Ms. Blumenthal,
After reading in your article about the trials you went through finding historical photographs for two of your books, I realized how little consideration I had given to this particular format of history. Your assessment that photos were handled with greater care back when the medium was new made me consider the role I play as a school librarian and historian. The historical (and so to be) photos that I have in my care in our school library should be carefully preserved and displayed as they tell the history of our school, community and students. I appreciate you offering tips to help guide nonfiction writing and research, too.
Dori Pruzan
TWU MLS student
So I must admit that until reading this very same article I had not ever really considered this either. In reading the article I was a little shocked that it was difficult to find photos for the Sam Walton book. But in Ms. Blumenthal's explanation it all began to make more sense. Once when photographs were more expensive and rare, they were preserved a lot better than they are now. This is definitely a problem that we as librarians and historians need to consider. What we collect today is what will be needed for these books in the future. That makes preservation all that much more important. Also, as Dori mentions above...even as a school librarian, it is our duty to preserve the history of the school. A simple yearbook may not be enough. We need to be cognizant of collecting important photos, artifacts, and current information about the schools we work in because todays everyday life is tomorrow's history.
ReplyDeleteTraci Kirkland
TWU MLS Student
I always enjoyed photos and felt the importance of preserving them. Preservation of history is very important but we really need interesting books with understandable facts to help our students understand that good histoty and not so good history are equally important and worth preservating. I think in this day and time photos,and books or updated and restored so much it's hard to maintain the true state. As educators I think we should teach our students that there are benefits to preserving history and help them start by preserving a piece of their personal history.
ReplyDeleteKathey Smith
TWU Student