Hello all. Any advice on this one?

I had a gentleman call regarding looking over some of our research
clipping files and viewing some photographs we have in our collection.
(no problems so far!).

However, he is making a documentary and wants to bring his cameraman to
video the docs & photos - normally to get a color copy of a photograph,
we charge and to make copies of anything we charge a fee. If people
further want to use a copy of a photograph from our collection in a
publication, there are additional fees and requirements for crediting
our museum.

[Let me add we were burned once before about 2 yrs ago by some (no
offense) LA types 'doing a documentary on the history of our town' and
my curator spent hours pulling requested photographs and then hours with
the documentarians as they shot film of the pictures. We got no money,
but an acknowledgement in the video and 2 copies of the video. Later
that year, the documentary was selling at our local video store for $25
per copy! In addition, we were never given the full scoop on who was
narrating the documentary - it turns out to be a former director here
who left under a big cloud and was a questionable historian at best! We
were quite upset.]

Does anyone have a written policy on this? On the one hand, I'm all for
documentaries and getting our collections seen by the public. On the
other, how do you control for any misinformation or ask what the
specific script is - in many cases I would assume the documentarian
doesn't really know exactly how he/she will interpret without first
doing the primary research. I am also wary of him shooting video of the
documents and photographs.

Any suggestions? Does anyone have a written policy on this or even an
unformalized one they could share with us?

Thanks so much.

Jill Dixon
Museum at SMC

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).