[MassHistPres] Dilemma about sharing the historical society’s intellectual property

[David Temple]

The Medfield Historical Society has a very significantcollection of detailed church records – which include many of a personal nature- from the 18th century which one serious scholar thought could havesignificant monetary value. They are now securely stored on site in acid-freeboxes in a pretty good climate controlled environment. Some, but by no means all,have been digitized.

TheCongregational Library http://www.congregationallibrary.org/of Boston has offered to digitize all the records so they may be shared on linewith researchers. The library would also store them in a secure and probably better climate-controlledenvironment on a sort of permanent loan basis, though we could get them back ifwe wanted.
Aspresident of the historical society – whose mission is “Preserving, promoting,and sharing Medfield’s history” - I am pleased at the prospect of betterpreservation and distribution of these records. But the flip side is that we wouldalso be essentially giving away some of our most valuable intellectualproperty, and we would cut down on donations and the number of people coming toour facility to do research. 
Adding tothe ambiguity – it is not entirely clear whether these records are the propertyof the historical society…or of First Parish Church. 
Has anyonein this group been confronted with this dilemma? How did you resolve it? In your reply, please include my original message. 

David F. Temple 
President, Medfield Historical SocietyCo-chair, Medfield Historical Commission
300 South Street 
Medfield, MA 02052 
508-359-2915 
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