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> From: Encoded Archival Description List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Joyce Chapman > ...my personal belief is that we have already answered questions relating to our professional > commitment to protecting third-party privacy. By deciding to have unrestricted access to > such materials in our reading rooms, we should have already dealt with the weight and ethics > of third party privacy issues. If we feel a new discomfort with the dawn of digital access, > this should cause us to reexamine the decisions we have made previously, and to examine > the roots of our discomfort... > > ...I think we need to ask ourselves whether what we were really thinking before digital access > was, "we are comfortable with everyone who fits a certain profile looking at these materials." > If that is the case, then clearly that mentality is what needs to be reexamined, and our > processing/restriction/decision-making matrix needs to be updated according to the reality > that our materials are truly open... Elegantly stated. Perhaps we've been doing a kind of unintentional classification, subconsciously placing people willing to expend the time and effort to come on-site to do research into a different category from The Teeming Masses? Interesting thought... Michele (be green - don't print this email!) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Michele Combs Manuscripts Librarian Special Collections Research Center Syracuse University Libraries 222 Waverly Ave. Syracuse, NY 13244 315-443-2081 [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~