Trouble at the National Archives
国家档案馆的尴尬

Pricing the past
为历史定价

Sep 17th 2009
From The Economist print edition

A row over budget cuts is pitting academics against amateurs
削减预算的分歧让学者与业余爱好者闹起对立

Coming soon to a computer screen near you
不久将显现在电脑屏幕上

IN A grey concrete fortress, glowering at an otherwise leafy Kew over a moat-like pond, the National Archives guards Britain’s official records, reflecting almost 1,000 years of history. In one reading room academics and students pore silently over crumbling old documents; in another chatty amateur researchers from all over the world study census and family records in search of local history and their long-lost ancestors.

英国国家档案馆（the National Archives）坐落在一幢堡垒式灰色混凝土建筑中，守卫着记录英国近千年历史的官方文献，除档案馆外，基尤（Kew）别处都是枝繁叶茂，档案馆隔着护城河般的池塘倔然而立。一间阅览室中，学者们与学生们在静静地研究着破碎的旧文献；另一间阅览室中，健谈的业余研究者们来自世界各地，为了探究地方史志、追寻年久遗失的祖籍在翻阅着人口调查和家族历史的记录。

This summer, however, the archive’s bosses succeeded in upsetting all their user groups. They want to lower running costs by 10%, anticipating a squeeze in public funding. Their proposals include cutting opening hours by 16% and reducing staff and access to documents, some of which will be stored in a Cheshire salt mine. The expensive process of digitising the archive’s treasures will continue, but only for documents that lots of people are likely to pay to see. Folk are being nudged away from viewing original material at the archive, free of charge and advised by specialists, toward its pay-per-view website.

然而今年夏天，档案馆的头头们却让所有用户大为扫兴。因预感到公共资金短缺，档案馆想把经营成本降低10%。其削减方案包括：减少16%的开馆时间，裁撤员工，减少文件查阅量（有些文件存放在柴郡盐矿中）。造价高昂的档案馆文献数字化进程仍将继续，但仅限于许多人将付费查阅的文献。档案馆正劝走那些想要免费在档案馆阅览原始材料的读者，专家也建议他们去付费浏阅的网站查找。

Many fellows of the Royal Historical Society, Britain’s largest grouping of academic historians and researchers, fret that their interests are being disregarded. Academic advisory groups at the archive have withered away in recent years and, to cap it all, consultation on the proposed cuts closed on September 12th, just as many researchers were returning from working holidays abroad. But it isn’t only academics spluttering over their tea; some local and family history buffs are unhappy with the cuts too, particularly the reduced hours during which expert assistance will be available at Kew.

皇家历史学会（the Royal Historical Society）是英国汇集从事学术工作的历史学家和研究人员最多的机构，其中许多学者都很苦恼，因为他们的学术兴趣遭到了漠视。近些年档案馆的学术指导小组也已萎缩，而最糟糕的是，成本削减提案咨询会在9月12日就结束了，而那时刚好是许多到国外度假的研究者回国的时候。不只是学者们一边喝茶一边义愤难平；地方志及家族史爱好者们也对削减方案不满，尤其对基尤专家指导时间缩短这件事。

Britain’s archivists have traditionally provided an exceptional public service, especially compared with their counterparts abroad. At America’s national archive, for example, which has a budget more than four times its British cousin’s, fewer documents are fetched for readers.

英国档案保管员一直以来都在为公众提供着优质服务，跟国外同行相比而言更是如此。例如，美国国家档案馆预算是英国国家档案馆的四倍，但为读者提供的文献却很少。

They are right, too, to take the budgetary initiative in these straitened times. But the perennial tough choice between supporting often rarefied research and attracting the masses has got tougher, and solutions are proving elusive. The archive has hoped that putting more material online would cut the numbers trekking to Kew. In vain, it seems: document downloads were up by nearly 13% this August from the same month a year earlier, yet at least as many visitors showed up in person. The archive is, in a sense, the victim of its own success.

档案馆在这样窘迫时刻主动削减预算，也不算什么错事。但是，多年挣扎在提供精细化研究和吸引大众之间，而如今如何抉择就更困难了，各种方法都已证明不好把握。档案馆本希望把更多文献搬到网上去，以为这样就会减少长途跋涉来基尤的读者量。但这一努力看来也是徒劳无功：今年8月文件下载量同比增高了近13%，可是来档案馆的访客增幅至少也不低于13%。在某种意义上来说，档案馆成了其成功模式的牺牲品。

Other scholarly institutions face similar choices these days. At the Darwin Centre in London’s Natural History Museum, which opened on September 15th, this gulf has been uneasily bridged. Visitors can watch researchers at work behind glass and even ask questions over an intercom, treating them rather like the specimens they are working on.

近来，其它学术机构也面临相似抉择。9月15日开放的伦敦自然博物馆达尔文中心（the Darwin Centre in London’s Natural History Museum），这一难题也不好解决。游客可以在玻璃窗外看着研究人员工作，甚至可以通过对讲机向他们提问，而研究人员则像是游客正在制作的标本。