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