>> Will anyone provide their policy regarding volunteers' access, use and care
>of
>> collections or
>>  provide thoughts on the subject?

I believe that properly qualified volunteers should have access to collections.
  How many staffs are big enough to have the people to sort through the
 collections?  I have just volunteered to catagorize an industrial photograph
 collection in a local historical society that has remained unprocessed for
 years, because the staff does not have the time, and certainly doesn't know
 what they are looking at if they did have the time.  Myself, as an industrial
 historian know what the photos are, and have volunteered to process the images
 in exchange for the opportunity to look through the previously unavailable
 photo collection.  I am not going to destroy, steal, or mutilate the photos,
 and I can be trusted with them, since that collection is a very important
 resource in my work, and nobody knows its significance more than I.

The key is to know who your volunteers are, and to make a determination whether
 or not they have the knowlege, skills and trustworthiness to give them access.
  Of course supervision is also neccesary. (I said supervision, not
 micromanagement.  Nothing irks me more than the curator standing over my
 shoulder watching my every move).

Rick Rowlands
Youngstown Steel Heritage Corporation