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Dear Maps-l,
   MAP Library staff at the UO Library have asked the Administration to
raise the research fees from $25.00 per hour to $50.00 per hour for in-state
requests and from $50.00 to $75.00 for out of state requests.  These fees
are charged almost exculsively to environmental consultants searching for
aerial photography.  Our AUL has asked me to find out what other libraries
charge in order to justify our increases.  The largest private research firm
servicing environmental consultant's needs for aerial photography, charges
$49.00 for each search and $95.00 for prints of aerial photography
(quantity or whether laser or photographic prints is unknown).  I have
passed this information along to her, but she wants some figures from
other academic libraries.
 
   Here at the University of Oregon, we charge $25.00 per hour for our
staff research time.  Our aerial photography collection is closed.  Upon
receiving a request for photography, we identify and retrieve photography,
most often, call the consulant back with the results of our search, mask
off the site on each photogrph for laser copy enlargements, send off and
receive back the photographs from the copy center, provide documentation
for each photo, wrap up and send off to the consultant a packet of laser
copies of the site in question.  This takes about an hour of staff time,
thus, the cost comes to $25.00 per site/$50.00 per site for out of state
requests.
 
   We would be interested in hearing from other libraries who charge
research fees to off-campus users.  Please respond to the list.  Has
anyone else had problems convincing Library Administration to charge fees
in the first place?  I think this is a real "blind-spot" for ULs and
AULs, especially at public colleges and universities.
 
Thank you in advance for any help you may be able to provide.
 
Peter Stark