Dear Ms. Schmid:
Short form: I wouldn't.
Long form:
I like the motto of the police force: "To Serve and Protect". It is up
to the client to make wise use of his resources, including time. It is
up to the repository to protect the collection while providing
reasonable access. You have provided reasonable access, given your own
resources. I hold to the rule that photocopying must be done by the
staff. If the client wants it, he will pay for it. If he's in a rush,
it can be done at a price, and he will pay for that, too. So much for
service. Allowing a client unsupervised access on this scale, to a
collection which is not inventoried, does not protect the material for
the use of future clients.
Follow your instincts. It IS a bad precedent.
Sincerely,
Judith A. Robins,
Collections Supervisor,
Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology
520 N. Northwest Highway
Park Ridge, IL 60068-2573
Tel: 847-268-9168
Fax: 847-825-1692
e-mail: [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 9:46 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.
Has anyone been in this or a similar situation before? Advice? I am
afraid of setting a precedent for such open access to our collections
and building.
Thank you all.
Christine A. Schmid
Associate Archivist
The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of American Jewish Archives
3101 Clifton Avenue
Cincinnati, OH 45220
513-221-7444 x3319
513-221-7812 (fax)
[log in to unmask]
http://www.americanjewisharchives.org
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]>
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]>