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replies re: military academy appointments and veterans records



I received the following 5 direct replies in response to my inquiry as to
how other libraries and archives handle military academy appointments and
veterans records:

1. "I just came across the very same problem yesterday.  I'm kind of
wondering if these oughtn't to be discarded according to published schedules
for Congressional records."

2. "We do not have congressional records, but are a military library.  We do
not, cannot release anything with a social security number on it.  If
someone wants to look at our lists of officers in the army, (current or
past) we are required to redact (cross out) the SSN or military ID number
before allowing access to the material.  This usually means we copy the
required pages and cross out the SSN's.  We also cannot give out home
address or home phone or family information.  (For military and civilian
employees)  We do not do it for current employees and would not give out for
former employees either. We will give out office information, but that's it.
The National Personnel Records Center will not release the records of
veterans who served in the military after 1917 to anyone except relatives.
(with a few exceptions) Look at their website:
http://www.nara.gov/regional/mpr.html for more information.  The situations
in which they will release veterans records to nonfamily members is very
limited.  I would be cautious in dealing with those records."

3. "You might wish to check with the university registrar or whoever is
considered to be the expert on the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy
Act (FERPA).  I suspect the files contain transcripts and other personal
data, and even though they are over 35 years old FERPA may still apply.
Generally such case file material in congressional collections is disposed
of, unless the deed of gift specifies retention or does not have a
disposal provision for non-historical material.  Concerning disposal, you
might consult the guidelines for congressional collections issued a few
years ago by the Minnesota Historical Society.  Likewise, you might check
with the U.S. Senate Historical Office, which advises current senators on
the handling of their records."

4. "We have more than 50 collections of congressional papers at [university
library], and a number of them have or had military
appointment files and veterans case files.  Technically, these are open to
researchers, although in reality we have hardly ever had anyone requesting
them.  In the 8.5 years that I have worked here, I can only remember one or
two requests to access such materials.  And the one request that I remember
distinctly, the researcher was a West Point appointee from 25 years ago who
wanted access to his file in one of our collections.  We provided him the
access.
Many archivists working with congressional papers have legitimately raised
issues of privacy when dealing with such materials.  I believe that the
Privacy Act requires that similar documents in federal archives be closed
for 75 years, and some congressional papers archivists have also followed
that rule.  To me, this seems excessive, but mine is really an uniformed
opinion.
I think the real issue here is retention.  At the [library], our
general rule is to retain military academy files only for appointees and
case files (veteran, social security, etc.) only if they document very
significant involvement by the members' of congress or if the cases are
intrinsically interesting (which we recognize is a highly subjective
criteria).  In the end, we are deaccessioning the majority of military
academy and case files.  About six years ago, we began a deaccessioning
project on collections processed 20, 30 or more years ago.  We work on this
only occasionally, so there are still some congressional collections here
that have complete academy and case files.
Our rules are based in part on the guidelines set in "Recommended
Disposition, Papers of Members of U. S. House of Representatives"
(available from Ken Kato at the House Legislative Resource Center) and
"Records Management Handbook for United States Senators and Their
Repositories" (available from Karen Paul at the Senate Historical Office).
I believe that privacy, historical importance, and access issues were
considered when these guidelines were set in the 1980s and 1990s."

5. "Since we will soon be accepting donation of a congressman's papers
ourselves, I asked The-Powers-That-Be for guidelines. TPTB's are now
considering steps. Until they tell me differently, I, myself, would FIRST
contact the Dept. of Veterans Affairs to find out their criteria for public
viewing / use of certain documents. If VA indicated that your particular
documents had no restrictions on them, add them and allow in-library use
only."
*************************
My thanks to all who responded.

Laurie Langland
Project Archivist
Layne Library
Dakota Wesleyan University
Mitchell, SD
lalangla@dwu.edu

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