[Personal_archives] censorship vs. sensitivity

[Dean, Heather]

Thanks for raising this point Kristan.   I'm thinking here of archives created by and belonging to individuals (such as authors' papers).  Although the waters can get muddied easily.  For example, in the US, if a faculty member's "personal" papers contain personal information about students, then these papers are covered by Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html .   How would you define the difference between personal and private archives?

From: Kristan Cook [mailto:kristanleighcook at hotmail.com]
Sent: Friday, October 31, 2008 1:30 PM
To: Dean, Heather
Subject: RE: [Personal_archives] censorship vs. sensitivity

Just a question out of interest what do you see as the difference between personal and private archives. I've always thought there was some confusion about this... For example, in Alberta, some bodies of records received as private records, such as Municipalities, Universities, Schools and Hospitals sector records, (ie: not received via a scheduled government transfer) are subject to FOIP.


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From: heather.dean at yale.edu
To: Personal_archives at mailman.yale.edu
Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2008 10:52:25 -0400
Subject: [Personal_archives] censorship vs. sensitivity

Thanks Martha, Alison, and Nancy for drawing out these issues around the archivist and their responsibility to patrons and potentially sensitive material.

As far as I'm aware, there is no legislation applicable to managing privacy in personal archives (whereas legislation such as PIPEDA, http://www.privcom.gc.ca/legislation/02_06_01_e.asp, the Privacy Act http://www.privcom.gc.ca/legislation/02_07_01_e.asp, and FOIPOP apply to personal information maintained in commercial and government settings).  Archivists are accountable to professional ethics (such as Association of Canadian Archivists, http://archivists.ca/about/ethics.aspx, and Society of American Archivists http://www.archivists.org/governance/handbook/app_ethics.asp, and Protocols for Native American Archival Materials, http://www2.nau.edu/libnap-p/protocols.html) that require the archivist to ensure citizens' privacy and access to information (regardless of the researcher's motivations and intentions).  From my understanding, managing privacy in personal papers (including photographs) comes down to professional judgment - and while the archivist, like anyone, is subjective, I believe (hope) most archivists do their best to keep these dual professional goals in mind.

Establishing restrictions, or the lack thereof, is an important element when acquiring personal archives from a donor, and in some ways I feel the profession lacks concrete guidance for professionals in engaging in these discussions.

-Heather



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