Restricting Materials - smith-special-collections/sc-documentation GitHub Wiki

We strive to make our collections as widely available as possible, but there can be good reasons to restrict materials to protect privacy. All relevant restrictions will be communicated to you prior to starting work on a collection, but sometimes you may find student or personnel records in College Archives collections. When dealing with potentially sensitive materials, it is particularly important to ask your supervisor if you have any questions.

Types of restrictions

Designated by the donor

The most straightforward type of restrictions are those set by the donor in a deed of gift. These are explicitly laid out in a legal document and we follow them exactly as written. For example, a donor may want their diaries to be closed until after their death.

Required by law or institutional policy for Smith College records

Much more complex are the records of Smith College and its employees, including faculty. Many types of student records are protected by FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) and other laws. These include grades and other evaluations, recommendations, financial information, disciplinary information, class lists, and other information that identifies individual students by name.

In addition to legal restrictions, Smith College policy strictly limits access to certain types of material, primarily faculty and staff employment records (including tenure and promotion), Board of Trustees records, and faculty meeting records.

You are not responsible for screening for this kind of material, but if you happen to find anything that you think may fall under these restrictions while working with Smith College records, alert your supervisor.

Special cases

In rare cases, Special Collections staff may decide to limit access to certain types of material beyond what was required by the donor. For example, a social worker donates their papers without specifying any restrictions, but we discover third-party medical records.

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