Seeing No Evil: The Archival Profession's Failure to Respond to the National Archives' Breaches of Professional and Ethical Duties.

Some commentators believe that the Society of American Archivists (SAA) has turned a corner and in recent years has taken more of a leadership role in speaking out on matters of import to the archival profession. However, two recent controversies involving the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) suggest otherwise, indeed, suggest that SAA lacks the will to take any role whatsoever in matters involving archival ethics and professional standards of practice. In 2006, an independent researcher brought to light that NARA had entered into secret agreements with several government agencies to pull and reclassify publicly available records from its open shelves; the agreements stipulated that NARA would hide the reclassification program from the public. In 2008, another independent researcher made public his unsuccessful attempts to access NARA's own records, those of the Office of Presidential Libraries. He documented a course of improper handling of the records, unprofessional responses to his requests for information, and inappropriate withholding of these records. SAA's failure to take a leadership stance with respect to these situations was compounded and enabled by the majority of individual archivists who chose to remain uninformed, and silent, about issues raised that were of critical importance to their profession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]