Canadian Theses 1998-2002 has been made online by the NLC e.g. the following:

Nicholls, Jacqueline M., 1965-. Guide vs. gatekeeper [microform] : information rights legislation and the provincial archives of Manitoba. -- Ottawa : National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, [2002]

"The thesis examines some of the issues
arising out of Canadian access and privacy
legislation which have particular implications for
archival institutions and concludes with
suggestions for changes which address the question
of the role of a public archives in relation to
information rights legislation."

PDF:
http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/MQ57565.pdf

Adopted by the OECD on 30 January 2004 in Paris

The governments (1) of Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the Russian Federation, the Slovak Republic, the Republic of South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States

Recognising that an optimum international exchange of data, information and knowledge contributes decisively to the advancement of scientific research and innovation;

Recognising that open access to, and unrestricted use of, data promotes scientific progress and facilitates the training of researchers;

Recognising that open access will maximise the value derived from public investments in data collection efforts;

Recognising that the substantial increase in computing capacity enables vast quantities of digital research data from public funding to be put to use for multiple research purposes by many research institutes of the global science system, thereby substantially increasing the scope and scale of research;

Recognising the substantial benefits that science, the economy and society at large could gain from the opportunities that expanded use of digital data resources have to offer, and recognising the risk that undue restrictions on access to and use of research data from public funding could diminish the quality and efficiency of scientific research and innovation;

Recognising that optimum availability of research data from public funding for developing countries will enhance their participation in the global science system, thereby contributing to their social and economic development;

Recognising that the disclosure of research data from public funding may be constrained by domestic law on national security, the protection of privacy of citizens and the protection of intellectual property rights and trade secrets that may require additional safeguards;

Recognising that on some of the aspects of the accessibility of research data from public funding, additional measures have been taken or will be introduced in OECD countries and that disparities in national regulations could hamper the optimum use of publicly funded data on the national and international scales;

Considering the beneficial impact of the establishment of OECD Guidelines on the Protection of Privacy and Transborder Flows of Personal Data (1980, 1985 and 1998) and the OECD Guidelines for the Security of Information Systems and Networks (1992, 1997 and 2002) on international policies for access to digital data;

DECLARE THEIR COMMITMENT TO:

Work towards the establishment of access regimes for digital research data from public funding in accordance with the following objectives and principles:

Openness: balancing the interests of open access to data to increase the quality and efficiency of research and innovation with the need for restriction of access in some instances to protect social, scientific and economic interests.

Transparency: making information on data-producing organisations, documentation on the data they produce and specifications of conditions attached to the use of these data, available and accessible internationally.

Legal conformity: paying due attention, in the design of access regimes for digital research data, to national legal requirements concerning national security, privacy and trade secrets.

Formal responsibility: promoting explicit, formal institutional rules on the responsibilities of the various parties involved in data-related activities pertaining to authorship, producer credits, ownership, usage restrictions, financial arrangements, ethical rules, licensing terms, and liability.

Professionalism: building institutional rules for the management of digital research data based on the relevant professional standards and values embodied in the codes of conduct of the scientific communities involved.

Protection of intellectual property: describing ways to obtain open access under the different legal regimes of copyright or other intellectual property law applicable to databases as well as trade secrets.

Interoperability: paying due attention to the relevant international standard requirements for use in multiple ways, in co-operation with other international organisations.

Quality and security: describing good practices for methods, techniques and instruments employed in the collection, dissemination and accessible archiving of data to enable quality control by peer review and other means of safeguarding authenticity, originality, integrity, security and establishing liability.

Efficiency: promoting further cost effectiveness within the global science system by describing good practices in data management and specialised support services.

Accountability: evaluating the performance of data access regimes to maximise the support for open access among the scientific community and society at large.

Seek transparency in regulations and policies related to information, computer and communications services affecting international flows of data for research, and reducing unnecessary barriers to the international exchange of these data;

Take the necessary steps to strengthen existing instruments and - where appropriate - create within the framework of international and national law, new mechanisms and practices supporting international collaboration in access to digital research data;

Support OECD initiatives to promote the development and harmonisation of approaches by governments adhering to this Declaration aimed at maximising the accessibility of digital research data;

Consider the possible implications for other countries, including developing countries and economies in transition, when dealing with issues of access to digital research data.

INVITE THE OECD:

To develop a set of OECD guidelines based on commonly agreed principles to facilitate optimal cost-effective access to digital research data from public funding, to be endorsed by the OECD Council at a later stage.

___________
(1) Including the European Community

http://www.oecd.org/document/0,2340,en_2649_34487_25998799_1_1_1_1,00.html

Via Open Access News

The best starting point for discussing the question of OPEN ACCESS to Heritage Collections is ECHO

http://echo.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/ECHO/home

Motivation
The ECHO initiative has been motivated by the observation that, at present, information relevant to cultural heritage still plays only a marginal role in the Internet: the number one medium for current and future scientific work, communication and general archiving.
Basic idea
The basic idea of the ECHO-initiative therefore is to establish an open-source culture of the public and scholarly exploitation of cultural heritage on the Internet. This idea comprises the promotion of content-driven technology in information management.
Aim
The aim is to create an Agora, a community of producers and users of culturally relevant information, who are willing to freely exchange this in order to build a joint portal and a common infrastructure.

