Quite frankly, this concept of "borrowing" images from private lenders by
creating surrogates of them seems so fraught with problems that I would
hesitate to try it.  I'm not surprised that managing such a program has
become cumbersome.  On the other hand, it does represent a way of making
historical pictures available to scholars and the public, which might
otherwise be inaccessible--definitely a worthwhile service.

The biggest problem seems to be what to do in the event of an owner's death.
This is of course a major reason why long-term, indefinite, or "permanent"
loans of original objects from private owners are usually avoided like the
plague by most museums and similar institutions.  All of your lenders will
die sooner or later, I guarantee it.  Whatever agreement you might work out
with a lender, I'm not sure whether you can commit his or her heirs or estate
to honor or continue the agreement after the lender's death.  Perhaps you
can--I'm not a lawyer--but if I inherited property in the form of historical
pictures and wanted to sell them or make use of them myself, I'm not sure I'd
be happy to find that they were encumbered by a previous agreement to "share"
them with an institution.  I think some serious legal research into this
aspect might be advisable.

Having said that, I think an institution which derives income from commercial
use of the surrogates being shared by the owners of the originals, in turn
ought to "share" the income with the lenders.  As a firm believer in charging
reproduction fees for commercial or profit-making usage of institutional
resources, I think it would be inconsistent not to charge fees for the use of
loaned items if you charge fees for similar usage of material owned by the
institution.  On the other hand, I suppose letting the institution charge and
retain all fees generated by the copies could be part of the contribution
which the lenders make to the institution, and which should be reflected in
the loan agreement.

Perhaps any loan agreements should be short-term, subject to periodic
renewal.  Perhaps they should expire when the lender expires.  (But then what
happens to your copy negatives?  Who owns them?)  I don't have any good
answers, only more questions, as this issue seems to get more complex the
more I think about it.  But it's a fascinating problem, and I hope someone
out there has some practical experience with it.  It seems to me that it
could become a nightmare to administer properly.

It might be useful to investigate what kinds of agreements stock picture
agencies maintain with photographers--what happens when the photographer dies?

Good luck!

David Haberstich

=========================================================
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).