This paper examines the role codes of ethics play in the portrayal of archivists and their work to the public. Codes of ethics are placed within the context of concepts of professionalism and the relationships between and among archivists, records creators, records users, employers, and the public at large. Several codes issued by archival professional organizations are used to illustrate the ways in which the structure of codes influences their effectiveness in communicating the nature of the profession to the public. The paper concludes that ethics codes contribute to an enhanced sense of professionalism for archivists that can strengthen their ability to serve the public by creating more autonomy in decision making. Paying greater attention to the language used in constructing codes of ethics can help accomplish this task.

The common-law tradition inherited by the United States restricted access to public records to those with a direct and tangible interest in the information, such as parties to a lawsuit. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, however, state appellate courts ruled in a series of cases that revolutionized legal thought on this subject. By the end of World War I, these tribunals increasingly assumed that citizenship itself provided sufficient justification for access to public records. Abstractors and insurers of real estate titles, whose interests were commercial, led the assault upon the common-law tradition that had imposed the more restrictive standard. Suits initiated by those concerned with the misuse of public funds and honest elections played a relatively small role in bringing about this change. The story of this landmark litigation between title abstract companies and local government officials again demonstrates that custody of public records carries with it risks and responsibilities all too familiar to modern archivists.