access to archives

[James Harbeck]

On Thu, 28 Nov 1996, Kathy Chung wrote:

> (1) is it unusual, common, or something in between for archives to charge
> for their use?
My experience is that I have made extensive use of the Harvard Theatre
Collection and the special collections at Princeton and neither of them
has ever charged for simple use of resources. One does need appropriate
credentials etc. But if I had been paying Princeton at the rate quoted, I
would have been out more than $1500.
>
> (1) do you know of other archives which charge users for access?  if so,
> how much?
No, although I have wondered whether some do.
>
> (2) might you like to comment on how situations such as at Stratford
> will/did influence research, your own or in general?
Yes: I doubt I'll ever use them. Especially at those exorbitant
rates. I'd bet anyone the amount I'd pay Stratford that I could find
almost everything I'd want to find out from them by going to other
sources. On the more general level, it is definitely prohibitive: it sends
the message that they don't really want people to use their resources.

Yours, James Harbeck.