What will going "paperless" mean for museums?

The term "paperless" does not seem to be quite as popular as it was a few years ago. Perhaps paperless offices now define themselves as green workplaces, a term that seems to encompass much more than just easing up on the paper stacks.

Clearly, as technology advances, the usefulness and practicality of paper notes is in the decline. Just last year, in a fit of non-conformity I made a rather extravagant purchase. My gift to myself - a lovely fountain pen, shining with chrome and mother of pearl. In an effort to renew my vows to paper and reacquaint my hand with the feel of a writing implement, I blew what could have been a mortgage payment on a pen. Given that I lose pens faster than poppies from my lapel in November, this was a risky venture.

I can proudly state that I still have the pen. I used it once or twice. Smugly, I drew the ink into the bladder picturing the elegant script that would float onto the paper with ease. Cursive writing was never my strong suit. My handwriting always looked a bit too forced, contrived and awkward. My printing was passable, and although painstakingly prim it did not embarrass me the way my handwriting did.

The pen hit the paper and not only did all of my misgivings return as I watched my cursive loopy and strange handwriting mar the page, I also made two disappointing revelations.

1. Fountain pens are not for the faint of heart. Pausing for even a nanosecond results in sloppy blotches of ink that belie my inferior penmanship.

2. Writing is inconvenient. Okay, I said it. I prefer to type, send an email on my miserably tiny blackberry keyboard. Does this make me a bad person? Maybe.

The fact of the matter is most Museum archives are full of the type of nostalgic script that modern day fonts cannot replicate. I recently read through a group of letters in a fonds (collection of papers) within our archives. The letters told a story of love, loss, and survival. I could not help but question, would I have felt differently if the story had been typewritten? The letters certainly could have been easily typewritten as the era of the records I was looking at was produced by a member of the generation I ofter refer to as the 'Underwood' generation.

When I look at handwriting, it is easier to feel a connection with the originator of the document. The provenance takes on new meanings, the story feels richer, more human. I also understand that this is a dangerous statement for a rookie archivist to make. The scientific approach of archives managment leaves no room for romance.

I also understand that it is not wise to make assumptions based on handwriting as it can bias the interpretation of archival documents. Is the script is meticulate and esthetic? The author must have been female and well educated. Not necessarily. Handwriting can be a mystery in itself and may lead to more questions than answers.

Handwritten documents, paper documents are dissapearing. When was the last time you wrote a letter? When was the last time you wrote anything longer than a grocery list? If you had to think for more than a few seconds about these questions, think about how this will affect future archives management.