Repeat as necessary should the resolve weaken

[hrj]

I do not need to keep complete runs of magazines, even on topics near and dear to my heart.

I do not need to keep program books from every convention or conference I have ever attended.

I do not need to keep every SCA newsletter I have ever received.

I do not need to keep old course catalogs from U.C. Berkeley.

I do not need to keep product catalogs from companies that have long since ceased to exist.

I do not need but am allowed to keep the following:
* Copies of publications in which my writing appears.
* Copies of articles of specific (not general) research usefulness.
* Selected (very selected) runs of publications that have a significant percentage of articles of specific research usefulness.
* Runs of publications on which I, or very close friends, were on the editorial staff.

At the moment, I have filled 8 large shopping bags with material to be recycled and from that have retained the equivalent of 5 magazine shelf-boxes (those little 3" wide boxes that you use for filing limp-covered publications). This is slightly more than halfway through the material to be processed, but I need to see how thoroughly it fills up the recycling bin before continuing as the remaining material is more out of the way on the shelf than it would be in bags on the floor. In the course of the project, I found one amusing little gem that I may be scanning and putting up on my web page: a heraldic picture-book I wrote and drew illustrating "This is the shield that Jack built." (A somewhat tongue-in-cheek exploration of the heraldic consultation process.)

Comments

[etfb.livejournal.com]

No, you don't need to keep all that stuff... but you can stick it on eBay or advertise it on SCA mailing lists so that other packrats with more storage space can take it off your hands...

I disagree about not needing to keep your published writings. I think that's important. Imagine how the folks at the BBC feel about the decision in the 1970s to erase all those old recordings from the fifties and sixties. Huge swathes of Doctor Who no longer exist! You don't want to be the same, surely!

(Granted I live in a house with grotesque amounts of storage space, so my priorities are different, but you have to have some sense of history!)

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

You don't need to keep every SCA newsletter (event program, flyer, LOAR/LOC,...) but somebody out there would like them. Trust me -- on this side of the continent I'm that somebody :)

And I totally understand. For other things, like Smithsonian Magazine, I keep having to repeat "I am not their archivist. The library has copies of this."

[goldenstag.livejournal.com]

I have to agree with folk on two points:

The SCA Newsletters and such -- someone may want. Local group newsletters, you might check with the Seneschals. I, for one, am not keeping everything I get, it's hard enough storing the Pages I have (but I have copies of most of them going back to the beginning of the SCA).

The personal publications -- I'd keep those. I don't have as many of those as you, but I keep a copy of the magazines and conference binders that I've been published in, even if the topics are seriously out of date.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

I tend to assume that the chronicler's office has an archive of kingdom and principality level newsletters. (Certainly the corporate chronicler does -- aren't people required to send them in for archiving?) So the letting-go process is partly "If it were a life-and-death emergency for this information to be known, it can be known. The weight of the world is not on my shoulders." The one newsletter I've held back temporarily from the dustbin of history are my run of Windymeads newsletters from back when the group first started. I figure it's quite possible that I might have the only copies still in existence and I thought I'd scan them onto CD and see who might be interested.

Of course I keep a copy of all of my major publications on the "brag shelf" -- here I'm talking about copies of newsletters and stuff where people got permission to reprint articles and the like. One of the main reasons for keeping them is to have a record of "authorized" vs. "unauthorized" reprints. Conference papers are another matter entirely -- they have their own drawer in one of the filing cabinets (which is one of the next projects).

[duchessletitia.livejournal.com]

Good job! Every time I look at the box of old Page copies and Tournaments Illuminated, which I have not ever consulted, I wonder why I keep them. Maybe with your help I can toss them.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

These days I end up sounding like I'm proselytizing for a new cult religion. Doing a thorough "life-cleaning" is being a transformative experience. But I had to get into a psychological place where I was ready to do it first. If you're ready, I'd be happy to be there as a cheerleader!

[duchessletitia.livejournal.com]

Since I have been off work and home I have actually begun to clean out. I went through my closet and threw away all the clothes that were to small, out of fashion or I have not worn in years. Some of them were from when I lived in Sacramento. Surprise, I have room for the clothes I wear! I also went through my desk and got rid of a lot of old papers I don't need. I just had not thought of going through the boxes in my closet. Thanks for the idea and the cheers. I think I will actually do this. :-)

[mbumby.livejournal.com]

Oh, those are _so_ lessons I need to learn. Not that I have ever published anything, but I do save save save. I'm getting very, very close to getting help setting up my '70's to current comic books on eBay. Not ready to get rid of program books yet -- but I have made the start of binding them up in roughly chronological boxes. My incentive is thinking how embarrassed I'd be to have anyone help me move and SEE all that I've kept.