"There's just so much more potential when searching a cell phone or an e-mail archive, to uncover information that has no relevance to the object of the search, but yet could reveal many private and personal matters, " Silverstein says.
"I also found that no thorough comparison of data from controlled archive cases was undertaken with other government departments or financial institutions in order to trace applicants until April 2012, " he said.
But the book will at the same time enhance Mr Roberts's reputation as a scholar to be reckoned with: no one else has mined the Cecil family archive at Hatfield House to such effect.
"Only a few families said no, " she says, adding that all the documents in the archive are watermarked and "there are all sorts of disclaimers" about credit and reuse.