A hypothetical situation just for discussion: A museum is doing a restoration of a diesel locomotive and needs the applicable parts manuals. Someone locates and acquires the correct manuals and donates them to the museum. The folks working on the project open the box and volumes one through three are perfect and original, but volume four is (horrors!) a XEROX COPY in an original binder.The curator has instilled in the staff and the volunteers the understanding that the purpose of the museum is to preserve genuine original railroad equipment and technical material. Copies obviously do not fit into that scenario. So how do you deal with this situation?1. Throw away all of them because they are not a complete original set.2. Sell the set of books on eBay and keep looking for genuine originals.3. Throw away volume four (the copy) and keep volumes one through three for the project.4. Keep all four volumes in the shop for the project.5. Put all four volumes in the archives, make copies for the shop to work from, keep looking for a “pure” volume four for the archives.6. Or some other solution?Forget the copyright issues here, assume that manufacturer’s representative or distributor has already told you it is OK to copy them. This is just for discussion, I am just curious about your views on the priorities you would apply to this particular situation. Does the need for information assume a higher priority than the stated mission to preserve genuine original material? If a copy is the best information you have is it worthy of being in the archives?

I truly fail to see any dilemma in this hypothetical situation.Do libraries only keep original first editions? Gee, makes keeping Dickens, Twain, and Whitman on the shelves a pain.You are presumed to be restoring a locomotive. In order to restore said locomotive, you need INFORMATION. That information is contained in the manuals you have and in the photocopied copy.Yes, loco maintenance manuals may be considered collectibles and artifacts. But in this case they are FAR more valuable as information/data sources than as artifacts. Break a part or mis-wire a connection, and watch all heck break loose.Assuming that the shop forces are going to be working on said loco with greasy hands and the like and not in a sterile lab environment, you keep all four volumes, photocopy all four and give the shop a "working" copy, and then file away the four volumes for future reference, keeping an eye out for an original Vol. 4.Any museum that would even consider the other alternatives needs to re-evaluate what the heck they're doing and why.

I have to agree, I don't see the problem here.Knowledge, in whatever format presented, is the utmost concern, particularly for a restoration project. Clearly a copied piece of information is more valuable than no information at all.Now, if the question is altered slightly that you're assembling a collection of (in this case) origninal locomotive manuals, as printed by the manufacturer, that's a different scenario. Again, opinions will vary. For my two cents worth, in that scenario, I would maintain the copy until an authentic original could take it's place in the collection. Once an original was found, I wouldn't dispose of the copy, if my group's collection policy did not "permit" copies (A short-sighted policy in my opinion), I would find someone, probably here on this board, that would be appreciative and glad to get "just a copy".

I agree with the other two replies. Your option #5 is the best, in my opinion. Work from photocopies in the shop, keep the originals (along with the one photocopy) in your archives, and try to find an original of the 4th manual. I believe that the information is the most important thing in this case. The originality of the manuals should be a secondary concern.Walter

Why do you have and hold them in your collection?If you have them to support an artifiact (locomotive) and assuming the copy is accurate, then it contains all the information of the original, and is valuable for the information it contains.Since the late 1960's copy machines have been common and short run, frequently revised manuals like these have been increasingly supplied at Xerox copies from the manufacturer.We sometimes devalue copies as not "original", which might work if you are a collector of that specific item, but doesent make sense in this case.

mixdata,My thought is that each has a place: an original goes on the shelf in the Library and the photocopy goes into the shop where the crew can get their greasy hands on it and still have access to the information it contains.And do talk to other museums and look on E-bay for that missing part four!That is just what happened here with a gunnery manual for the deck gun on the USS Pampanito. The Navy was nice enough to give them an original and it went into the library and the xerox copy went to the crew who rrestored the gun.Ted Miles

"Why do you have and hold them in your collection" usually has the same answer that Randy and many of the contributors have identified: Their information value, and I agree fully that the information value may sometimes be much more significant than their value as artifacts. My choice would also be to keep the set of catalogs, including the copied one, in the archives and make expendable copies for daily use.In my case, it doesn't involve a particular preservation project, it involves providing training for machinists and electricians, and technical support for a very active fleet of several types of locomotives. That fleet changes over time, and you can never tell what the management will obtain next, so preserving a variety of technical support documents has proven to be helpful over the course of many decades.Since I am occasionally asked to assist someone by providing information, it is very helpful to see what this situation looks like from the side of the folks who are supporting a museum or preservation effort. From the responses so far, it appears that most of you have views on this that closely parallel my own. However, I have over the years encountered a few "purists" who have taken positions similar to some of the others I listed (except the first one, I don't know of anybody who threw them in the trash).

Speaking as a worker at Branford (just a "grunt" who tries to repair things, not one of the miracle workers who produces beautiful restorations): Out library policy seems to be that precious artifacts like manuals, plans, diagrams, etc. must be protected from the damaging light of a copy machine, as well as my fingerprints! I am greatful to museums like Crich and Halton County that are more liberal with assistance. (I just haven't asked other museums for help.)

If there is a concern about the light or heat of a copy machine then you make one master copy that is then used to make the work copies. I have done that with items in my personal collection.I mention the matter of heat because I have heard a concern about making copies of photographic prints. A number of archieve/manuscript make reference Xerox copies of photo prints. However, they will only make a few at a time because they have a concern that the heat of the glass plate of the Xerox machine will cause deterioration of the print.In the scenario above, all of the found items are original to the museum with the diesel locomotive. They go into the collection with appropriate notes as to where they came from. Make copies for the shop people. Replace the fourth if an original is obtained. A number of museums will get duplicates and then keep the best for the collection and use the others for teaching collections or to sell for funds.