Heather and ARLIS colleagues,
We don't charge for searches here, as we're an academic art library.
But about 9 years ago when I worked as a medical librarian we charged
the public for medline searches (this was before so much was on the web
for free--we had to use our subscription-based medline to do the work).
Our findings then were that you have to charge "non members" or
unaffiliated persons *something* or you will end up doing searches that
many won't bother to pick up and you will be out of the time you spent
interviewing for the search and actually doing it. My guess is if you
charged at least a $5 fee per search --and you define a search as one
concept--you will only get serious requestors approaching you for the
service. The fee should be payable in advance (otherwise, again, you
can end up getting stuck by having done the work and having a no-show).
Regarding the one concept, back in the medical library we would charge
separate fees if a person requested both
A search on the side effects of erythromycin in pediatric patients
And
A search on the connection between asbestos, lung cancer and smoking.
In other words if all of the search were related to one idea, like lung
cancer or a particular medication, it would still be one search.
Sounds nitpicky, but formulating and doing each separate concept took
time and by charging per concept we covered our time and processing
costs.
One final thing--we also charged if the search FOUND NOTHING. Knowing
that no information exists on a particular topic is information worth
paying for. And we never got a complaint about that part of our policy!
Judy Donovan
Library Director
Delaware College of Art and Design
600 N. Market Street
Wilmington, DE 19801
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-----Original Message-----
From: Brodhead, Heather [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, March 04, 2004 9:04 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [ARLIS-L] fees for searches?
Thanks to a generous donor, we now have electronic access to Art Index
and
Art Sales Index. Our library is open to the public. Members of the
Museum
may borrow materials. We are thinking about providing searches for our
users -- we are the only library in the vicinity which has these
databases.
(The closest is Univ. of Cal. at Santa Barbara 10 or so miles away with
inconvenient parking). We're thinking of offering free searches to
members,
but charging non-members. We're also considering charging any non-staff
member. I'm here only 20 hrs a week and am afraid I'll be bogged down
doing
searches for people and nothing else!
Question: do any of you (especially museum libraries) charge a fee for
searches?
Heather Brodhead, Librarian
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Fearing Library
1130 State Street
Santa Barbara, CA 93101-2746
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Tel: 805.884.6451 Fax: 805.966.6840
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__________________________________________________________________
Mail submissions to [log in to unmask]
For information about joining ARLIS/NA see:
http://www.arlisna.org//membership.html
Send administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc)
to [log in to unmask]
ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance:
http://lsv.uky.edu/archives/arlis-l.html
Questions may be addressed to list owner (Kerri Scannell) at: [log in to unmask]