Several digitized collections are online on the mentioned website!

http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/

Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre (University of Melbourne)

http://www.nla.gov.au/apps/lapsdir?action=LapsBrowse

Via Aus-archivists, the mailing list for Australian archivists

List of Mailing Lists on Archives,
Records Management, Museums and Related Subjects (by Bekir Kemal Ataman, webmaster@bbs.archimac.org, Turkey)

http://www.archimac.org/Profession/Lists/index.spml

(Last update July 2003)

THE LARGEST HISTORICAL ARCHIVES
IN RUSSIA AND EUROPE
IS UNDER THE THREAT OF DESTRUCTION
ACCORDING TO THE DECISION OF THE OFFICIALS!

The Russian State Historical Archives in St.Petersburg is under threat of closing, eviction and destruction due to the decision of the officials, planning to use all its buildings for accommodation of the offices and a hotel complex.

On December 17th, 2002 the Chairman of the Government of Russia Mikhail Kasianov signed a bylaw according to which all the buildings occupied by the Russian State Historical Archive were confiscated and were consigned to the Administration of the President of Russia Vladimir Putin.

The administration of the Archives was proposed to close the archives and to release the buildings. Before the new building will be constructed the collections were proposed to warehouse somewhere. This means that the Archives will be closed in summer 2003 for 15-30 years!

There were several articles in Russian papers, magazines, TV interviews against closing the Archives. But till now there is no document stopping this awfull governmental decision.

WE ASK FOR HELP OF THE EUROPEAN AND WORLD COMMUNITY,
UNESCO, THE SCIENTISTS AND POLITICIANS
TO AFFECT THE RUSSIAN AUTHORITIES AND INDUCE THEM
TO ABANDON THE ATTEMPT OF CONFISCATION OF THE BUILDINGS
OF THE ARCHIVES AND CLOSING IT!

http://rgia.narod.ru/maineng.htm

Read a little more in German here

Short information on the archives in English:
http://feefhs.org/blitz/blitzfa.html
http://rgia.narod.ru/archiveng.htm (with pictures)

While preparing an exhibition last summer, museums in New York and Amsterdam contacted Milan's State Archives to request the loan of an architectural drawing of the Teatro alla Scala. This was no ordinary blueprint: the plan, about one meter square
and with some areas highlighted in red and yellow, is an autograph by Giuseppe Piermarini, the house's original architect, who may have traced it between 1776 and 1778.

When the document was discovered missing in August, a special task force of Italy's
carabinieri (military police) called the Nucleo tutela patrimonio culturale launched an
operation code-named "Teatro alla Scala." A small flood of collectibles had recently
been appearing on Milan's antiquarian market, and the goal was to find the source of
the treasures and to trace from there the whereabouts of the Piermarini drawing.

The results of the investigation, announced earlier this month, were startling.
Thousands of pieces were found to have disappeared: parchments from the 11th
century; papal bulls; official decrees bearing the signatures of Emperor Charles V,
Empress Maria Theresa and Napoleon; autograph manuscripts by such Italian literary
giants as Alessandro Manzoni and Gabriele D'Annunzio — a substantial slice of eight
centuries of European history, as seen through documents from one of the continent's
wealthiest metropolitan centers from the Middle Ages onward. Some 3,000 items from
the State Archives and smaller depositories have been recovered, while 1,000 more
are still reported missing, probably smuggled into private collections in Italy or abroad.
(The plan of La Scala was discovered in a private home.)

Since the investigation and gathering of evidence are ongoing, public prosecutor Maria
Letizia Mannella is withholding the names of the three main suspects, who are
described as a professore (a civil servant employed by the provincial government of
Milan in the field of cultural heritage and an esteemed scholar), the principal of a
technical high school at San Donato Milanese (a neighboring township) and an
antiquarian running a shop in downtown Milan. The trio have been charged not with
actual theft, but rather with receiving stolen goods, which may hint at the involvement
of a larger criminal organization.

From andante.com

Read more in Italian (December 2003):
http://www2.unicatt.it/unicatt/seed/mag_gestion_cattnews.vedi_notizia?id_cattnewsT=2634

A UNESCO grant has enabled the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences to digitize about 10% of its collection of 1,400 parchments and provide open access to the digital images. The 121 parchments in the project include royal privileges, papal bulls, international agreements, genealogical data, and related historical information from 1187 to 1500.

Via http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/fosblog.html

Some documents are in German, some in Latin.

|"Rare, historic and modern books, documents and parchment scrolls pertaining to the Iraqi Jewish community were found in the flooded basement of the Iraqi Intelligence (Mukhabahrat) headquarters in Baghdad in early May 2003. Upon removal from the basement, the wet materials (known as the Iraqi Jewish Archive) were packed into sacks and transported to a nearby location where they were partially dried. Dr. Harold Rhode, expert in Middle Eastern and Islamic Affairs, Department of Net Assessment, Office of the Secretary of Defense, provided a general review and initial sorting of the contents during the retrieval process, after which the materials were placed in 27 metal trunks. The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) arranged for the materials to be frozen, which served to stabilize the condition and eliminate further mold growth.

At the request of the Coalition Provisional Authority, conservators from the US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) traveled to Baghdad June 20-23 to assess the condition of the materials and develop recommendations for their preservation. The following report outlines the preservation action plan and funding requirements for preserving this important collection..."

The full illustrated report is at:
http://www-oi.uchicago.edu/OI/IRAQ/mela/IraqiJewishArchiveReport.htm

This document is published on the website of the Middle East Librarians Association Committee on Iraqi Libraries with the kind permission of the authors and The National Archives & Records Administration.

A news report on these documents also appeared in The Art Newspaper, Monday 12 January 2004
http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=11494

Please feel free to re-post this announcement wherever there may be interest.

Chuck Jones
IraqCrisis Moderator
https://listhost.uchicago.edu/mailman/listinfo/iraqcrisis
cejo@midway.uchicago.edu