Good morning everyone
Following up re addresses in catalogues, I had quite a lot of interest from colleagues also wondering how to manage this issue, and only one reply from a colleague offering advice: in her county record office they restrict access to correspondence under 30 years even where the content isn’t sensitive, due to the presence of correspondents’ addresses.
So for letters under 30 years old, not only do they omit addresses from any catalogue, they also restrict access to the letters in the reading room. Is anyone else doing this?
I, and several others, would be very interested to know. Perhaps we could open up the discussion on the list? It is Friday, after all, although rather a dry topic…
Please do reply on or off list if your institution takes a stance on this.
Best wishes
Liz
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On Friday, February 7, 2020, charity no. 222879/SC038262 <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Dear colleagues
A question about data protection and cataloguing of letters at item level. So far at the RHS we have catalogued only 19th-century and early 20th-century letters at item level, and included the writer’s address in the catalogue entry. This is useful for a number of reasons, including that sometimes it’s the owner’s gardener who has written the letter, and including the address preserves the link with the property.
We are now starting a project to catalogue some 20th-century letters at item level, and I would like to follow the same format as far as possible. They are mostly pre-1970s but some are 1980s and 1990s, and a few are early 2000s. I am wondering what other institutions do about including addresses in catalogue descriptions. My thinking is to have a cut-off date after which we do not include any addresses, in case an address is not in the public domain and its disclosure might cause substantial harm.
The eventual plan is to make the digitised letters available online, where we can clear copyright, so we may need to look at what problems that may give rise to, with the more recent letters.
I am happy to summarise replies for the list if there is interest.
Best wishes
Liz
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Liz Taylor
Archivist
RHS Garden Wisley
Woking
Surrey GU23 6QB
Direct line: 01483 479 782
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