Sagamore Community Archives

Privacy Case Study 3.1

March 3, 2012 Kira Warner Paige Asmann Terry Chartier Jane Cotitta

Get the Facts Straight

Small city of 10,000 The Sagamore Community Archives found a box labeled Survey that contains 40 surveys of women from 1943. Originally complied by the now defunct Sagamore Social Service Agencys Each woman had given birth out of wedlock and given their baby up for adoption

Survey intended to assess the mental and physical states of women during their first year after adoption
Survey participants name, address, SSN, religious affiliation and names of immediate family members recorded As far as the archivist can tell, the results were never published

What is the Moral Dilemma?

Should the families be contacted? Should the records be kept?

Should the results be distributed?

Evaluate the Moral Dilemma

Principles of Information Ethics

Respect for intellectual property

Surveys not copyrighted

Results not currently published

Owned by community archives

Evaluate the Moral Dilemma

Principles of Information Ethics
Respect for privacy

Open access

Partially open access

Closed access

Full public access

Surveys in original form

Photocopy survey and redact sensitive information

Access restricted to certain individuals

Archivist alone has access

Evaluate the Moral Dilemma

Principles of Information Ethics
Archivists Code of Ethics: Case does not indicate type of survey information
Access Equitable access May place restrictions on access for privacy Privacy Privacy rights of donors Protect personal information collected

Quantitative Qualitative Types of information disclosed

Evaluate the Moral Dilemma

Principles of Information Ethics

Fair representation

Information not being sold

Evaluate the Moral Dilemma

Principles of Information Ethics
Nonmaleficence

If identities discovered, living respondents/families could be harmed

Evaluate the Moral Dilemma:

Should records be kept?
Yes
No

Evaluate the Moral Dilemma

Should the results be distributed?
Yes
Information could be combined with other similar surveys Personal information can be removed

No

Research too outdated

Small size of town, individuals can be implicated

Evaluate the Moral Dilemma

Should the families be contacted?
Yes
No

Test Solution
Strict guidelines for human research:
Families should not be notified Surveys should be kept with closed access

http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_ subject_research

Surveys should not be distributed

Photographs
Photo 1: http://kidsthesedays.org/archive Photo 2: http://cte.uwaterloo.ca/teaching_resources/tips/resp onding_to_writing_assignments.html Photo 3: http://blog.lib.umn.edu/cspg/peea/2011/11/a_trip_t hrough_the_archives_ca.php Photo 4: http://sincereoasis.org/decides-dogstressed-breathing-bloodshot-eyes Photo 5: http://clipartist.net/uncategorized/safe1303976644-rss-openclipart-org-commonswikimedia-org/