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Re: policy for complaints?



The only complaints we've had on digitization have been from a couple of individuals for whom we've provided digitized photos. In one case, after repeated painstaking explanations, the indivuidual still asked for things that couldn't be done (i.e., photographic quality images on bond paper) and then griped when the results were as poor as I said they'd be.  The rest have involved a general ignorance of the factors involved (i.e., "What do you mean, you can't scan all your photographs and put them on the Web?").

Best wishes,

Thomas Berry, Archivist
Historical Construction Equipment Association
16623 Liberty Hi Road
Bowling Green, Ohio 43402
419-352-5616
tberry@wcnet.org
http://www.bigtoy.com
 
 

Anne Foster wrote:

   We have been asked, as part of a digitization grant, to consider developing a policy to handle complaints. Not that we expect any?we aren?t planning to digitize anything obviously objectionable?but you never know. We?ve considered a policy specifically for challenges to displayed materials (electronic or in an exhibit) and we?ve also thought of expanding the policy to one to handle complaints in general. 

I haven?t found any discussion or sample policy to deal with this issue on the archives or museum listservs nor in any archives or museum manuals. Maybe it?s not something many archives, in particular, have had to deal with in the past. But as we become more outreach oriented, I think we can expect challenges. Moreover, as we begin to digitize entire collections, rather than samples or exhibits, we may really run across some problems. Say you want to digitize your photograph collections. Do you include the 1905 photo of skinny-dipping? Might someone consider it obscene? But if you?re doing a comprehensive project how can you exclude it? We have to deal with donors and heirs, too. Uncle Joe might have donated his WWII diary fifty years ago with the intention that it be used for research. But he was thinking of serious scholars who had to sign in and work quietly in your oak-lined research room. He never imagined it could be looked at all over the world in an instant by anyone for any reason. Or, the grandkids had no idea he wrote about stuff like that! Now that they do, they want it restricted.  Clearly, you want to keep relations cordial. But you also want to keep the material open and available. How do walk that fine a line?

In the library world, a reconsideration policy is an established method for dealing with challenges to books. Obviously, the library community is one of the most ardent supporters of intellectual freedom and equal access. The ALA?s Office of Intellectual Freedom has a sample reconsideration policy on their website: www.ala.org/alaorg/oif/

 I think having a pre-determined policy has a number of advantages:

1. It gives your front-line staff (often volunteers or students) a clear procedure to follow and a specific name to direct the complainant to.

2. It gives you a chance to educate the public about your collections and access policies. Many times this ends the challenge.

3. It immediately calms a potentially disruptive confrontation by demonstrating how seriously you?re taking the complaint and that you will really listen. It also moves a yelling match to a nice, written interchange.

4. Much of the decision-making happens before the crises. Also, those who make the decisions are professionals. This is especially important if your administration or source of revenue is not.

6. It vastly strengthens the final decision. (E.g. ?We?ve followed our procedures to the letter and have determined to leave the material on display.?)

So, finally, my questions to you are: Do you have such a policy? If so, may I have a copy? If not, what do you think about the issue?Anne L. Foster
Archival Fellow
Center of Southwest Studies
Fort Lewis College
1000 Rim Dr.
Durango CO 81301
foster_a@fortlewis.edu
www.fortlewis.edu/acad-aff/swcenter/
phone: 970.247.7456
fax: 970.247.7422