We introduced charges for cameras for the first time in February. We felt that we were rather forced into this because our income from photocopying was dropping as more people used their own cameras and also because, as Margaret says, people were using the time to collect data in a way not quite the same as before. In the past they would at least glance at the document before deciding to have it photocopied now they order documents and just take pictures of them without even considering whether they will be useful. This meant that document production is put under severe strain as one researcher can get through many times the number of documents per session that they used to do.
However, we wanted the charges to be as reasonable as possible and therefore our charges are 50p per item copied up to a maximum of £10. This means that someone only wanting one or two pictures pays exactly the same as they would for a black and white photocopy but an academic taking vast numbers of pictures can take as many as they like for £10 a day. As the charge is per item not per picture it ties in firmly with the work staff are involved in to produce the document for the searcher. So far we have had no complaints. As the document references have to be listed on the copyright declaration form it is easy to calculate the amount due and the searchroom staff don't seem to have found it too difficult to administer.
As a conservator I much prefer customers to take photos with their own cameras (no flash allowed) rather than subject the documents to the ravages of a photocopier.
Pamela Birch
Conservator/Premises & Projects Officer
Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service
Tel; 01234 228908
Opening hours: Monday 9am-7pm, Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday 9am-5pm. Closed on Thursday.
Find out more about Bedfordshire's history and search our online catalogues at www.bedfordshire.gov.uk/archive
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