"'Freely available does not mean available for free"
This appears to be a general principle; the Antarctic Treaty guarantees free exchange of information in Antarctica, but that doesn't mean we can't charge for the information - freely available means that it is accessible if you want it. There is a sort of "gentleman's agreement" that we normally only charge reproduction costs, but that can be quite significant!
Paul Cooper
-----Original Message-----
From: A forum for issues related to map & spatial data librarianship [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Huw Thomas
Sent: 29 October 2008 09:16
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Access by public to university, etc, map libraries
Richard,
Thinking back to my RGS days, when we lost our Government grant for
allowing public access to the Map Room we started charging visitors
(non-members) £10 a day.
When we later applied for HLF funding for the new reading room we were
worried that this would mean that we could no longer charge such fees,
as we had to make the collections 'freely available'. What we were told
by the government was the following: 'Freely available does not mean
available for free'
In other words the fact that a service has public funding does not mean
that appropriate charges cannot be levied to cover the costs of making
that service available to the public.
I hope that this helps.
Huw
Oliver, Richard wrote:
> Thanks for this: perhaps I ought to have made it clear that I was really
> thinking of UK funding regimes and attitudes! The argument that 'the
> material isn't otherwise available locally' is one that can be used by
> the public, but would have to be countered by the library!
>
> Richard Oliver
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* A forum for issues related to map & spatial data librarianship
> [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Brian Marshall
> [[log in to unmask]]
> *Sent:* Tuesday, October 28, 2008 8:20 PM
> *To:* [log in to unmask]
> *Subject:* FW: Access by public to university, etc, map libraries
>
> At the University of Auckland Library we allow the public access to our
> map collection, on the grounds that a lot of what we hold is not
> available anywhere else in Auckland. The public can come and view, but
> cannot take anything away.
>
>
>
>
>
> Brian Marshall
>
> Subject Librarian, Geography & Environmental Science
>
> University of Auckland Library
>
> Private Bag 92019
>
> Auckland Mail Centre
>
> Auckland 1142
>
> NEW ZEALAND
>
>
>
> http://www.library.auckland.ac.nz/subjects/geog/geogsub1.htm
>
>
>
> 1883-2008: Celebrating 125 Years
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* A forum for issues related to map & spatial data librarianship
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] *On Behalf Of *Oliver, Richard
> *Sent:* Wednesday, 29 October 2008 8:48 a.m.
> *To:* [log in to unmask]
> *Subject:* Access by public to university, etc, map libraries
>
>
>
> Allowing the public - i.e. non-university members - access to a
> university or similar (e.g. learned society) map library can often be a
> drain on staff time for which there is no funding, and a good many
> libraries have met the difficulty by either withdrawing any public
> access, or else offering it on a 'full cost recovery basis', which seems
> to come to the same thing in practice.
>
>
>
> Mindful that an argument for greatly reducing the cost of OS large-scale
> data is that the cost of the data has already been paid for in large
> part by the taxpayer (how far this argument can be accepted will not be
> discussed here, but it seems to be a widely-held one), I would be
> interested to know if anyone has encountered a similar line of argument
> for allowing 'free' access to university map libraries, i.e. that a
> large part of the cost (at any rate for paper maps) has been met from
> public spending. And if anyone has encountered this argument, have they
> been able to deploy successful counter-arguments?
>
>
>
> Richard Oliver
>
--
Huw Thomas FRGS
Pennaeth Uned Defnyddiau Di-destun / Head of Non-Text Materials Unit
Isadran Data Llyfryddol / Bibliographic Data Section
Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru / National Library of Wales
ABERYSTWYTH
Ceredigion SY23 3BU
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