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Re: access restrictions for records containing personal information



Here at Victoria University of Wellington (N.Z.) we hold the records of the
national office of the union covering university staff (nowadays, everyone
from the professors to the gardeners, except where that's been contracted
out) as well as the local branch office.  Access to the records is by
authorisation of the union officers -- we refer people to the union office
and they write a brief letter, usually signed by the executive secretary or
his assistant, which we put on file.

Personal cases are kept in separate files (one per person) and they come
sealed.  Access only by the union officers with responsibility for
"grievances", by the individual considered (properly identified) or -- and
we've never had to deal with this -- by an historian/biographer with full
authorisation of the person concerned or after their death by their estate
administrator.

New Zealand has strong privacy legislation on personal information, so we
would have had to think about restrictions if we hadn't already had them in
place.  The union had been in existence (under another name, with more
restricted coverage) for some fifty years before they deposited the first
block of records, and they knew then that "personal grievances" were a
potentially tricky area, so they had sealed files right from that first
deposit.  No doubt it helped that the then national organiser (executive
secretary) was married to a senior government law official who became a law
professor about that time!

Kathleen Coleridge

At 14:23 22/03/00 -0500, you wrote:
>I would appreciate input regarding how list members deal with
>organizational records that contain personal information about individuals
>and what, if any, access restrictions are used.
>
>I am processing the records of the union representing the faculty and
>professional staff at a state university system.  The union has selected
>the Special Collections dept. at one of the state university campuses as
>its archival repository.  It has previosly donated the minutes of its
>executive board meetings and the minutes and transcripts of its policy
>making assemblies. These records cover from the early 1970s (when the
>union was created) until 1993 (when the immediate past president's term in
>office ended). The records I am processing include correspondence files,
>negotiations files, chapter files, committee files, publications, and the
>meeting packages for the executive board meetings and assemblies (among
>other things).
>
>The issue I need help with is:  When the minutes and transcripts were
>originally donated to the repository there was no consideration of
>confidentiality issues--and probably none were needed. However, included
>in virtually every series that I am now processing are letters regarding
>grievance matters, personnel issues, and benefits concerns--personal
>information contained in letters written by members to officers of the
>union (or discussed at a board meeting or in a committee or in
>negotiations, etc.) who had no thought that such information would be
>available someday in the union's records at an archival repository.
>
>I feel I need to make the officers aware of the confidentiality issue and
>to suggest some sort of access restrictions, but I don't know what sort of
>restrictions would be appropriate, or if any are really necessary.
>However, it really is not practical to go through every series and pull
>out and/or redact the materials containing personal information.
>
>My ideas regarding this have been: Each officer is currently limited to a
>10 year term.  My initial thought was that (in following the example of
>the executive board minutes) no records would be available until after the
>term of the incumbent president was over (unless the term extended beyond
>10 years, in which case any records over 10 years would be made
>available).
>
>In addition, the repository where the records will be held has in its
>"application for use" which researchers fill out for every collection a
>statement that they will not disclose personal information contained in
>records.  In addition, I was going to suggest a second application that
>researchers specifically using the union records would have to fill out,
>which would basicially reiterate the restriction on using personal
>information, and indicating that if such information was to be used,
>consent would have to be obtained from the individual involved as well as
>the union.
>
>Are 10 years and 2 signed promises enough?  How have others dealt with a
>situation like this?
>
>Thank you.
>
>Cindy Sauer
>Archives/Records Management Intern
>United University Professions
>
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Kathleen A. Coleridge
Special Materials Librarian
University Library
Victoria University of Wellington
P.O. Box 3438                        Telephone: +64-4-463 5681
Wellington                               Facsimile: +64-4-471 2070
New Zealand                  E-mail: Kathleen.Coleridge@vuw.ac.nz

A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!

To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to listserv@listserv.muohio.edu
      In body of message:  SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname
                    *or*:  UNSUB ARCHIVES
To post a message, send e-mail to archives@listserv.muohio.edu

Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html

Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>