To quote the Code of Ethics (available at the SAA website - 
http://www.archivists.org):

VI. Access

     Archivists strive to promote open and equitable access to their
services and the records in their care without discrimination or
preferential treatment, and in accordance with legal requirements,
cultural sensitivities, and institutional policies. Archivists recognize
their responsibility to promote the use of records as a fundamental
purpose of the keeping of archives. Archivists may place restrictions on
access for the protection of privacy or confidentiality of information
in the records.

There really is no issue.  As the Code states "without discrimination or 
preferential treatment."

chuck hill
University Archivist
Eastern Kentucky University



----Original Message Follows----
From: Anne Slater <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: Anne Slater <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Thorny Issue
Date: Sun, 9 Jul 2006 10:48:16 -0400

Let me preface this by saying that I am a retired circulation
librarian who has taken on her church's partially catalogued
archives...

In mid June a prof (hereinafter #1) contacted my church regarding
access to the archives on a very specific topic, for a book (if that
matters).

I spent half a day looking through stuff in the archives with and for
#1, and have subsequently begun work on updating and arranging the
archives initially because of this quest, although I had been asked to
take this on before the request came in..

A week later, I got another request from another academic (hereinafter #2),
different university, for access to the archives, same topic, for a
paper (if that matters).

In passing, in a letter to #1, I mentioned that another person was
interested in the topic.
#1 sends me a letter that betrays total panic, and asking if the
other person is #2.

It is.

What is MY responsibility to either of these researchers? Of course I
would not mention names to either of them, but does #1's "seniority"
in the search in some way preclude my giving access to #2?

#1 cannot come to do research until December, while #2 is coming some
time in July....

Anne Slater,
(Canaday Library,Bryn Mawr College 1973-2005)
Ardmore, PA

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A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List sponsored by the Society of American Archivists, www.archivists.org.
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