This is an interesting thread and I am reading it with great interest, as
we are drafting our own collections policies, including database access
and intellectual property statements. I think it will take a specialist
in intellectual property to sort out the public access rights from the
creation rights. Most museums are public or semi-public institutions (if
you are receiving a tax break and any Federal funding, as I understand
it, you can't consider yourself to be strictly private) and are affected
to some degree by FOIA. Yet much of this information is sensitive and
becoming more sensitive all the time. Specific site information, for
example, has often been used for inappropriate access by collectors not
affiliated with the museum. Or non-collectors, even, such as developers,
an unpleasant situation we encountered when I was in Austin. Q: If the
museum releases information that is used for inappropriate purposes and a
landowner sues for damages, is the museum partially liable? (I have
received many thoughtful but conflicting answers to that.)
 
No, I have little use for the ivory tower mentality, myself. And I have
seen information repressed for decades (or even lost because it was never
shared and was mainly stored in the heads of curators who assumed that
they were immortal). But I would suggest that we look calmly at what
information should be shared and what should be protected, rather than
saying that anyone has a right to anything. After all, we are in this
field to provide stewardship of collections, including their associated
information, not just open access on demand. Surely there is a balance
somewhere between denying everyone and denying no one.
 
Sally Shelton
Director of Collections Care and Conservation
San Diego Natural History Museum