christine droll wrote:
>
> This question is directed to those registration departments or collections
> management offices who are asked to make their accession files available to
> researchers.  To what extent do you allow full access?  What kind of records do
> you redact from the files before handing them over to scholars, visiting
> curators, students, docents, and the general public?  Do you permit
> photocopying of the records? Do you get flak if you attempt to restrict file
> access to museum staff only?

Access to our collection records (I assume you mean paper records) is
dependent on the type of information held in them.

Catalogue files (e.g. physical descriptions, curatorial expert opinion,
condition information, photographs) is generally accessible to bona fide
researchers by appointment, and photocopying is permitted.

Accession ledgers, risk managment (e.g. insurance, location) files, and
source (donor/vendor) data has access restricted to registration staff,
senior conservation and curatorial staff, senior management and the
auditor.  This is for the obvious security and privacy issues involved
with this type of information.

It is a lot easier to provide controlled, secure access to the on-line
collection information than the physical records.  We have found that in
the physical records often restricted information was placed on a
catalogue card as a cross-reference to other physical files.  We are
forced to either remove/mask this controlled information, or deny access
to this physical record.

Richard Gerrard