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Re: access restrictions for records containing personal information



Cindy:
Check first for New York State Personal Privacy legislation.  The
Commonwealth of Virginia Personal Privacy Act very clearly states who may
have access and for what purpose they have access to the type of material
you describe. It is written for government entities, but may be used as a
guideline for other organizations.

Possibly pertinent excerpts from the Virginia Act regarding personal
information:
*Information shall not be used unless it is accurate and current.
*There shall be a prescribed procedure for an individual to leran the
purpose for which information has been recorded and particulars about its
use and dissemination.
*There shall be a clearly prescribed and uncomplicated procedure for an
individual to crrect, erase or amend inaccruate, obsolete or irrelevant
information.
*Any agency holding personal information shall assure its reliability and
take precautions to prevent its misuse.
*There shall be a clearly prescribed procedure to prevent personal
information collected for one purpose form being used for another purpose.

As you can see from this brief excerpt, personal information used for a
purpose other than it's original use can create problems for the custodian
of the information.  My personal opinion is that you would definitely have
to have, at the least, the permission of the parties involved before
allowing access to the information by anyone.

Ginny Jones
(Virginia A. Jones, CRM)
Newport News Waterworks
Newport News, VA
vjones@ci.newport-news.va.us

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Archives & Archivists [mailto:ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU]On
> Behalf Of Cindy Sauer
> Sent: Wednesday, March 22, 2000 2:23 PM
> To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
> Subject: access restrictions for records containing personal
> information
>
>
> I would appreciate input regarding how list members deal with
> organizational records that contain personal information
> about individuals
> and what, if any, access restrictions are used.
>
> I am processing the records of the union representing the faculty and
> professional staff at a state university system.  The union
> has selected
> the Special Collections dept. at one of the state university
> campuses as
> its archival repository.  It has previosly donated the minutes of its
> executive board meetings and the minutes and transcripts of its policy
> making assemblies. These records cover from the early 1970s (when the
> union was created) until 1993 (when the immediate past
> president's term in
> office ended). The records I am processing include
> correspondence files,
> negotiations files, chapter files, committee files,
> publications, and the
> meeting packages for the executive board meetings and
> assemblies (among
> other things).
>
> The issue I need help with is:  When the minutes and transcripts were
> originally donated to the repository there was no consideration of
> confidentiality issues--and probably none were needed.
> However, included
> in virtually every series that I am now processing are
> letters regarding
> grievance matters, personnel issues, and benefits concerns--personal
> information contained in letters written by members to officers of the
> union (or discussed at a board meeting or in a committee or in
> negotiations, etc.) who had no thought that such information would be
> available someday in the union's records at an archival repository.
>
> I feel I need to make the officers aware of the
> confidentiality issue and
> to suggest some sort of access restrictions, but I don't know
> what sort of
> restrictions would be appropriate, or if any are really necessary.
> However, it really is not practical to go through every
> series and pull
> out and/or redact the materials containing personal information.
>
> My ideas regarding this have been: Each officer is currently
> limited to a
> 10 year term.  My initial thought was that (in following the
> example of
> the executive board minutes) no records would be available
> until after the
> term of the incumbent president was over (unless the term
> extended beyond
> 10 years, in which case any records over 10 years would be made
> available).
>
> In addition, the repository where the records will be held has in its
> "application for use" which researchers fill out for every
> collection a
> statement that they will not disclose personal information
> contained in
> records.  In addition, I was going to suggest a second
> application that
> researchers specifically using the union records would have
> to fill out,
> which would basicially reiterate the restriction on using personal
> information, and indicating that if such information was to be used,
> consent would have to be obtained from the individual
> involved as well as
> the union.
>
> Are 10 years and 2 signed promises enough?  How have others
> dealt with a
> situation like this?
>
> Thank you.
>
> Cindy Sauer
> Archives/Records Management Intern
> United University Professions
>
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>

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Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>