> From: BRENINGER, Leah
>
> I would be intersted to know how other institutions use their fee, do
> they use it to hire extra staff to handle the loans or does it go into a
> general fund?

Our _departmental_ policy on natural history (bird) loans is to not charge for
research, on the assumption (so far, always true) that the courtesy will be
returned when we borrow.  We do, however, loan specimens to artists, and we
charge for that.  Since this is not a cooperative situation (although some of
our "regulars" have donated works to us), and since the cost is passed on to
the purchaser of the works, we feel that an attempt to cover our time
(processing the loan) and specimen wear-and-tear is reasonable.

The funds we raise from this practice are put into a specific account, used for
the purchase of books.  There are a tremendous number of bird books published
each year, and many of the important ones are quite expensive, so this fund is
of extreme value to our functioning.

Robin Panza
Collection Manager, Section of Birds
Carnegie Museum of Natural History
4400 Forbes Ave.
Pittsburgh  PA  15213  USA