I wouldn't be comfortable with it. Rules are rules, and I think you need to
stick to them for all the reasons you describe. Besides, how will you
monitor how many copies he makes to charge him accurately?
My suggestion is to ask him to mark off what he wants with paper flags (cut
strips of regular paper), indicating specifically what he wants. You then
copy the documents after he's left at whatever pace you can reasonably
accomodate, and mail the whole bunch off to him at his expense (plus cost of
copies, naturally).
Giving an inch is likely to lead to further miles, and if word gets around
you'll have others asking for the same treatment.
DS
______________________________________
Daniel Sokolow, Archives Coordinator
David Taylor Archives
North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System
155 Community Drive
Great Neck, NY 11021
mailto:[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
_____
From: Archives & Archivists [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Schmid, Christine
Sent: Thursday, July 13, 2006 10:46 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Levels of access
I am in need of the wisdom of my colleagues regarding access.
We have a researcher who has been working for several weeks on a large
collection. It was processed only on a box level and is about 200 record
sized boxes. This researcher will be leaving town soon and wants to be able
to photocopy documents in it on his own. He is willing to bring in his own
copier, do it himself and still pay for the copies. We are actually
considering his request because the collection is not in good order and the
copying, if done by our part time worker, would take quite a while to get
done because of the volume and disarray of the collection. Basically it
would be easier on some of the staff.
We have some reservations of course. The only open space for him to set up
and work would be where he would be unsupervised. Call me pessimistic and
skeptical but I don't tend to trust anyone with historic records that I have
been employed to care for.
Also, this researcher has a history of continuously asking for more leeway
on the rules and we always give an inch, give another inch and then another
inch all in the pursuit of open access for our users.
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