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PRIVACY ISSUES IN ARCHIVES :
ASA SPRING WORKSHOP
The ASA will offer its spring Special Topics Workshop, Privacy Issues in Archives, in Edmonton on March 14-15, 2003.
The goal of this two-day workshop is to provide an interesting and provocative discussion on privacy and confidentiality issues affecting the archival profession today. Archivists are responsible for the appraisal, selection, acquisition and preservation of archival records, as well as making them available to the public. These functions create a need for an archivist to balance the interests of the living and the dead and individual privacy vs. the importance of historical research. Many archival institutions are increasingly concerned about the legal and ethical ramifications of allowing or denying access to their holdings.
The workshop will explore the theoretical and practical issues associated with the administration of access to personal information in public institutions. Its theme is the balance archivists must strike in negotiating access to such information: how do archivists reconcile research and privacy interests concerning the disclosure of personal information? In situations where the two interests conflict, where do archivists' professional responsibilities lie?
The workshop will be presented by Dr. Heather MacNeil, Assistant Professor at the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies at the University of British Columbia and the author of Without Consent:
The Ethics of Disclosing Personal Information held in Public Archives.
Further details about the workshop will be available shortly, and members will be notified via the asa-l listserv and the ASA website at www.archivesalberta.org.
Michael Gourlie, Archives Advisor
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