Just an observation based on many years in the retail industry prior to
entering government service nearly 15 years ago...

From my retail experience:  There will always be customers who say they
got the same product for less money than you want to offer it for.
(Sometimes that will be true; often it is not.  They could be making an
honest mistake, or they are trying to bargain a concession from you.)

From my government experience:  There will always be customers who claim
that they obtained a document from someone else that you are refusing to
release because it is confidential or restricted or because there are
institutional policies prohibiting it.

And to paraphrase Shakespeare's text: "The (man) doth protest too much,
methinks."  (Also something I see quite often: someone hopes to win a
point with noise and bluster when truth has failed.)

Identifying one particular individual relative to one particular case
won't achieve much in the long run.  Others will appear just like him in
the months ahead.

There are reasons for your institution's policy. Stick to them.  If he
wants what you have to offer, he will simmer down, abide by that policy,
and pay the appropriate fee.  (If he does not wish to do so, he can
always take his "business" somewhere else.  You really can't please all
of the people all of the time...even though we often try.)

Paul R. Bergeron
Nashua, NH 03060




-----Original Message-----
From: Archives & Archivists [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Chuck Hill
Sent: Wednesday, June 21, 2006 2:54 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Ethics issue


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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