My friend Erika Esau in Pasadena is moving house.

Erika is the author of a magnificent  2010 tome Images of the Pacific Rim: Australia and California, 1850–1935  on the shared aesthetic ideas between California and Australian arts.

She has reported on the exercise of having to throw away decades of research files and the sale of her and husband George Boeck’s library to an American company that pays a modest sum for whole libraries  and comes and packs up and takes away the books.

Some art historians I have spoken with have been able to place their research files and archive with art museum libraries and sections of their books with university libraries.

 

I  have only recently started on my half dozen filing cabinets by culling photocopies and website downloads.  I scan some or check if the article is still online and bookmark it. Lots of copy photos have been scanned or those with still live online links bookmarked.

This has meant that I ended up with piles of discarded manila folders, drop file holders, plastic document sleeves and sheets as well as a supply of as yet unused supplies. The plastic is not recyclable.

I  have tried gumtree, Vinnies, local organisations and had a few bags of unused materials accepted at the local schools.

In the end bundles have had to go into the bin. I feel the need to make some sort of reparation or donation somewhere to compensate  for all that waste.

It’s time all office supplies have to be made recyclable.

Coming soon a report on copyright as part of an oeuvre or estate

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