----------------------------Original message---------------------------- 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