Reference Services & Access Management Flashcards

In archival practice, 'intellectual access' refers to:

Answer: The ability to understand and identify relevant materials through descriptive tools like finding aids

Intellectual access involves providing descriptive tools that enable researchers to understand what exists and locate materials relevant to their inquiry.

Which descriptive standard provides rules for creating authority records for names associated with archival materials, commonly used in US repositories?

Answer: DACS (Describing Archives: A Content Standard)

DACS is the US standard maintained by SAA that governs how archival materials and their creators are described in finding aids.

Which act most directly affects how US archives handle researcher access to records containing Social Security numbers and other personal identifiers?

Answer: Privacy Act of 1974

The Privacy Act of 1974 restricts access to federal records containing personal information about living US citizens and protects against unauthorized disclosure.

What is the primary purpose of a 'reading room policy' in an archives?

Answer: To establish rules governing researcher conduct, handling of materials, and use of equipment

Reading room policies protect archival materials by setting clear behavioral standards for everyone who accesses the collections.

A researcher requests a complete copy of a 500-page unpublished manuscript still under copyright. The archivist should:

Answer: Decline to reproduce the entire work, advising the researcher to seek copyright clearance from the rights holder

Reproducing an entire copyrighted unpublished work exceeds fair use and exposes the repository to copyright infringement liability.

Which term describes the practice of linking archival descriptions to standardized authority files for personal names, corporate bodies, and geographic names?

Answer: Controlled vocabulary access points

Using controlled vocabulary access points ensures consistent retrieval of materials associated with the same entity regardless of variant name forms.