What NOT To Accept

 NO to:

Do not accept digital photos , except in rare cases.  Exception would be well-documented photo scanned both sides, accompanied by info on material and size of the original &thorough provenance info. 
Example 1:  A picture sent from California such as:
"This photo is of my great-grandparents William and Sarah Crozier who lived on xxxx Road in Colrain in the 1880s. It is on the living room wall of my house in San Bernardino.  It came to me via my mother ________  who moved to California in the 1960s, after she left Colrain.  The photo is on a wooden frame 8" x 12".  Pictures of both sides are enclosed" ...  email from Bob Smith, August, 2024
In this example we would accept the scan, and make a scan of the email/letter with this provenance info.
Example 2:    A well-documented photo found on line such as the Jones Library's high-res scan of the 1891 Colrain Village photo


Do not accept an internet research printout unless it is accompanied by a narrative of who did the work, when, and why it is significant. Otherwise, the archives could be overwhelmed by "new material" .It may be wise to set up a parallel "Colrain History Research"  archive, but that should be separated from the Colrain Archives whose purpose is to preserve original documents and artifacts.

Do not accept current publications such as the Colrain Clarion, except as a collection with a shelf list, or if there is an original, unusual article within.

No to CHS News Clippings in Archives, BUT these should be saved in a separate "Colrain and CHS News"  paper folder or scrapbook, with a separate hand-written listing.

No to Colrain news clippings , unless it is a long story with extensive historical facts.  File these in a separate paper folder or scrapbook.

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