To archive or not to archive?

I’ve seen quite a few stories about how Salman Rushdie is selling his archives to Emory University, however this is the first article I’ve seen that actually mentions he is also joining the University as writer-in-residence for a 5-year tenure.

While of course it would be nice if the archives were in the UK, I think some commentators are missing the point. Surely the main thing is that these archives are preserved at all? Of course it would be nice to have them in the UK, but given that no-one is going to stump up for them, at least we know they will be well looked after at Emory.

In New Zealand there is very little money in writing, let alone any money available to buy archives. Writers usually give away their archives, as part of spring cleaning.