Toss, Not Toss Out

Sarah found an article on non-archival items found in boxes transferred to the Smithsonian Institution Archives in 2010. An obvious oversight, it erroneously lists the frisbee - one of the most influential items from the last century worthy to bring into the 21st century - as an item to toss away, instead of retaining to toss.

"I Found It In the Archives" [TBP . 10.14.10]

Some of these items are returned to the transfer office, some end up in the museum collections, some are deaccessioned (i.e. removed from the Smithsonian’s collections), and some we can simply toss.

As archivists, we are constantly making the hard decisions about what is worth keeping and what is not based on SIA’s mission and collecting parameters. But some decisions, as with the items below, are relatively easy...