Today was long, except all of our clocks were wrong so when 5 o clock came around I did not believe it one bit. We made major strides today. Today was also a day of explosions.

One major issue for the place that I work concerns preservation versus customer service. Some people think that they are at odds with each other. We work for a historical society and we must preserve things forever, but that means we must also allow access to people who walk in the door. This struggle is even, which is why I am drawn.

Without customers we would have no reason to preserve. Who are we preserving these archives for? What user groups? No one? Is the point of our job to help no one?

And if we are preserving - and that is our goal - then why are all the manuscripts unprocessed, thrown into boxes full of staples, and why are people allowed to photocopy our poor exposed photographs?