LDS church and Utah State University fight over rightful ownership of the Arrington files
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is pursuing the ownership of parts of the Arrington Collection which is currently owned by Utah State University. The church started to pursue this matter legally soon after the collection was made available to the public at the Merrill Library Special Collections department on Oct. 11.
The collection, which consists of historical documents of the church, was donated to the university by the late Leonard J. Arrington, former historian for the church.
According to a joint press release by the university and the church, the collection “includes some private and confidential materials that the church believes are owned by the church or its affiliated entities and not by Arrington or subject to his disposition.”
According to the release, the university is more concerned with its obligation to Arrington and the public in its commitment as a public university to “provide access to important research information.”
“Public libraries feel a very strong commitment to provide access irrespectable of contents of materials,” said Linda L. Wolcott, interim vice provost of USU’s Libraries and Instructional Support.
The university feels there is a responsibility to the public and the Arrington family in its stand to keep the documents, Wolcott said.
“As with all gifts to the university, we’re very concerned about preserving the donor’s intent,” Craig Simper, USU’s university counsel, said. “You’re talking about a collection that is massive. We are also talking about a collection that covers a lifetime work of a man.”
Simper said there may be isolated documents belonging to the church that may be in the collection which Arrington did not intend to include. The university, Simper said, is trying to find those documents and return them to the church.
Documents found in the collection on which the ownership is clearly marked are returned immediately to the church, he said.
So far, out of the 600 boxes of documents, the church claims ownership of 12 full boxes and 32 partial boxes, said Ann Buttars, head curator of the Merrill Library. She said the boxes in question are currently being sequestered.
“By sequestering them it’s not like we gave up any legal rights,” Simper said. “It was just a matter of addressing some concerns of the church at the time.”
“I feel that those papers that were given here belong here,” Buttars said. “They were given for a purpose. When the collection was given, it was a rich historical resource. I see nothing more than that.”
Simper said the church argues Arrington had signed an agreement with it saying that he would not copy or distribute certain items. The church also claims the ownership of any produced work during Arrington’s employment as a church historian, he said.
According to the agreement signed by Arrington in 1989 with the church, Arrington agrees to return any typescripts belonging to the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Church History to its rightful ownership. Prior to that agreement, Arrington also signed another agreement with the church in 1980.
The 1980 agreement states, referring to Church Archives documents, “No copies of these materials are to be made or distributed to anyone.” It also states the copies “are to be returned to the Historical Department” by Arrington’s retirement in 1987, upon his death or upon his discontinuance as director of the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute of Church History.
“Leonard had been the church historian for eight years up to that time,” Simper said. “I don’t think that document refers to things perhaps that occurred before the agreement was signed. I can tell you that it’s my firm and sincere belief that Leonard did not intend to violate an agreement.”
Simper said, copyrights to old documents more than 100 years old have expired.
“So, it’s not a foregone conclusion that because the church owns the document, copies of the document are also owned by the church,” he said.
Richard Turley, the church’s managing director of the Family and Church History department, said, “This is an issue of ownership.”
Turley said the materials that belong to the church need to be returned to the church. Whether or not the materials will be made available to the public if the church gets them back is a decision the church will decide on later, he said.
“Personal files will not be available to the public,” Turley said.
Buttars said, “There are a lot of issues involved in this. I really honestly don’t know what to think. Dr. Arrington was an extremely honest, open person.”
Simper said, “We are not going to hold every item in this collection at all cost, but it is our intent to preserve the heart of this collection. If we can’t reach an agreement, I guess we could end up in court to resolve these issues. But we’re negotiating. I have high hopes we can resolve this without litigation.”
Turley said he believes an agreement can be reached without going to court by having an agreement that meets the needs of all parties.
Arrington had been a professor at USU of economics from the 1950s to the 1970s. In 1972 he was called to be the historian for the church. Arrington passed away in 1999.
“He had a love of people, and he loved Mormon history and Utah history,” Buttars said. “He was called the grandfather of Mormon history.”