Archives and the Law: Class Practicum

Due Date: July 17, 11:59pm

 

First, sign up for a Commons account. Then, add your contribution in the comments of this post!

Hypothetical scenario (please aim to write around 2-4 sentences):

One of the participants of an interview conducted by Alice Sardell as a part of her research in the 1990s is interested in publishing a portion of the recording in a documentary. The interview includes Sardell herself, the requester, and two other participants. No names or identifying information are spoken in the recording. Sardell gave QC the copyright to her materials when they were donated to the archive, but did not have participants sign releases of any kind at the time of recording.

How might you respond to this request? What additional information would you want from the requester? Would you attempt to reach out to the other participants, and if so how? If you don’t want to offer use of the recording, what other materials / support could you offer instead?

Commenting on other posts is not required but is encouraged!

One comment

  1. Sara Gronich says:

    As we discussed in class when going through the collection, the researcher would not be able to publish the recording without approval from all voices on the recording, regardless of Sardell’s donation of the materials to QC. From the archivist’s perspective, I think it could be worth attempting to track down the interviewees if that information is available within Sardell’s papers and if the documentary project seems particularly important (and worth the time/resources). If the interviewees reject use or are not findable, then I would offer the researcher Sardell’s accompanying interview notes for that interview, and encourage potential quotation/narration if the interview notes contain the information the documentary researcher is looking for.

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