Concerning fees:

Here at the Douglas County Museum's research library, there is no
fee for customer assistance in person [other than the general
museum admission fee].  There is a charge for research time if the
inquiry will take more than 15 minutes and the inquiry is made in
writing or by phone [this is a reasonable time, since descriptions
of our photos and a substantial portion of our manuscript files
are indexed on the Argus database system].  For requests in writing,
I run a search on the topic and mail a list of citations along with
a price list.  If the topic looks like there are a lot of cites, I
give an estimate of research & copying time, and the person can
send payment with their request.

This discussion of fees is of course separate from photo charges,
which vary according to the type of publication one of our images
might appear in [and can become a separate thread of discussion
all by itself, w/ copyright & all].

The central question in any fee situation is the democratization
of information access:  at what point does the fee become so
restrictive that it excludes substantial portions of a community
from access to the information.  Levels of service, I think, are
an appropriate way to balance this issue.  Everybody receives
some level of access to the information available, but additional
access - requiring additional labor by museum staff - has to be
compensated by the requestor.  This also permits more rational
allocation of staff labor:  if a librarian, for example, spent
all their time answering just one question in writing, what is
the cost to other users of questions unanswered [or in a small
shop, of materials uncataloged and services unperformed]?

I'd be interested in any other opinions on the issue of fees for
services rendered.

--
Fred R. Reenstjerna, Research Librarian - Douglas County Museum
Roseburg, Oregon  USA - [opinions expressed are my own, and I
stand behind every one of them]