Hello there,

OK -as an Internal Auditor, I am going to open up the "dark side of the
moon" on this discussion thread! 

Naturally, I am with you all 100% that 'intellectually' there should be
a strong presumption of public access to archives and stored collections
in all museums. The urban myth of such items being the exclusive
preserve of curators, analogous to Fafner the Dragon guarding the gold
in Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle should indeed be nothing more than an
urban myth/thing of the past...! But I digress ;)! Here are some good
reasons why a museum/heritage site MIGHT be hesitant about allowing the
kind of access you have been discussing:

1. They have reservations about the security arrangements over these
archives. This could include both the risks of theft and damage through
handling.

2. Worse still they may in the last say 12 months have had a major
breach in security and have been told in no uncertain terms by Senior
Management that this is not to happen again!

3. And if 2 has happened, but the museum has managed to avoid this going
public, then they are hardly likely to tell that to anyone who is making
genuine enquiries about access - not least because that person might NOT
be quite as genuine as they make out! 

4. The museum may not have the budget or resource to invigilate access
to the archives.

5. Their Collections Management system may not be sophisticated enough
to track movement from the archive into "inspection area" and back into
archives.

6. They may be worried (wrongly) that allowing public access will
interfere with their own research.
 
7. Certainly, as has already been mentioned, they may be worried by 'end
use control' e.g. what is the purpose of the research and what will it
be used for? If the researcher wants to photograph the item(s) what is
the museum's policy? They may be developing an image library (on a
commercial basis) but not quite be there yet.

8. Leading on from 7, the museum may be wrestling with the "digital
image v real thing" debate. The researcher may also be thinking along
these lines! So, while a "simple" way to escape this whole dilemma is to
offer virtual (digital) access rather than real access, many will want
to see the originals....and implementing digital access requires time,
money, resource, planning, etc...

My guess is that most if not all of the above are concerns that museum
staff may not wish to discuss openly with researchers. While one would
always hope that the museum would be as helpful as possible in such
circumstances e.g. by offering to do the research themselves (at a
price, as already mentioned) my guess is that some museums may - for any
or all of the above reasons - simply say "Sorry: no access". 

I hope that helps to provide the "other side of the story" - remembering
that I am actually on your side in encouraging public access to
archives...

The above are my personal views and not necessarily those of my
employers. 

Best Wishes,

Jerry Symonds - Snr Internal Auditor
Historic Royal Palaces
Surrey, England  
 

-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Marybeth Tomka
Sent: 18 May 2013 16:27
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [MUSEUM-L] unusual acess policy

David,

Is there an appeal process?  I know our CMP has one built in.  If they
have what you want I wouldn't stop without an appeal.  That being said,
are they doubting your credentials  -- having worked with you that would
be wrong.

Marybeth Tomka
________________________________________
From: Museum discussion list [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of
MUSEUM-L automatic digest system [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, May 17, 2013 10:00 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: MUSEUM-L Digest - 16 May 2013 to 17 May 2013 (#2013-10)

There are 4 messages totaling 558 lines in this issue.

Topics of the day:

  1. FW: wall painting conservator recommendation (2)
  2. unusual access policy (2)

Date:    Fri, 17 May 2013 13:16:21 -0500
From:    "O'malley, Erin" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: unusual access policy

David,
At our archive we will conduct research for patrons who can't make it to
the area. In our case we do it for free, but in other places I've worked
they've charged by the hour. One of our main goals at the archive is to
provide access to our materials and we are open 6 days a week to
researchers. I have run across archives that are open by appointment
only, usually due to shortages of staff. I've never encountered a place
that denied access to a researcher though, at least not in the public
realm. Some cooperate archives are not open to the public, as they want
tighter controls on their intellectual property.
At my institution we do restrict access to certain collections as a
condition set by the donor (ie. they're only open to union members,
materials can't be copied out of them, they are closed for 5 years,
etc), but we try not to do that if we can. What's the use of an archive
if it's not available to the public? We have researcher who come in all
the time and go through collections and "find" all sorts of things
because they have so much knowledge about a subject and often have the
time to invest in really digging through collections. Archivists can't
do that or collections would never get processed :)

Erin O'Malley
Exhibit Designer


-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of [log in to unmask]
Sent: Tuesday, May 14, 2013 11:31 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [MUSEUM-L] unusual access policy

Good Morning Museguys,

Last week I contacted a South Texas museum that holds the papers of a
deceased local historian. The papers probably include some information
that I could use for a current project. I talked to the museum director
on the phone about arranging a visit so I could review the material. The
director told me that the museum has a policy that forbids access to its
collections by outside researchers. She offered to have a staff member
do the research for an hourly fee. Over the years I have occasionally
encountered a museum or archive that charged outside researchers a fee
to access its material, and of course many institutions will provide
staff to research its collections for a fee as a convenience to outside
scholars who for one reason or another do not wish to visit. But I have
never before run into an institution that by policy will not allow
outside access. But, then, I haven't been all that active the last few
decades. So I'd like to know if this type of access (well, non-access)
policy is unheard of, becoming common, common, or what. And, does AAM
have a best practices policy position, or anything else on access--I
wasn't able to find any specifics on the AAM website? Thanks for your
help. Happy trails, David

David Haynes    [log in to unmask]    San Antonio

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Date:    Fri, 17 May 2013 18:39:31 GMT
From:    "[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: unusual access policy

Erin,

Thanks so much for your note. I am also familiar with the various access
policies you listed. So far, no one who has responded has reported a
closed to outside researchers public institution. Thanks again, David

David Haynes    [log in to unmask]    San Antonio

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End of MUSEUM-L Digest - 16 May 2013 to 17 May 2013 (#2013-10)
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