I would call it questionable in terms of ethics, if you are diverting
resources (in this case, your work-hours to transport non-collections
items) towards digitizing something outside of your collections.  Priority
should go towards the items already in the collections.  My municipal
museum holds a local history collection in a public trust, and
visitors/researchers/residents/city council would be disappointed if we
digitized items that were not in our collection, because we have plenty of
historic photographs  already in our collection that need to be digitized.
My institution would tell such a volunteer that he is free to take his
private collection to a digitization vendor on his time, but it cannot
interfere with our digitization efforts.    Are you paying a fee for
digitization?  Has the volunteer signed any paperwork indicating that the
items will in fact be donated to your institution?

Thank you,

Michael R
​.​


On Wed, Apr 5, 2017 at 12:01 PM, Rebecca Howe <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> Dear Listers,
>
>
>
> I have an ethical question for the group.  At my museum/library, we have
> an extensive map and drawing collection which patrons often ask to have
> reproduced. For our collections, we follow our due-diligence regarding
> copyright law and so forth, so please be advised that this question is not
> about that.
>
>
>
> One of our volunteers has a private collection of maps and drawings which
> he has offered to have us scan or copy for patrons when his collection
> contains an item that we do not have. He has said that he is happy to have
> our library make a profit on his scans, for nothing in return, and we also
> then get a digitized copy for our collection. He says he intends for our
> museum to inherit his physical drawing and map collection when he dies, but
> for now he only allows us a scan of his items. To add complication to the
> whole situation, there is a corporation that holds copyright to maps and
> drawings in his collection, to which he has never held himself accountable…
> However, if we get a patron who wants a copy from his collection that falls
> under that copyright, we request permission from the corporation every time.
>
>
>
> Maybe I am over-thinking this situation, but beyond the fact that it is
> burdensome, does this arrangement seem unethical? It doesn’t sit well with
> me in that we are copying materials that don’t belong to us and then taking
> a profit, even though we are following our copyright due-diligence.  Also,
> we don’t have a substantial digital storage system to support a large
> digitized collection down the road, although we have only copied about 5 of
> this volunteer's things to date.
>
>
>
> It seems weird to me to digitize collection items that don’t belong to us,
> when we don’t even have our own collections digitized. Moreover, I feel a
> personal burden as I cart the maps/drawings to the an off-site location to
> get scanned, since we don’t have the capability to scan them on-site.  For
> whatever reason, our volunteer does not want to take the drawings to the
> off-site location himself. So, additionally there is a selfish part of me
> that feels put upon because I am ferrying a personal collection to and from
> the scan location.  This volunteer has quite a following in the community,
> and word is spreading fast that he is reproducing his drawings through our
> library, so I am concerned that if we don’t nip this in the bud, we will
> quickly be ferrying maps and drawings to be copied on a weekly basis
> through this volunteer, when we have our own library to run.
>
>
>
> I am leaning towards stopping this altogether, but I worry that doing so
> may hinder our relationship with a volunteer who does a lot of good work
> for us and who may donate his estate to us in the future... But I also have
> some apprehension about the ethics and legality of all of it.
>
>
> What are your thoughts on this? Has anyone out there encountered anything
> close to this?  Is this ethical? My director has said perhaps we just need
> to write up an agreement stating that our volunteer is ok with this
> situation and expects nothing in return.
>
>
> Lastly, if you have any legal sources about this situation, I would
> appreciate your sharing them. I have* A Legal Primer *by Malaro and
> DeAngeles, *Library's Legal Answer Book* by Minow/Lipinski, *A Museum
> Guide to Copyright & Trademark *by AAM, and *Navigating Legal Issues in
> Archives* by Bernhardt-Klodt, but none of these titles address this
> particular issue.
>
>
> Thank you in advance for your assistance.
>
>
> Rebecca
>

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