n.a directive establishing procedures for the consultation or use of archival resourcesRieger 1976, 303Working groups brought into being by the congress proposed specific international standards for the liberalization of access policy in general (notably by means of a reduction of the then-prevalent fifty-year restriction period to thirty years) and for the liberalization of microcopying and microreproduction policy in particular (principally by the elimination of long-standing obstacles to the microfilming of complete archival series).Van Camp 1982, 297To achieve the results desired, an access policy should include the following elements: clear descriptions of restrictions, time limits on restrictions, procedures for determining restrictions, and a statement regarding lines of administrative authority.Peterson and Peterson 1985, 60The purpose of an access policy statement is to alert researchers, staff, prospective donors, and other parts of the institution of the existence of restrictions, the authority of the restrictions, the authority for removal of the restrictions, and, when possible, the method of implementing the restrictions.Baumann 1986, 353In 1974 Virginia R. Stewart alerted the profession to the need to develop a policy statement “covering acquisition, custody, and access to case records from a theoretical and legal perspective” and offered possible procedures governing research use. Such an access policy for researchers included four elements: (1) filling out an application, (2) accepting disclosure standards, (3) subjecting oneself to review of all notes and publications, and (4) agreeing to “hold harmless and indemnify” the archives against any loss or damage arising out of use of the records.Maher 1992, 137Each archives should develop a general access policy to define the conditions of use and outline how restrictions should be handled when they are necessary.Williams 2006, 132It is important that your access policy provides a clear statement of available services and how to use them. It should be couched in terms that make it clear that in providing this public service your archive, museum or other reference service realises that it has entered the world of service industries.Shenk 2010, 91Access policies, whether at in-house or collecting repositories, define who gets to see the records and when. They address many of the following questions: (1) What records are researchers permitted to see? (2) How do users access records? (3) What conditions govern reproduction, use, publication, and Web access?Carpenter et al. 2011, 23Under HIPAA and with the establishment of best practices, an access policy in accordance with the law and organizational policies was developed. It is the staff’s hope that, as in this circumstance, the center can continue to carefully strike a balance between privacy and access.Wakimoto, Hansen, and Bruce 2013, 443While archives traditionally have closed stacks, some community archives do not. For example, the Lesbian Herstory Archives is not a closed stacks archives, but makes its materials available for browsing. Other community archives, such as LLACE, especially those that collect nonarchival materials, open certain sections of their stacks for browsing. These differences in access policies, like those in description and collecting, are related to community support and needs, demonstrating again the influence of community members on the archives. Starratt 2019, 139Rose Library uses a Fedora-based repository with a password protected web-based interface, and our access policies—unless material is restricted by the donor—follow the guidelines under section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act, allowing us to offer access onsite. Kim and Irwin 2021, 360UNLV SCA’s current access policy allows users to access born-digital materials on-site in the reading room. Users must first consult with staff to identify files they are interested in accessing. Files are then placed on a flash drive, and users can view them using either their own or a designated computer in the reading room.
