Promoted, doing a tour of the building. NERP asks for a brief tour, then says "how do you know when all this stuff is ready for you to take?"
Well, here's a pretty how-de-do.
So I explain briefly about Records Managers and how they feed things to archivists, and see to it that records make it through their life cycle, and end up in the archives when they're ready.
Mind you, I've been asking about getting an RM here for 5 years, so it's a little shocking to have such a conversation out of the blue. I don't know if this will lead to anything, but I'm glad somebody took an interest for five minutes.
What incredibly cool thing did I do this week?
Answer will follow later after I get to laugh at all the wacky guesses.
UPDATE: There were comparatively few wacky guesses, which makes me sad. I was hoping at least one person would suggest I went exploring the Polar Arctic with Scarlett Johannsen in a Bikini. (That would be the delectable Ms. J in the bikini, not me. I can't imagine why she'd consider going with me in the bikini.) Mind you, I'd rather actually go anywhere with her in a bikini than just have one of you suggest it, but still, a guy can dream about what his virtual friends will think of for him.
Regardless, I must now spill the beans on my great adventure. I went to ring the opening bell at the NY Stock Exchange earlier in the week. Our local archivists group was tapped quite late one afternoon to come down the next day to ling the berr. Fortunately I saw the email, and I was able to go. I didn't actually hit the button, but I was there on the podium and have the image to prove it.
It was extremely cool. The Board Room at NYSE is humongous - I think my house would fit in it. A good time was had by all, even if I had to do a lot of traveling to get there.
Desperately need to recreate a PT Boat for light anti-ship warfare?
Then the Higgins Industries Collection is just the place for you!
It came across an email list I'm on, and I thought some of you might care.
On the whole, a bit dull. I walked out of several sessions out of sheer boredom. Perhaps some of the topics might have been interesting presented properly, but these were not. One session that did deliver was on a fairly old controversy regarding a cover for our professional journal, perhaps two or three years ago.
I know, I'm overcome with excitement too.
Without getting into all the dirty details, the cover caused some stir, especially among corporate archivists who have to explain to the bosses that might have seen it that the organization does not hate corporations. Letters flew back & forth, including one from an academic basically saying its impossible for corporations and corporate archivists to be ethical.
So the session dealt with the whole thing, and I have to say the Q & A after made me feel highly defensive. Let's simply say there are a lot of liberals in my profession, and I believe they have a bizarre view of the relative value of corporations vs. academia. Barring one older gent who stood up and told the gathered socialists that they were off their nut. I told him privately that I agreed with everything he said. I don't know that there's such an antipathy to corporations among the general membership, but there's clearly a cultural chasm here. I'm glad I am where I am - I couldn't take the academy life at this point, and I prefer working in an environment where the real world intrudes occasionally.
Other than that, nothing of note happened. We spent shabbos with our friends, had some lovely grilled lamb chops for Friday night dinner, and then a large lunch on Saturday that included some other old friends, so the trip was still nice. Driving home took forever, most of the traffic hitting as we got closer to NY. So I'm not sorry we went, but I don't know how much I learned.
Wheeee! A colloquium full of Business Archivists on NARA's plans for saving electronic records (muy complicated), and later yesterday a drunken bash with the same crowd. Well, not drunk, but alcohol was served. If you paid for it.
The middle of the day was highlighted by a trip to a local archives for some work-related research, which turned out pretty fruitful. Not a ton of stuff, but enough to make it worth the trip. It's also nice to see other people's shops, and discover that we all have messy offices.
Especially if the archivist is a cute redhead.
Did I wake anyone up? I am, in fact, fully clothed, with the exception of my pale, hairy legs and daring toes. I've gone commando in the sock area, given that temps are in the 90s around here.
The trip down was uneventful, largely due to the installation and permanent running of the portable DVD player. The down side is I had to listen to Barbie Rapunzel, Strawberry Shortcake, and not one but two My Little Pony videos. May I say the writing on these teleplays is nothing short of execrable? On the plus side, the kids were happy the whole trip down.
We did stop at an outlet place in Maryland, where LL Bean was kind enough to have pants in my waist size for $5 apiece. I can't remember the last time I spent $5 on anything that lasted more than a day. We spent some dough in a few places, but on the whole we saved quite a bit so I think it was a good idea. The only stupid thing is I have these dopey gift cards that expire at the end of August, and if I had been thinking we would have spent them yesterday.
There is no actual conference news as of yet - the first things I expect to go to begin tomorrow. I know anyone still paying attention is desperate to know of the doings of the Society of American Archivists, but you'll just have to manage your disappointment for one more day.
Leaving aside the usual lefty/communist efforts of the library community to undermine our attempts to kill terrorists, there are still some out there doing their bit.
Check out the Corps of Engineers, and long-distance reference work. Now that's good service.
