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Title:
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Providing Access to Clients Records in the Field of Institutional
Child Care. Balancing the Demands of Victim's Claims, Privacy Protection ans Historical Research.
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Brief summary:
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The public debate on institutional child care in Germany and other countries
calls for the need to give access to clients
files. The legal conditions are described and discussed. The confliction
interests of victims, researchers and officials have to be balanced in the
archival practice.
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Content:
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Starting from an overview of the public debate on the harms of
institutional child care in Germany and other countries (Switzerland, Ireland,
Great Britain, Australia etc), the organizational structures of public
child care in Germany is outlined and its consequences for the existance and archival management of clients records. Follwed by a description of the legal regulations for
the access by the clients themselves, by the administration (head of
institutions, youth welfare officials etc), by researchers and by the wider
public. While it is obvious - though not completely practised - that former
clients of child care have to be granted free access to personal records
that relate to them, there are also relevant indicators that allow access
to client records for researchers. Finally, the special challenges that
occur while former clients of institutional child care receive access to
"their" records, are disussed,
accompnaied by considerations for a good, responsable conduct with these often traumatized
persons during their stay at the archives.
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Scientific contribution:
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In many countries in Europe, America
and Australia,
problems of institutional child care (orphanages, industrial schools etc.)
in the mid 20th century are widely discussed in public. That includes
aspects of physical and mental brutality, repressive pedagogy and sexual
abuse. While institutional records sometimes are the only means to provide
identity to the former orphans, the memories of the victims often differ
from the recorded information.
The proposed presentation will - always relating to the German example -
give insight in the number, form and relevance of clients records and will
discuss the conflicting interests and legal preconditions that make access
to these personal records a highly responsible task for an archivist.
My comment to "type of presentation": I had to decide for one of
the items offered. Still, my presentation could also bei
a stand-alone paper.
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Keywords:
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access, client records, personal records, data protection, privacy
protection, freedom of research, institutional child care
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