My 2016-2017 academic year at Eastern Washington University
was a transitional period for the Geography Department. The
40+ year careers of two recently-retired faculty covered a major
technological and epistemic change in academic geography. Upon
my arrival, the obvious physical legacy of that change was
a collection of paper materials that had been accrued over
the past half century with minimal organization and limited
utility in a new electronic data era.
Coming from a family with a multi-generational habit of
disordered collection, and with the support of new departmental
administration desiring to optimize the usage of the building
space, I took a personal interest (albeit with contradictory feelings)
in facilitating the cleanout of the building so the space could better meet the
needs of 21st century students.