In our readings and our class discussion this week, it is clear that archivists have sometimes competing responsibilities to their users, donors and often the law. The ethical obligations to the greater social good and privacy are the two probably most in conflict with each other. Balancing those concerns with an eye always on greater access and greater use of materials. Facilitating the creation of new knowledge is a mighty responsibility indeed.
I have been an archives user frequently, in both my undergraduate and graduate career, as well as a working museum professional. I remember the first time I went to an archive, and the way the procedures felt strange to me. I had a friend who once came with me to an archive- her just to study while I looked at some manuscript papers. My friend had not realized that archives and libraries were different, and she was very unhappy about having to leave her backpack in a locker. She did not come back to study with me! But my own work has always benefited from the assistance of archivists, who pointed me to needles in haystacks I hadn’t even thought to look in.
As an aside, the example I brought up in class was Joanne Meyerowitz’s 2002 book How Sex Changed: A History of Transsexualism in the United States. I wanted to double check my memory, lest I slander Meyerowitz unnecessarily (it was a very good book, after all). Meyerowitz worked extensively with the papers of Christine Jorgenson, a trans woman whose gender transition was a huge press story in the 1950s, and who later became a successful nightclub singer. In her acknowledgements, Meyerowitz thanks the friends and family of Jorgenson, particularly one friend, who “convinced the Royal Danish Library to open the collection, which [she] had been told was closed until 2035” (344). Looking at the Royal Danish Library’s website today, it appears the collection is open to all researchers. Perhaps the collection had never been officially closed or restricted, or perhaps Meyerowitz did gain access to it prematurely. I am just speculating, but is it also possible that the Royal Danish Library had restricted the collection of their volition, and not necessarily Jorgenson’s? Her material might have been considered by some as inappropriate when it was created or donated. In any case, because of Meyerowitz’s work, the Jorgenson collection was opened earlier than originally intended.