There are a couple of issues here. One (which obviously isn¹t so in this case) is that some institutions have started turning photo-reproduction into a profit centre and are putting ther fees way up - something I heartily disagree with... Now I¹ve got that out of my system: The other issue is actually ³losing money² as it were , on photo reproductions (more on this at the end) so you end up subsidising every photo order. First, I don¹t think it¹s generally a good idea to give photos/digital files away for free because: a. People generally don¹t value what they get for free and b. If the images are free, my experience is that people generally order at least five times more than they actually need because hey, it¹s free so why not order those other 10 prints just in case. With reproductions from photo collections, my stance has always been to at least price things so you come close to doing it on a cost recovery basis. Now, some people will include something in this (usually fairly rough) calculation to cover the costs of their digitization programme again, my take is that digitization these days should probably be a core task of any photo archive/collection and it is not only or even done for providing reproductions there are lots of other reasons it should be done. Reproductions is almost a secondary spin off aspect of digitization. So if you are going to include that in any calculation of cost, it seems to me that it should just be a percentage of digitization costs that would apply. After that, make a guestimate of what it costs to produce the image (print or digital file): Time pulling up the image, perhaps some adjustment or sizing, putting on a disk and doing the paperwork. CD costs (minimal these days and often they are sent by email) Print costs if it is a print. Anything else you think should be included Round it up or down and that is your basic reproduction fee - These days it seems to be fair at around $15.00 - $20.00 for a decent sized 300dpi digital file or an 8x10 print. After that ³Basic/Standard Repro service² You can go with as many add-on¹s as you feel comfortable coping with. E.G.: Larger physical prints for a few extra dollars Smaller/lower-res prints/files for research for less dollars (good for the schools): say a 5x7 print or a 150dpi jpeg file - or, presuming you often have a good set of 8x10 prints of most of your collections, a good quality ³photograph-settings² photocopy for your normal photocopy price again, good for research. Finally, a set of usage fees which is added on top of the basic reproduction fee: $0 (just the repro-fee) for non-profit/educational/personal etc use $XX for small scale commercial use/publication local paper, going on the wall of a local café, small scale book or small/regional magazine publishing etc Finally, $XXX TV use, Newsweek, Nike (they love your historic photo of Farmer Giles in his hobnail boots and want it for an international ad campaign) etc etc Working variations on any of the above should give you plenty of wriggle room on how you want to set things up Tim a Tim Atherton Assistant Curator Musée Héritage Museum, St. Albert (all opinions my own nd not nec essarily those of my nstituion... ========================================================= 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).