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ownership of records



Dear Listers-

As I write i am surrounded by Lawyers from a city agency who's records we have accessioned.  They are sorting through processed files looking for "smoking guns", ie material, they as lawyers, feel should not be available for public research.

Now that you have all gotten back on your chairs, i am ready to tell you the bigger problem.  We dont own these records.  Legally another city agency should be caring for this documents.  However, through a series of talks and agreements they are here on "permanant loan".  They legally belong to the city agency to whom they should have been sent.  That of course brings up all kinds of issues of permissions, copyrights, etc.

What i really need to know and would appreciate so that i can pass this along to my direct supervisor is how many of your other archivists would have accepted a collection that you did have control over and were in fact nothing more than the night watchman for?  When all is said an done we will have paperwork authorizing the "permanent loan" but would anyone else have put themselves in this situation?

Rob (Just wondering) Dishon
Archivist

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