What is the law on this issue? In a general sense, government records belong to the people of the United States. Free access to these records are (ideally) a part of the government's accountability to the people. Access serves as a check on the use/abuse of power. Of course, national security enters into this (hence the current debates), so there is "wiggle room" in terms of access.
-----Original Message-----
>From: [log in to unmask]
>Sent: Apr 28, 2006 12:13 PM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Users v. Records, was RE: NARA was Re: Request for off list responses on research card policies
>
>Interesting question, Russell. I'm glad to hear you all discussed the
>researcher thread yesterday.
>
>I'd say it isn't necessarily an "either or." Nor is it necesarily a
>question of how NARA weights matters related to records as opposed to
>patron services. I think NARA could and should improve its policies.
>But there are going to be some monetary limits. It simply doesn't have
>the money to spend as much on records or on patron services as it would
>like. Both sides are going to be shortchanged to some degree. All the
>more reason to think through policies more carefully.
>
>1. RESTRICTON:
>
>Some restriction of records is unavoidable and necessarily. However,
>researchers have to have faith in the process. NARA is supposed to
>keep that in mind. External agents may or may not be mindful of that.
>I noticed in the Weinstein/Leonard briefing on Wednesday that NARA
>asserted a need to improve resolution of disputes between NARA and
>agencies as to what to release or restrict. I'm glad they noted that.
>How well that will play out, I don't know. As I keep saying, people
>can be the strongest or weakest link, there's no way to guarantee that
>problems won't occur. Hence the need for people to keep a close eye on
>things -- including people in SAA. We shouldn't just sit back after
>the Wednesday briefing and say, ok, that's taken care of. It's jut the
>start and no one knows how it will play out.
>
>Users come in to the picture when a person or governmental entity
>unnecessarily misleads or deceives them. (I'm not talking about secret
>stuff discussed in agency records, I'm talking simply about what you
>tell researchers about what is being done in handling records.) The
>external players who create the records may focus so narrowly on their
>own interests that they can lose sight of NARA's institutional need to
>maintain credibility with all stakeholders. Perhaps some of those
>players become so accustomed to wielding power, they become blinded to
>the fact that members of the public, while seemingly weak in terms of
>clout, still deserve to be treated with respect and honor.
>
>2. PATRON SERVICES--SETTING POLICY AND EXPLAINING RULES:
>
>Anyone who has dealt with pushy or aggressive researchers (the
>Frenchwoman and the map!!) know that you need to have rules and
>regulations in place to protect the records, preserve security and a
>maintain a reasonable amount of order. Hey, I may have griped
>yesterday, but my gripe in the research room was centered on "ya gotta
>let people know before they take time to come in here." Not, "bend the
>rules for me."
>
>The problem lies in that fact that the people enforcing those rules
>usually do not set the policy. As I found yesterday, they say what
>they are told to say, usually without a mitigating comment, such as,
>"yeah, I know it's hard to understand and I appreciate why it is
>inconvenient, but that's the policy. Here's the underlying reason
>blah blah blah." They deal with lots and lots of researchers, running
>them through the i.d. process. Researchers have varying degrees of
>reasonableness, and I would guess staff mostly find it easiest to give
>rote responses which come down to "you can't do that."
>
>The biggest problem lies in the fact that the people who set the
>policies may not always avail themselves of chances to see how that
>plays out down in the trenches. I doubt Allen Weinstein would look at
>an i.d. that expired the next day and tell me, "I can't renew that
>today. You need to come back tomorrow," as I was told. But I could be
>wrong, LOL. I do think a lot of researcher issues deserve a closer
>look from higher level management.
>
>3. PATRON SERVICES--QUALITY OF SERVICE:
>
>Not all the problems are due to poorly thought out policies. NARA also
>currently is facing a huge "brain drain" due to demographics. Some
>of the people I've talked to believe that the golden days of researcher
>service, such as they were, peaked some time ago and now are waning.
>Many specialist types, historian-archivists with deep contextual
>knowledge, are retiring or about to retire. I know one such person.
>When that person retires, there will be no one left who could do that
>job. There simply will be a huge knowledge gap in that field within
>NARA. Sometime within the last 5 or 10 years, I heard of a comment
>within NARA, "The newer researchers won't realize the quality of
>reference service has changed. They won't have experienced the best
>days and won't know what they are missing."
>
>Many federal agencies and think thanks have grappled with the brain
>drain and the decline in the number of people willing to take
>government jobs. Think Paul Volcker and the commissions he has headed,
>for example. Also check out what the Partnership for Public Service
>says about the brain drain at
>http://www.ourpublicservice.org/research/research_list_all.htm . "The
>coming wave of baby boomer retirements, combined with other turnover,
>threatens to dramatically diminish the federal government's
>effectiveness in meeting urgent public needs." NARA is not immune to
>this.
>
>Then there is the question of money. Most civil agencies face very
>tight budgets nowadays. Much of an agency's budget usually goes into
>pay/compensation/benefits for employees. You can't expect good quality
>employees to work for peanuts, they'll pick up and leave for greener
>pastures. So compensation has to be resonable and market based. What
>is left over to spend on mission must be carefully apportioned.
>Researchers are clamoring for digitization of paper records. That
>takes money. This is less a problem for libraries than it is for
>archives, most people still are used to reading hard copy books. For
>every dollar a Federal manager decides to spend, he has to decide what
>other project he should take away from. These are our tax dollars at
>work and I think civil agency budgets will remain tight for the
>forseeable future.
>
>All in all, NARA faces huge challenges, not just in how to handle
>government secrecy, accountability, etc., but even in mundane areas
>such as resources. All the more reason for it to think through and
>communicate its policies better than it has, at least with issues such
>as researcher cards.
>
>That's my take on the matter, for what it's worth!
>
>Maarja
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Russell D. James <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Sent: Fri, 28 Apr 2006 10:15:48 -0500
>Subject: Users v. Records, was RE: NARA was Re: Request for off list
>responses on research card policies
>
>I want to delve further into this topic.....
>
>I am a library student on the archives/RM track at Louisiana State
>University. I am part of an informal book club of library students and
>we
>actually discussed this thread last night. I made the following
>observation
>and am interested in how you all feel:
>
>As far as I know the primary mission of NARA is to collect, maintain,
>protect, and preserve the official records of the business of
>government of
>the United States. If that is the case, then the records seem to have
>primacy in fulfilling the mission of NARA.
>
>If NARA denies access to some records or has rules that are unusually
>harsh
>on users of NARA facilities, then does that mean that NARA has a mission
>that puts records before users? Is this right or wrong?
>
>The impetus for this was a discussion in our book group of an essay
>talking
>about librarians (and presumably archivists) placing more importance on
>user
>services than on other things (such as records protection). Members of
>our
>book club have seen in some places where access to the services and
>records
>is more important than anything else. We discussed how this seems a bit
>lop-sided.
>
>
>Russell D. James, M.A.
>MLIS student
>Louisiana State University
>[log in to unmask]
>
>Professional portfolio http://www.geocities.com/russelldjames
>
>
>
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>A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List sponsored by the Society of American Archivists, www.archivists.org.
>For the terms of participation, please refer to http://www.archivists.org/listservs/arch_listserv_terms.asp.
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>Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
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>Problems? Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <[log in to unmask]>
A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List sponsored by the Society of American Archivists, www.archivists.org.
For the terms of participation, please refer to http://www.archivists.org/listservs/arch_listserv_terms.asp.
To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to [log in to unmask]
In body of message: SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname
*or*: UNSUB ARCHIVES
To post a message, send e-mail to [log in to unmask]
Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html
Problems? Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <[log in to unmask]>