access to archives

[Richard Plant]

Hello All:

The fee Stratford charges was put in place several years ago when I was
president of the Association for Canadian Theatre Research. I had the
task of writing to the Stratford board expressing chagrin (I may have
been somewhat stronger than that in my wording because I got quite a terse
letter back from the board chair) on behalf of researchers et al. The
reality of the situation, as explained to me, was that Stratford was/is a
private institution which must pay for its programmes. This includes the
archival functions and archivist(s). The number of requests from
newspapers, magazines, radio, tv, etc, for information is very high. These
are added to by other publishing and research requests from scholars and
interested people from the public.

As Andre G Bourassa indicates, there are other repositories which charge a
user fee. Many in Europe do.

I have to say that I have found the archivists at Stratford very helpful
in any research I have done using their archives. I have not been charged
a large fee for small inquiries. Moreover, the archivists have been very
fast and knowledgeable.

At the same time, I find myself using the Stratford Archives as little as
necessary because of the fee. The thought has occurred to me that some of
the research inquiries must add significantly to building a strong image
for Stratford among the public throughout the world. I have wondered
exactly what that "advertising" might be worth.

rp