In response to Mr. Bing's comments:  Perhaps I did not clearly state the
reason for my concern regarding litigation access.  The question of whether
or not to provide access to archival material in the museum's collection was
not the issue, but rather protecting the neutrality of the museum.  I am
most interested in ways of keeping the museum and its collection out of the
courts.  Neither the staff or the governing board wish to be involved in
such a situation.  Access to the collection is open to all, with
restrictions on days/times as available, but I would not like to see items
from the collection being pulled as "evidence" and therefore removed from
the collection, either on loan or seized by the courts.  Obviously, I am
more interested in preserving the NEUTRALITY of the museum and it's staff.
Any suggestions or comments on this is appreciated.


>From: "John A. Bing" <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: Museum discussion list <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Access to collections by lawyers
>Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 21:49:57 GMT
>
>On Fri, 23 Jul 1999 09:58:49 -0500, Nicholson wrote:
>
> >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?  I cannot believe that any court would allow a repository to
>be
> >sued simply for providing access to its collections.
>
>         I made my comments based on the original facts:
>  1. that it is a private non-profit museum, and,
>  2.  that the lawyers wanted to see the photos in connection with
>litigation.
>
>  Litigation is not a part of any museum's mission statement that I know
>of.
>  And, while a court may throw out a suit, anyone can sue anyone for most
>any
>reason.  And once sued, legal fees and bad publicity usually result.
>         Maybe I take an overly negative view of the situation, but then,
>it is
>clearly stated to be my gut reaction to the request.
>
>John Bing
>
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