In a message dated 3/19/97 9:40:05 PM, you 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?
>>

As a museum security consultant, I know of three thefts that occurred as a
direct result of the staff member (2 instances) and scholar (1 instance)
having direct access to the registrar's files.  Unfortunately I can't discuss
the details due to the nature of my relationship with the client museums but
I do not feel that anyone other than the Registrar should have access to the
files in any manner that allows them to remove a card or delete an entry. A
read only screen is not as serious a security problem if the researcher does
not have access to values and other confidential security data. (All three of
the instances involved removing the card from a card file (BC--before
computers) then stealing the object, making the theft more difficult to
discover (or at least not discoverable as quickly).

Steve Keller
Steve Keller and Associates, Inc.
Museum Security Consultants
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