When an archivist receives archival materials into her care her first interest is, almost inevitably, to make the documentary treasures available for use. What a thrill it is to hold in your hands an original letter written by your favourite artist, or to see the name of a former mayor among the rolls of students in your local high school. As someone once said, archivists get paid to read other people's mail. We love the opportunity to see into the lives of other people and, through them, to understand the way our communities functioned in years past.

But the artist and the mayor have rights too. And these rights do not vanish when documents created or owned by them move into archival custody. The need to balance access and privacy and the need to respect intellectual property rights are perhaps the greatest source of tension for the archivist, especially given the ubiquity of digital technologies today.

The requirements of access, privacy and copyright laws can throw obstacles in the way of achieving the goal of archival service, which, as stated many times already, is to support the acquisition, preservation and management of archival materials so that they can be made available for use. But the creators of documentary materials – the people who kept personal diaries, wrote letters to their sister, took photographs on their holiday, prepared financial reports for their business – did not create those records for posterity. The fact that those records ended up in an archival repository, perhaps decades after their creation, does not mean that the creators of those records have lost all right to control the ways in which those materials may be used.