The Story Behind the Book: Preserving Authors' and Publishers' Archives

by Laura Millar

In this practical, informative, entertaining book, Laura Millar, a prominent Canadian archival consultant, inspires everyone involved in writing and publishing to value their paper and digital records and to preserve them for posterity. Millar explains what archives are, how they work, and why they matter. She presents clear explanations and step-by-step instructions on how to archive work, and she shares engaging examples of the lengths to which archives will go to acquire literary documents. Millar argues persuasively and charmingly that the ultimate value of archives lies not in the information they contain but in the sense of identity we create by preserving them, as well as in the knowledge and wisdom we gain from using them. The reader need only open this book and begin reading to agree with Millar that there are no limits to the value of historical records.

224 pages, Hardcover

First published November 24, 2009

Reviews

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a basic book for those in the writing and publishing worlds about archives and what to archive essentially. It covers all the basic components of archival theory, and has a great list of archival repositories that collect literary collections. I was expecting something discussing archival theory rather, so this was a little disappointing.