I don't think many here have had the opportunity to work with or be in charge of preservation and archival. When I offered to 3D scan an artifact repository fo

I don't think many here have had the opportunity to work with or be in charge of preservation and archival. When I offered to 3D scan an artifact repository for a rare books library, they declined after some discussion because as appealing as having space for more books was, they already had the facilities to store the artifacts and make them available, but they did not have the knowledge or budget to create, maintain, and develop a virtual library of the artifacts or to hire people who could. I've deployed collection management platforms for two museums, and the first time I met the person who would operate it, I don't know why I was surprised to learn that they'd gone to college to do exactly and only that. Expertise and authority have meaning outside of tech, and "being good with computers" or a generally smart person isn't a replacement for serving a role in a longstanding and historied field.