ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


Statem ent on Access to Original Research M aterials 
in Libraries, Archives, and M anuscript Repositories
Drafted by the Committee on Manuscripts

Collections of the Rare Books and Manuscripts 
Section of the Association of College and Re­
search Libraries. Approved as policy by the 
ACRL Board of Directors in January 1974.

1. It is the responsibility of a library, archives, 
or manuscript repository to make available 
to qualified researchers, as defined by the 
respective institutions, on equal terms of ac­
cess, research materials in its possession. 
Because the accessibility of material de­
pends on knowing of its existence, it is the 
responsibility of a repository to inform re­
searchers of the collections in its custody. 
This may be accomplished through a card 
catalog, inventories and other internal find­
ing aids, a published guide and reports to 
NUCMC where appropriate, and the freely 
offered assistance of staff members.

2. To protect and insure the continued accessi­
bility of the material in its custody, the re­
pository may impose several conditions.

a. The repository may limit the use of 
fragile or unusually valuable materi­
als so long as suitable reproductions 
are made available for the use of all 
researchers.

b. All materials must be used in ac­
cordance with the rules of and un­
der the supervision of the repository. 
Each repository should publish and 
furnish to potential researchers its 
rules governing access and use. Such 
rules must be equally applied and 
enforced.

c. The repository may refuse access to 
unprocessed materials, so long as 
such refusal is applied to all re­
searchers.

d. Normally, a repository will not send 
research materials for use outside its 
building or jurisdiction. Under spe­
cial circumstances a collection or a 
portion of it may be loaned or 
placed on deposit with another in­
stitution.

e. The repository may refuse access to 
an individual researcher who has 
demonstrated such carelessness or 
deliberate destructiveness as to en­
danger the safety of the material.

3. Each repository should publish a suggested 
form of citation crediting the repository and 
identifying items within the collection for 
later reference. Citations to copies of ma­

terials in other repositories should include 
the location of the originals.

4. A repository should advise the researcher 
that he and his publisher have the sole re­
sponsibility for securing permission to pub­
lish from unpublished manuscripts in which 
literary property rights are retained or to 
publish any extensive quotation from copy­
righted works. Manuscripts cannot be used 
for publication without due regard for com­
mon law rights, literary rights, property 
rights, and libel laws. The user assumes le­
gal responsibility for observing these rights. 
A repository should, to the best of its abil­
ity, inform the researcher about known re­
tention of literary rights.

5. A repository should not grant exclusive use 
of materials to any person or persons, or con­
ceal the existence of any body of material 
from any researcher unless required to do 
so by law, donor, or purchase stipulations.

. A repository should, whenever possible, in­
form a researcher of parallel research by 
other individuals using the same papers. It 
may supply names upon request.

. Repositories are committed to preserving 
manuscript and archival materials and to 
making them available for research as soon 
as possible. At the same time, it is recog­
nized that every repository has certain ob­
ligations to protect confidentiality in its rec­
ords in accordance with law and that every 
private donor has the right to impose rea­
sonable restrictions upon his papers to pro­
tect confidentiality for a reasonable period 
of time.

a. It is the responsibility of the reposi­
tory to inform researchers of the re­
strictions which apply to individual 
collections or record groups.

b. The repository should discourage 
donors from imposing unreasonable 
restrictions.

c. The repository should, whenever 
possible, require a specific time lim­
it on all restrictions.

d. The repository should periodically
reevaluate restricted records and 
work toward providing access to ma­
terial no longer harmful to individ­
uals or to national interest. ■ ■

Single reprint copies of this statement are 
vailable free of charge from the ACRL Office, 
0 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL  60611. Multiple 
opies are 20¢ each.

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