If you are a privately funded museum, not subsidized by the government,
sure you can restrict access to your collections.  Not every collection
is meant for all eyes, nor does everyone need access to a collection
without having a legitimate reason, such as a thesis, or a book, or an
essay for a journal or newspaper one is working on.  If you have a
collection of several thousands photographs, would you want person X to
be flipping through your carefully stored photographs (or other material)
looking for something he/she has not clue about?  And do you have the
time?  The Federal government (NARA) has countless policies and
restrictions for accessing their material, and if you pass muster,
they'll let you come into a controlled environment, within a specific
time frame, and do the research that you are interested in doing, but you
must have a specific job, and at times, they will ask to see the finished
product (if you are writing a book, a courtesy copy is expected).

When we do exhibitions with borrowed materials, we are sometimes asked to
send a photograph of the displayed material to the lender (they want to
see how their material is displayed).  It makes sense to be cautious
about your collection, and be of service to the public/news media or
scholars,  when they have a legitimate reason for pursuing studies or
stories that requires your help in accessing items in your collection.  I
don't think a fishing expedition in the archives/photograph collection
qualifies as legitimate research, nor a worthy way for your time to be
squandered, most especially if short handed at the museum.  We have a
very careful policy regarding access to archives and collections and we
still get to be on Slate.   Go figure.

O
Olivia S. Anastasiadis, Curator
Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace
18001 Yorba Linda Boulevard
Yorba Linda, CA  92886
(714) 993-5075 ext. 224; fax (714) 528-0544; e-mail:  [log in to unmask]

On Fri, 23 Jul 1999 09:58:49 -0500 "Nicholson, Claudia"
<[log in to unmask]> writes:
>John Bing's response to this question was very provocative, I thought.
> By what policy or authority would you deny access to your collection to

>any citizen, if there is no restriction on the use of the material to
>which they want access..............

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