>In my opinion, it is a form of "ivory towering" to prevent
>knowledgable individuals and scholars access to information
>for further interpretation
 
You've hit one of the nails squarely on the head. Those who control access to
the collections control what may or may not be writen about them. Only the
initiated are allowed to interpret, and only the controllers determine who is
initiated.
 
One can appreciate the interests of some specialists to withhold some of
their data until they feel they have completed their interpretation, but even
this doesn't excuse witholding access to things that have already been
described (care and conservation issues being momentarily set aside.)
 
Of course, the access restriction argument gets pretty thin considering that
most of the things being restricted really ought to be considered public
domain.
 
Kevin Coffee