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Thursday, September 20, 2007

Editoral rant on the use of superlatives

The documents, objects, artifacts, photographs, etc. related to maritime history are stored in a variety of respected institutions throughout the United States and the World. There are many top level maritime museums, and world renown non-maritime institutions that hold vast, important, extremely significant works and collections of works relating to man's involvement with the sea.

The use of the phrases "best research resource of its kind in the western hemisphere", and "largest maritime collection" aside from making unverifiable claims, does a disservice to the researcher, the maritime museum community, and academic libraries and institutions throughout the world whose mission it is to preserve and make these resources available, not to claim bragging rights.

Editorial note on editorial rant: I realize this applies not just to the previously mentioned institution, and that members of my own have also, and often made this same type of misleading statement...and I object to it in all cases.

3 comments:

Heather said...

Hear, hear. Well said.

Peter A. Mello said...

That's absolutely the best maritime blog post I read today!
;-)

Kelly said...

Wow! Such praise coming from the two most authoritative and respected voices in the international maritime community, I am speechless.