Access

• Archives collect original unpublished material
• Unique, irreplaceable
• Fragile, vulnerable to improper handling
• As a consequence, more stringent security procedures than libraries
• Closed stacks
• No borrowing by users
• No borrowing
• On site use in supervised reading rooms
• Registration required
• Name, address, phone #, email, area of research interest, date, signature
• ID: driver’s licence, student card
• National, provincial, municipal archives open to public by legislation
• In-house private or corporate archives may allow access only to employees or those with permissions
• Depositors may place restrictions on records, e.g. politician’s private papers may be closed for 30 years after death
• Archives may restrict access to
• Records containing defamatory, libellous, or personal info about third parties
• Damaged records, or records in poor physical condition
• Unprocessed material
• Handling and security practices include
• Pencils, laptops, voice recorders only
• No food, gum chewing, or drink
• No coats, briefcases, bags, umbrellas, etc.
• Restriction on amount of material to be used at one time
• Wearing white cotton gloves when handling fragile material
• Determine copying policies and services
• Only an archivist/technician should make copies not users themselves
• o Ceck “Policies and Procedures” links on The Archivist’s Toolkit: Reference and Access http://web.archive.org/web/20050310132405/http://aabc.bc.ca/aabc/toolkit_reference_and_access.html

Reference

• More time is generally needed to answer archival reference questions than library reference questions
• According to a 1985 article by business archivist Cynthia Swank, inquiries to her archives required anywhere from ten minutes to fifty hours to answer
• Cynthia G. Swank, “Life in the Fast Lane: Reference in a Business Archives,” The Reference Librarian 13 (Fall 1985): 42.
• Reference/orientation interview may be required
• Archival materials arranged very differently from library materials
• Lack of user familiarity with archival description
• Need to explain restrictions and policies

Typical reference procedures

• Fill out registration form
• Check personal belongings
• Receive orientation to collection including
• Procedures and fees for copying, restrictions on collections and rights to publish
• Sign form indicating understanding and compliance
• Participate in reference interview
• Participate in reference interview with archivist
• Area of research, materials required
• Good idea to contact archives beforehand by phone, e-mail to assure resources and staff available to help
• Fill out call slips for material identified

Issues in access and reference

• Democratization of archives
• Public right to know for government information
• Privacy concerns
• Conflict between principles of open access to information and protection of personal privacy
• Non paper forms of records
• Changing technologies mean either reformatting records or maintaining equipment to access information
• Impact of technology
• Documents in electronic form only, easily manipulated and changed
• Demand for online access
• Expanding user groups, e.g. genealogists, amateur historians, “professional” researchers seeking answers to specific questions, e.g. lawyers, environmentalists, criminal investigators