Well, here's what goes on in a related outfit--namely, libraries.
Here in Special Collections, we _have_ sent copies of finding aids
(a summary of what's in the collection and what box and folder it's
in) to patrons on disc.  We figure it's just an alternate form of
something we have created _for_ the patron in the first place.  Our
databases, however, we created for _us_, not for patrons.  We don't
give them to anyone else--for all the reasons Dean DeBolt listed.  If
someone wants a list of something we have in a database, well, the
database program can do that--just make a list of all our broadsides,
for example.  But give an outsider a copy of the database itself--no
way.
 
 Nan Lawler, Special Collections
University of Arkansas Libraries
Fayetteville, AR  72701-1201
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