Navigating Legal Issues in Archives


Book Description

Attorney and archivist Menzi Behrnd-Klodt details legal issues from acquisition to ownership, access, administration, and the effects of copyright and intellectual property law on archivists and archives. --from publisher description.







Reference and Access for Archives and Manuscripts


Book Description

Access and reference services are central to engaging with historical resources. As more people encounter archives for scholarly and avocational research, as part of creative pursuits, or to exercise their rights as citizens to access records, the possibilities for how collections are used will continue to evolve. Archivists need to be familiar with who their users are, understand why they're using archival collections, and engage in outreach so that they can provide excellent reference services. Reference and Access for Archives and Manuscripts outlines the various components of: providing physical, intellectual, and virtual access, acquiring reference knowledge and skills, navigating legal regulations and ethics, and designing use policies and effective outreach. Cheryl Oestreicher contextualizes how all of these components fit within other archival functions and offers strategies and detailed practices for creating comprehensive reference programs that archivists can adapt for any type of institution. Both new and experienced archivists will find Reference and Access for Archives and Manuscripts a solid foundation on which to add their own ideas for how to bring people into the archives as well as bring archives to the people. Readers are encouraged to examine these concepts and practices in conversation with others and to consider how archivists can continue to advance reference and access.




Privacy and the Past


Book Description

When the new HIPAA privacy rules regarding the release of health information took effect, medical historians suddenly faced a raft of new ethical and legal challenges—even in cases where their subjects had died years, or even a century, earlier. In Privacy and the Past, medical historian Susan C. Lawrence explores the impact of these new privacy rules, offering insight into what historians should do when they research, write about, and name real people in their work. Lawrence offers a wide-ranging and informative discussion of the many issues involved. She highlights the key points in research ethics that can affect historians, including their ethical obligations to their research subjects, both living and dead, and she reviews the range of federal laws that protect various kinds of information. The book discusses how the courts have dealt with privacy in contexts relevant to historians, including a case in which a historian was actually sued for a privacy violation. Lawrence also questions who gets to decide what is revealed and what is kept hidden in decades-old records, and she examines the privacy issues that archivists consider when acquiring records and allowing researchers to use them. She looks at how demands to maintain individual privacy both protect and erase the identities of people whose stories make up the historical record, discussing decisions that historians have made to conceal identities that they believed needed to be protected. Finally, she encourages historians to vigorously resist any expansion of regulatory language that extends privacy protections to the dead. Engagingly written and powerfully argued, Privacy and the Past is an important first step in preventing privacy regulations from affecting the historical record and the ways that historians write history.




Copyright for Archivists and Records Managers


Book Description

As an archivist or records manager it is essential to keep up to date with the complexities of copyright legislation, and Copyright for Archivists and Records Managers will prove an invaluable tool in enabling you to do so. What is copyright? Who owns it and for how long? What rights does it confer, and what are the limitations and exceptions? This comprehensive manual uniquely outlines copyright law in the UK with special reference to materials relevant to archive and records collections such as maps, legal records, records of local authorities, records of churches and faiths, most notably unpublished works. It also offers advice on rights in the electronic environment and the problems associated with rights clearance; and covers related areas such as moral rights and rights in databases. The fifth edition of this respected work has been extensively revised and updated to include: a description of the major changes to copyright exceptions and limitations for libraries and archives including the changes to permit preservation copying and copying for users of any kind of work, a simplification of the declarations required from users and a new exception permitting onsite access to digital material a description and discussion of the new schemes for orphan works a description of the other changes to exceptions for copyright and performer’s rights, notably education; quotation; caricature, parody and pastiche; text and data mining; disability; and private copying a revision of the views expressed on the exhibition of literary, dramatic and musical works an explanation of why a digital photograph, consisting of a numerical file, is still an artistic work a description of the changes in duration for sound recordings and especially for sound recordings of performances and for copyright in songs analysis of new copyright legislation in the Channel Islands and other British overseas territories an explanation of how national courts decide whether they have jurisdiction over the infringement of copyright on the internet a description of changes to Crown copyright licensing and the licensing of public sector information a new section giving links to useful websites consideration of the many copyright cases that have come before the courts the last few years that have provided help with the interpretation of many aspects of the legislation. Some notable examples are on the meaning of ‘transient and incidental’, ‘scientific research’, ‘parody’ and ‘originality’; whether hyperlinking infringes; the importance of a signature on an assignment; the terms that may be implied into a licence; and the relationship between the rights of a copyright owner and freedom of speech. Readership: Archivists and records managers; LIS professionals in libraries, museums and galleries; students, researchers and genealogists.




Displaced Archives


Book Description

Displaced archives have long been a problem and their existence continues to trouble archivists, historians and government officials. Displaced Archives brings together leading international experts to comprehensively explore the current state of affairs for the first time. Drawing on case studies from around the world, the authors examine displaced archives as a consequence of conflict and colonialism, analysing their impact on government administration, nation building, human rights and justice. Renewed action is advocated through considerations of the legal approaches to repatriation, the role of the international archival community, ‘shared heritage’ approaches and other solutions. The volume offers new theoretical, technical and political insights and will be essential reading for practitioners, academics and students in the field of archives, cultural property and heritage management, as well as history, politics and international relations.




Privacy & Confidentiality Perspectives


Book Description

"Privacy and Confidentiality Perspectives brings together a diverse selection of thoughtful and provocative essays that explore the legal, ethical, administrative, and institutional considerations that shape archival debates concerning the administration of access to records containing personal information."—Nadine Strossen




Participatory Archives


Book Description

The rise of digitisation and social media over the past decade has fostered the rise of participatory and DIY digital culture. Likewise, the archival community leveraged these new technologies, aiming to engage users and expand access to collections. This book examines the creation and development of participatory archives, its impact on archival theory, and present case studies of its real world application. Participatory Archives is divided into four sections with each focused on a particular aspect of participatory archives: social tagging and commenting; transcription; crowdfunding; and outreach & activist communities. Each section includes chapters summarizing the existing literature, a discussion of theoretical challenges and benefits, and a series of case studies. The case studies are written by a range of international practitioners and provide a wide range of examples in practice, whilst the remaining chapters are supplied by leading scholars from Australia, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States. This book will be useful for students on archival studies programs, scholarly researchers in archival studies who could use the book to frame their own research projects, and practitioners who might be most interested in the case studies to see how participatory archives function in practice. The book may also be of interest to other library and information science students, and similar audiences within the broader cultural heritage institution fields of museums, libraries, and galleries.




Developing and Maintaining Practical Archives


Book Description

Newly revised and updated to more thoroughly address our increasingly digital world, including integration of digital records and audiovisual records into each chapter, it remains the clearest and most comprehensive guide to the discipline.