Research Value

Today I was working on organizing the personnel files in the Bureau of Public Discussion Records.  I was planning on just restricting the whole subseries.  I thought this would be a good choice since each folder seemed to contain a great deal of sensitive employment information and job recommendations.  Also, this way I could just restrict the entire subseries and not have to worry about marking each folder on the finding aid.  However, as I was leafing through a folder to find dates for the file I realized that there didn't seem to be any sensitive information.  In fact everything in the file was from after the woman retired and was mainly about her retirement and memorializing her after her death.  I recognized her name, Mary Anderson, and knew that she had been an integral part of the restructuring of the Bureau in 1949.  The materials in this file, therefore, had important research value, so I began questioning whether all of the records should be restricted. 

In other folders I found additional mixed folders.  There would be sensitive information, but also a reading course that that individual had edited or correspondence regarding a program that they were involved in.  Researchers should be able to access that sort of material.  I talked to Carrie and Dina and we decided that since it was only about a box (a little less) that I could go through and separate the sensitive materials from those that don't need to be restricted and shouldn't be isolated since they do have good research value.  Research value is somewhat subjective, so basically anything that doesn't need to be restricted.  Some folders may be entirely restricted and others will be split into restricted and unrestricted folders.  In this process I'm also removing performance reviews, recommendations for employee action, and other materials that do not need to be included in the collection at all.  I sort of feel like I'm reading people's mail as I attempt to separate the confidential from the benign.

I also removed a few personnel folders that seemed to be from instructors teaching classes under Dr. Hattery, the Director of the Bureau of Public Discussion in the 1970s,  but he was also a government professor.  These materials seemed to have more to do with Hattery's teaching career rather than the Bureau, though.  We're going to talk to Phil about these, but they will likely not be included in the collection since they really don't belong with the Bureau of Public Discussion Records.

All in all a productive week.  The collection is arranged (for the most part) and the finding aid is coming together.  Also, not internship related but work related, I learned how to hyperlink in EAD today, so good day!