Re: Curators. Boston Public Library. MFA Curators. BSO Musicians.

[Donna Halper <dlh@donnahalper.com>]

>Don wrote--
>We have not heard from Boston Public Library curators
>like
>a. BPL Sound Archives' Ed Fenninger efenninger@bpl.org
>b. Newspapers and Microtext's Henry Scannell hscannell@bpl.org
>c. Social Science's Mary Francis O'Brien mfobrien@bpl.org

I know the entire crew in Microtext-- they were very helpful in the 
researching of my book.  Henry is new-- until last year, the person woh ran 
the department was someone else, who only recently retired.  I have noticed 
in the past few months that some new policies are being put in to modernise 
things-- I was even able to work with powers that be to get new microfilm 
readers (and more of them-- the old ones were constantly broken).  Henry is 
a very good person, but right now, he is short-staffed and may not be 
thinking about your project.  Contact him directly-- they don't make nicer 
or more knowledgeable people.   Ditto for the sound archives folks-- they 
have had some rare Fred Allen material (and some by Boston band-leader Joe 
Rines) forever.  They only recently got the go-ahead to improve the quality 
of what had been put on cassette and archive the rest of the 
material.  Things move very slowly at the BPL, a bureaucracy to say the 
least.  But there are individual people who DO want to help, and I have 
found that having personal conversations with them can move things along.