Privacy and Confidentiality Issues in Digital Archives #1406

Course Details

Mon, Dec 09, 2013
Mount Holyoke College South Hadley, MA

This course covers privacy and confidentiality legal issues specific to archives of digital material. You'll examine the intersection of (and the tension between) privacy/confidentiality, free speech and freedom to research/write, and focus on how electronic records and the digital realm have altered the scene. You'll look at privacy and confidentiality issues in the context of third party rights, donors, special situations such as medical and education records, national security legislation, and the overriding impact of the digital world. Through case studies, you will examine specific situations pertinent to the work of archivists. While participants should be familiar with basic concepts of privacy and confidentiality, a brief review of the development of these concepts will be provided to ground the discussion. The focus of the day will be on how to think through and identify options for resolving the most commonly-encountered privacy and confidentiality legal issues around electronic records.

Upon completion of this course you'll be able to:

Recognize and discuss common legal issues relating to privacy and confidentiality issues in general and for digital archives in particular; Interpret these issues from an archivist's perspective;

Realize when ingested records pose possible privacy and confidentiality legal issues;

Identify, employ, analyze and compare the ramifications of a variety of legal steps that you might take to prevent or address one of the legal issues; and,

Communicate and work more effectively with your legal counsel and administration.

Course website (external link)

This information is provided as a convenience for informational purposes only; it does not constitute an endorsement by the Library of Congress.