What is Redaction? Redaction is the hiding of information in a document that is reproduced, or in quotations from a document. Both kinds of redactions occur in the Grand River Rainbow Historical Project. Information is sometimes hidden in the Project webpages in quotations from publications; this is done by replacing, say, a telephone number by ###-#### or an email address by #####@##### Information is sometimes hidden in the digitized versions of publications by blacking out the information using a graphics program.

Why is Redaction Done in This Project? The problem here is that these publications being reproduced or quoted are not current documents, yet the text in them reads as if they were in fact current documents. The redacted information generally consists of telephone numbers, email addresses, or other contact information, the inclusion of which on a public website might serve to propagate out-of-date or misleading information, or otherwise create a nuisance. In practice, we have usually limited these redactions to contact information for individuals, or service organizations; we have usually not redacted the contact information for businesses.