CA Professional Standards & Ethics 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: An archivist working in a government agency discovers that officials are selectively destroying records related to a controversial policy decision. The archivist's ethical obligation is to:
- Assist in the destruction to protect the agency from public scrutiny
- Ignore the destruction since it falls outside archival duties
- Document the destruction and report it through appropriate channels, including legal authorities if necessary (Correct answer)
- Transfer the records secretly to another institution without authorization
Correct answer: Document the destruction and report it through appropriate channels, including legal authorities if necessary
Archivists have a professional and often legal obligation to prevent unauthorized destruction of records and to report such activities through appropriate channels.
Question 2: When working with community-based collections from marginalized groups, which ethical principle has gained particular emphasis in contemporary archival practice?
- Strict custody and exclusive institutional control
- Participatory description and community input into how materials are represented (Correct answer)
- Rapid digitization without community consultation
- Applying standard Western archival terminology regardless of cultural context
Correct answer: Participatory description and community input into how materials are represented
Contemporary archival ethics increasingly emphasize involving communities in decisions about how their records are described, accessed, and controlled, particularly for historically marginalized groups.
Question 3: An archivist is offered a substantial personal gift by a researcher in exchange for expedited processing of a collection. According to professional ethics, the archivist should:
- Accept the gift if it is below a certain monetary threshold
- Accept the gift but recuse themselves from decisions about that collection
- Decline the gift and provide equitable service based on institutional priorities (Correct answer)
- Report the offer to their supervisor and accept if approved
Correct answer: Decline the gift and provide equitable service based on institutional priorities
Accepting gifts in exchange for preferential service violates the principle of equitable access and creates a conflict of interest that compromises professional integrity.
Question 4: The principle of 'respect des fonds' has an ethical dimension in that it requires archivists to:
- Respect the monetary value of archival funds allocated for preservation
- Maintain the integrity of records as created by their original creators, preserving context (Correct answer)
- Only accept donations from respected community members
- Prioritize physical preservation over intellectual access
Correct answer: Maintain the integrity of records as created by their original creators, preserving context
Respect des fonds is an ethical principle that obligates archivists to preserve the evidential integrity of records by maintaining their original order and provenance context.
Question 5: A researcher discovers what appears to be previously unknown evidence of historical wrongdoing in a restricted collection. Ethically, the archivist should:
- Immediately open all records to the public regardless of restrictions
- Destroy the evidence to protect the institution associated with the wrongdoing
- Follow established procedures for reviewing and potentially lifting restrictions through proper channels (Correct answer)
- Allow only the researcher to access the evidence without changing official policies
Correct answer: Follow established procedures for reviewing and potentially lifting restrictions through proper channels
Significant findings do not override established review procedures; the proper ethical response is to follow institutional and legal processes for evaluating whether restrictions should be modified.
Question 6: When an archivist suspects that digitized archival materials have been used in a way that violates copyright, their primary obligation is to:
- Sue the user immediately to protect institutional reputation
- Ignore the issue since copyright enforcement is not an archival function
- Document the suspected violation and refer it to institutional legal counsel (Correct answer)
- Immediately remove all digitized content from public access
Correct answer: Document the suspected violation and refer it to institutional legal counsel
Archivists are responsible for raising copyright concerns through proper institutional channels, not for taking unilateral enforcement or punitive actions.
Question 7: Which scenario best illustrates the ethical principle of 'professional integrity' as defined in archival ethics codes?
- An archivist processes collections in strict FIFO order regardless of research demand
- An archivist accurately represents their qualifications and the limitations of archival holdings when advising researchers (Correct answer)
- An archivist charges researchers a fee to ensure they take the work seriously
- An archivist refuses to work with records from organizations they personally disagree with
Correct answer: An archivist accurately represents their qualifications and the limitations of archival holdings when advising researchers
Professional integrity requires honesty about one's qualifications and the nature of archival holdings, ensuring researchers have accurate information for their work.
CA Professional Standards & Ethics 3
An archivist working in a government agency discovers that officials are selectively destroying records related to a controversial policy decision.
The archivist's ethical obligation is to: