Problems in the Use of Manuscripts

Abstract

USE of manuscripts presents the librarian or archivist, whose job it is to look after them and make them available, with problems different from those that face the historian or scholar who uses manuscripts to interpret them. This article considers the curatorial problems of controlling access to manuscripts, of encouraging scholarly and preventing irresponsible use of manuscripts, and of making materials available by means of microfilm or other copies. Manuscripts differ from any other kind of material in that no two are precisely alike; their preservation is the prime concern of the curator, and the need of protection from thieves and vandals calls for a careful admission policy. As a basic, minimal requirement the potential reader of manuscripts must at least be asked to identify himself, with some proof of his identity, and to write his name in an attendance book provided. This is all that is asked in the Public Archives of Canada,1 for example, and in most English county record offices,2 where probably it would occur to none but the expert that there might be something of monetary value. At the British Museum and the Public Record Office readers' cards are issued, and each application must bear the signature of a householder, vouching for the applicant's honesty, not his academic prowess. Usually more is required. The applicant should know how to handle manuscripts properly, and sometimes there is an age requirement:3 16 at the Library of Congress, 18 at the Pierpont Morgan Library. Often letters of recommendation are asked for, to show that a responsible person, usually academic, considers the applicant capable of han