I copied and pasted one line wrong, sorry, attributed to the questioner the first line of Mr. Hastings's response. You got the gist already but just for the record, here's the corrected version. Then I'll leave you all alone for a bit, my lunch break is just about over now, anyway, LOL. I've received the couple of SAA recordings that I ordered. Here's the quotation from Jim Hastings of NARA that I mentioned in my posting last week. This is where he explains how archivists work objectively. The transcript is near-verbatim and is my own; I did it during breakfast this a.m.: Q: "With so many people involved, how do we ensure that politics is left out of the selection?" ANSWER - JAMES J. HASTINGS, present NARA, Director of Access Programs; former director, Nixon materials project: "You mean the individual politics of the staff members? . . . . In fact, back in the Nixon years, in the court cases pertaining to the Nixon materials, the Supreme Court said that the archivists in the National Archives have an unblemished record of impartiality. And back when I worked with Nixon materials, people used to say, well, it must really be interesting, you get to listen to the Nixon tapes. I said, yeah, for the first ten minutes, or so, and then, the rest of that, you're just applying what the rules are and what the standards are, and its -- . I have not encountered in all the years I've been working in access to records anyone who was making a decision based on beliefs. Because its just, well, first of all, it's wrong, it absolutely violates every ethical standard we have. And secondly, you have both in the Libraries and in the Federal records, you have the laws that govern what is selected and what is decided. And if you can't justify that -- you can't just say, I don't want to open this stuff, because it might hurt this person. Or it might help this person. That's not one of the factors." SOURCE; "The Role of the National Archives of the United States in Nominations to the Supreme Court: Roberts & Alito," SAA, Convention Recordings, CD 2 of 2, Tracks 13, 14. Nice answer, I liked that, it was well put! Maarja Krusten (former NARA Nixon tapes archivist) ________________________________________________________________________ Check out AOL.com today. Breaking news, video search, pictures, email and IM. All on demand. Always Free. 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]>