It would be well and good if museums and libraries did indeed charge fees that are appropriate. But many charge use fees on top of reproduction fees. We have paid anywhere from $50 to $125 per photo in use fees for photos from other institutions for exhibits we have done. So much for museum courtesy. We recently had an author approach us because another institution was asking $100 per photo and he needed three photos for a book he was writing. We provided them to him for $100 and he though he got a bargain. He did, many of the larger research facilities are trying to turn fulfilling photo requests into a moneymaking operation. We have a sliding scale of use fees for commercial use that start at $50 but when someone asks for a quantity of photos we work with them. And we usually provide photos to the news media at no charge at all (we sometimes waive the reproduction fee as well). I think that fulfilling photo requests can be very good PR for an institution. Our Museum's visibility has been helped by the various photos that we provide to everyone from authors to the news media. I frequently hear from members of the press that museums are difficult to work with, particularly when it comes to getting photographs. I can assure you that we have worked very hard not to be difficult to work with; in just the past year we have had images in everything from national travel magazines to inflight magazines. Our 65,000 a year visitation is due, at least in part, to just this kind of effort. One more thought, I realize one needs to be realistic about earned income but let's not forget our mission statements while we are at it. Don't we have some obligation to aiding the pursuit and dissemination of knowledge? Steve Friesen, Director Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave 987 1/2 Lookout Mountain Rd. Golden, CO 80401 -----Original Message----- From: jmarks [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Monday, September 23, 2002 8:07 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Schedule of fees Good morning, Our reproduction fees are $5 per image for scanning - to a disk, by email, or to a print. If someone wishes to have a photographic copy made, we can't do that in-house - we choose the vendor, and charge a $5 fee above cost to cover our time (we transport the images back and forth, we don't let the customer take them). And "we" are a small historical society in rural western NY with a small staff, if that helps with context. We've had several messages about fees that were too high and discouraged use. Can you supply numbers and circumstances - how high was "too high" and what were the images? Dollar amounts and details would help those writing or revising photo fees. I've been struggling with use fees and haven't come to a definitive conclusion. I do believe museums and repositories need to charge "appropriate" fees for use and publication. In these days of easy graphic reproduction (or piracy, depending how you feel), we don't know what will happen to our photographs once someone gets them. It would be great if we received a small fee from everyone who used a collections image on a web site, postcard, T-shirt, coffee mug, book, advertisement, etc. It would be fair to everyone and would support the institutions caring for the photographs. But this usually isn't the case, and museums/ libraries feel the need to collect larger fees upfront. I also wonder if users are chafing at the idea of being charged for photos at all. Does the public expect that everything will be preserved forever and made totally accessible for free? The easy answer is "there's no such thing as a free lunch"; the realistic answer is that users need to be educated about why we charge use fees and museums/ libraries need set fees that are appropriate, not punitive. Feedback anyone? John ========================================================= 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). ========================================================= 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).