I am considering a posting regarding a patron who has been requesting 
photographs from our collections.  The patron has received photographs 
regarding the same subject from other university archives, and has stated 
that "I am a private collector who's hit a goldmine of shots in the 
university archive circuit."  However, in my dealings the patron has been 
somewhat unreasonable by expecting us to scan and print 120 images at a 
reduced rate (normal rate would equal $20 per image) and all at once (our 
policy states that we will scan 10 images per month per patron).

In correspondence the patron stated that two other archives had given a 
reduced rate of $10 per image (for 8X10 B&W prints) because it is a bulk 
order (when I pointed out that it in fact was not a bulk order - multiple 
copies of the same image - but a large order that would require more time 
and effort on our part, the patron became indignant and stated that "Other 
university archives have been accomodating and offered me reduced fees for 
such a 'large' order.").  Upon contacting those institutions I discovered 
that $10 was the normal rate at one repository and the other gave reduced 
rates that exceeded $10.

My question:

Would it be ethical to post a warning of sorts that did not include the 
persons name or gender but did mention the types of images the patron wanted 
and the way that they went about trying to get reduced rates?

Thanks,

chuck hill
University Archivist
Eastern Kentucky University

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