On September 4, 2001 (last week) the National Archives/National Library of
Canada put in effect a new policy banning researchers from taking laptop
cases into their research rooms. The laptops can still go up but the
machines and cables, etc. have to be taken out of their cases on the ground
floor and the cases left in lockers downstairs. Researchers are
given  grocery-type plastic bags to carry their laptops in while they are
in the building. The need for increased protection for the holdings is
given as the reason for the change in policy. (Previously, researchers
could take their laptops in their bags into the research rooms. There was a
limit on the size of bags.)

The new policy seems to me to make laptop use in these institutions more
inconvenient without increasing protection for the holdings. (You and your
grocery bag are not checked when you leave the building, for example.) I
also have a fear of my machine being damaged while carrying it around in a
flimsy container which was not designed to hold it.

As a long time archivist and AAO member, I am fully aware that archives
must protect their holdings. (The new NA/NLC policy currently affects me
primarily as a researcher.) I would be interested in hearing from list
members about how other archives and libraries currently  treat laptops
which researchers wish to use in their institutions.Thanks, John Smart