Published Resources Details
Conference Paper
- Title
- A Case Study: the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research
- In
- Recovering Science: Strategies and Models for the Past, Present and Future: Proceedings of a Conference Held at the University of Melbourne, October 1992
- Imprint
- Australian Science Archives Project, Canberra, 1995, pp. 57-60
- Url
- https://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/confs/recovering/brumby.htm
- Subject
- History of Australian Science - General
- Format
- Description
And HTML
- Abstract
A few years ago one of our most senior scientists, who had been at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute for 25 years, and who as Unit Head had headed a team which comprised 25% of the entire Institute staff, announced his resignation to become a Director of a similar organisation. During his time at the Institute he had, amongst other things, been intimately involved in the establishment of the AMRAD Corporation, and been enormously active in the World Health Organisation and the Rockefeller Foundation for Great Neglected Diseases of Mankind.
I will always remember one Monday morning when he breezed into my office, obviously pleased with himself. 'Marg', he said, 'I've done it. I came in all weekend and I've cleaned out my whole office'. And he had. Empty filing cabinets, empty shelves all the lifetime of paperwork thrown out. But being a very good scientist, he had done what he knew should be done he had written a paper, which was duly published, about his 25 years in Immunology. The raw 'data' then had been destroyed.
This true story illustrates the central problem of science archivists - namely, how to ensure that material which might not be raw scientific data, but which might nevertheless be of value, is retained. I would like to outline a few moments of the Institute's history, to see if there are other questions for archivists to consider.
- Source
- Carlson 1996
Related entries
Corporate Bodies
- Australian Science Archives Project, The University of Melbourne (1985 - 1999)
- Cellular Immunology Unit, The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (1965 - 1996)
- The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (1915 - )
See also
Related Published resources
isPartOf
- Recovering Science: Strategies and Models for the Past, Present and Future: Proceedings of a Conference Held at the University of Melbourne, October 1992 edited by Sherratt, Tim; Jooste, Lisa; Clayton, Rosanne (Canberra: Australian Science Archives Project, 1995), 124 pp, https://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/confs/recovering/contents.htm. Details