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Re: external researchers in corporate archives?



Megan,

At both my current job and at lmy last job (McGraw-Hill - very corporate), I
treated things much like any other archives would.  Researchers had to be
serious, ie. no college students doing a "What is McGraw-Hill" project;
sensitive files were closed, some permanently, e.g. Board Minutes or inside
info on transactions we did.

The bosses really don't have to worry so much, as long as somebody is
playing gatekeeper to prevent the opening of files that are better kept
closed.  Frankly, in 2 1/2 years at MH (I've only been at NS-LIJ for four
months) I think I had maybe five outside people (total) that actually came
to the office out of the 100 or so reference requests I got per year.
Obviously that will depend on the subject matter of your collection -
publishing history didn't bring out a lot of users, apparently.  You may
want to extrapolate based on the number of requests you get now, which will
give you an idea how many people this would actually mean.

Hope it helps,

DS
______________________________________
Daniel Sokolow, Archives Coordinator
David Taylor Archives
North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System
155 Community Drive
Great Neck, NY 11021
mailto:dsokolow@nshs.edu

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Megan Phillips [SMTP:mphillips@MAIL.ACPONLINE.ORG]
> Sent: Friday, February 23, 2001 12:41 PM
> To:   ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
> Subject:      external researchers in corporate archives?
>
> Hi everyone!  I wonder if any coporate or non-profit institutional
> archives have policies or procedures for handling external researchers
> that they'd be willing to share.
>
> I work for a non-profit organization of physicians and I would like for
> our collection to be as open as possible.  My bosses seem to have bought
> the idea that it's in our interest to be researched and written about, but
> they're nervous about having external researchers visit us in person.
> We've been handling external phone and e-mail requests for a while and
> that system will continue to be easier for us because of our physical set
> up.  Recently, though, we've had a couple of people who wanted to come
> visit, which has brought this to a head.  I'm in the process of putting
> together a short procedures document for my (non-archivist) bosses so
> they'll know exactly what I would like to do and what I will not do for
> external researchers.
>
> Any examples, insights, or experiences would be much appreciated!
>
> Thanks-
> Meg
>
> Meg Phillips
> Supervisor of Archives and Records Management
> ACP-ASIM
> 190 N. Independence Mall West
> Philadelphia PA 19107
>
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A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!

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      In body of message:  SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname
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Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
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Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>