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Athttp://readingarchives.blogspot.com/2008/06/stealing.htmlRichard J. Cox writes:I remain convinced that issues of accountability and ethics will engage archivists to an increasing extent in the next decade and beyond. Lawrence Rothfield, ed., Antiquities Under Siege: Cultural Heritage Protection After the Iraq War (Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press, 2008) provides additional testimony to this trend. Right at the beginning, editor Rothfield sounds the alarm: “Illegal digging on a massive scale continues to this day, virtually unchecked, with Iraq’s ten thousand officially recognized sites being destroyed at a rate of roughly 10 percent per year” (p. xv). This sounds remarkably like the warnings sounded a generation ago about the growth of electronic recordkeeping and our ability to manage the portion possessing archival value.Some might wonder why archivists should be concerned about such cultural heritage issues. Some of this heritage comes in the form of archival documentation. However, the reasons why archivists should be aware of this realm is that looting, black market networks, and the sometimes-complicit support by repositories such as archives and museums are all elements affecting the archival mission and activity.