I wouldn't send research in progress. Your Director of Education should reasonably have a period of time to prepare to publish her findings and original work. As an example, the Hubble telescope works under the rule that researchers have one year exclusive access to the images they acquire before it becomes public. At some point, notes from work done as an employee should probably become part of the archives -- the sticky issue is the combination of personal and business time.
The craftsman should also be prepared to visit your site to review materials in your collection unless you regularly send copies of your materials to researchers. He should also not expect access to staff members' notes or unlimited analysis of the materials by staff.
on 4/13/02 8:07 AM, William Maurer at [log in to unmask] wrote:
My Director of Education has just taken on the challenge of researching the genealogy in depth of an artist who was one of the five families that once owned/occupied our historic house museum. She has been buying books that add to our knowledge, she has visited cemeteries at our expense, she has invested a great deal of the museum's and her personal time in this project. The ultimate goal is make our tour better and to be a resource on this artist.
The other day she received a phone call from a craftsman who was restoring one of the works of this artist. Along with his restoration, he wants to write the definitive work on the artist. His request was for the site to send all we have on the artist to him.
Now, I want my Director to get this material in shape, first present it to my Board, and for the museum to publish the new and exciting material she finds. What kind of obligation do you - as our peers - feel that we owe a request of this kind?
How would you answer the request? Thanks.
--
Paul Koenig
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