A somewhat belated thank-you to everyone who has contributed to this. 
It's interesting that there have been (unless I missed something!) no 
contributiobns from university libraries: perhaps the Great 
Map-Consulting Public thinks they've all been shut down!

Richard Oliver

On Wed, 29 Oct 2008 20:01:31 +0000 Francis Herbert 
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> A slight - but often ignored or overlooked - refinement to ex-colleague
> Huw's response: the government grant (on condition that the RGS Map Room
> was freely open to the general public for reference purposes) went to
> central funds: it did not support staff salaries, purchases, or
> conservation for the Map Room.
> 
> Francis Herbert (ex-Curator of Maps)
> 
> -----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
> 
> Ffon / Tel:   +44-1970-632990 (Direct line)
> ebost / email: [log in to unmask]
> Y We / WWW: http://www.llgc.org.uk
> 
> Nid yw'r neges hon o angenrheidrwydd yn adlewyrchu barn LlGC
> This message does not necessarily reflect the opinion of NLW

-------------------
Richard Oliver, B.A., D.Phil., F.B.Cart.S.,
Research Fellow in the History of Cartography
School of Geography, Archaeology & Earth Resources
University of Exeter
Exeter, EX4 4RJ