>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