My thanks to those who responded to my request (see below). As I said
these will be unusual circumstances, since we do not usually allow access
to either unlisted collections or confidential material, so I am grateful
for the guidance received.
Some of the agreements sent to me included just one clause about
confidentiality in a general document re access, whilst others were more
detailed. The most useful I received was (several versions) of a document
produced by the Health Authority Archivists Group re access to medical
records, but in the end I had to produce something directly relevant to
our current situation. My efforts are now with one of our lawyers to tidy
up. Most of my respondents stressed the need for legal input and I agree
totally, but as our lawyers are too busy to put their minds to producing
such a document from scratch I needed a draft for someone to work on.
I have received a couple of enquiries from other archivists who are also
looking at this issue, so maybe it's a topic which the profession should
be looking at in more detail and working towards a common standard - it
would certainly make life easier for the researchers!
Jeannette Strickland
Corporate Archivist
Unilever plc
-----Original Message-----
From: Jeannette Strickland [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, August 17, 2000 10:17 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Confidentiality agreement
For reasons too complicated to explain briefly, we are in the unusual
position of being about to grant an academic researcher access to an
unlisted collection, which contains confidential material. He is
perfectly willing to sign a confidentiality agreement, so I wondered
whether any colleagues on the list have had to produce such a document and
would be willing to suggest useful phrases/clauses to incorporate in one.
Jeannette Strickland
Corporate Archivist
Unilever plc
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