Dear all, Thank you for your responses to my question; for the sake of clarity, let me offer some further detail about the situation. The detail was not provided initially because the question was intended to be related to the particulars and implications of digitizing material: 1. that is no longer covered by copyright 2. from a set of microfilm created through your institution 3. when your institution is not the owner of the physical items from which the microfilm was made. In the early 1980's, SUNY Fredonia's Holland Land Company Project secured the funding to microfilm the entirety of the Holland Land Company records (which pertained to Western New York and Northwestern Pennsylvania) from the originals, held by the Municipal Archives of Amsterdam. The collection consists of 202 reels of microfilm, with the map collection on over 600 full-frame color microfiche. The project was significant not only for gathering the information in a single location, but also because it had been on the LoC to-do list prior to Fredonia securing the funding. The material in question (that which was microfilmed from Amsterdam) covers from 1789-1869, and was produced in the United States before being taken back to Amsterdam -- thus my statement that I didn't feel copyright was an issue, although I hadn't taken copyright law in the Netherlands into account. Essentially, the records were created by a private Dutch company during the above years, were microfilmed through our project, and have been made available to researchers here (and through the ILL of the use copy) for the past 15 or so years. As I mentioned in my previous email, the goal would be to digitize those reels of microfilm paid for by SUNY Fredonia through the project in order to make them more readily available to researchers. Access to and use of the collection is extensive, from any number of angles and fields, and is the single largest challenge we face in terms of providing service. SUNY Fredonia, the LoC, and the Libraries of the Genealogical Society of Utah have the only use copies of this microfilm that I know of, although the institution has copied certain reels for researchers over the years. That is the extent of the situation as I can tell -- I only arrived here two months ago, and realized immediately the problem of trying to provide access to this material. While digitizing obviously doesn't solve all of the issues, it would help address those regarding ease of researcher access and our part in directing researchers to the material. This would be a long-term project, and is obviously still only in the "thought" stages, but I felt it was appropriate for discussion. Chris, regarding your point about consultation of legal minds -- I'm sure that is where this will eventually land. The key in the asking of the question was to be able to approach legal counsel with somewhat more than a question and a confused look! Thanks and regards to all, Jeremy A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List sponsored by the Society of American Archivists, www.archivists.org. For the terms of participation, please refer to http://www.archivists.org/listservs/arch_listserv_terms.asp. To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to [log in to unmask] In body of message: SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname *or*: UNSUB ARCHIVES To post a message, send e-mail to [log in to unmask] Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html Problems? Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <[log in to unmask]>