Library charges

[Kathy]

I recently sent emails to two libraries asking if there was a newspaper report on a drowning (resident of one area, drowned in the other), and promptly received replies from both libraries.

From the resident library, they had located a very short article, and after receiving two pounds seventy, by post, they would send me the article. From the other library, their reply also stated they had found an article, email my address and they would post me a copy of the microfilm, no charge.

Why the difference between the two libraries?

Kathy

[LesleyB]

Hi Kathy

I don't know the definitive answer here but a few thoughts on why this might be;

The libraries may be in different counties, so perhaps different procedures apply.

One library may be quiet and so do not mind spending time on this kind of request, as the staff may have the time to do it. The other library may be very busy, perhaps to the point of being swamped by family history queries, and these requests may take up many hours of staff time, thus the request for a small payment towards the service.

The article found at the first library may require a volume of bound newspapers to be ordered up from archives and a photocopy made, so costs incurred at both the staffing end for acquring the article and for photocopying. The other library has the item on microfilm, so it is a quick job to press the print button on the film reader and have a copy to hand.

Personally, I don't mind paying a small cost towards something such as this as cost are incurred by the library to send the item out - staff time, paper, ink, postal costs etc. £2.70 seems a very reasonable cost for this.

Best wishes
Lesley

[Kathy]

Hi Lesley

It's not a complaint about the charge, if I was able to visit these libraries personally I would be more than willing to pay the charges, its really more about the inconvenience of being charged such a small sum, added to that the exchange rate and transfer fees when researching from Australia.

If it were a toss between don’t pay the fee, don’t get the article, then it would be a matter of waiting till I had several requests to lump them together, exchange rate would still be the same, but there would only be one transfer fee

Most of my research is in one area in Scotland, there are bound to be vast numbers of researchers in the same situation as I am, why don’t the libraries have a system of buying credits like SP, or charge an annual search fee.

Kathy

[emanday]

I've made requests from various libraries. Some made a small charge, some didn't.

One had to charge me for one bit of material which had to be retrieved from archives and photocopied, but emailed me with another, free of charge, which had already been microfilmed.

Seems they were still in the process of putting everything on microfilm at the time.

[LesleyB]

Hi Kathy

why don’t the libraries have a system of buying credits like SP, or charge an annual search fee

Interesting thought there. It would be great if libraries and other archives accepted payment by Paypal!! That would make payment easy, instant and the different currencies do not get in the way.

I had a similar problem to yours a year or two back when trying to acquire some records from Eire - they would not accept a cheque in GBP, and could not accept credit or debit cards, nor would they accept € notes which I had in the house from a previous trip and was happy to post, so in the end there was really no option for payment which was "do-able". Like yours it was a small amount, about £3.50 or so, and the cost to send what I think was a "bankders draft" was over £20! Daft...

Hope you manage to sort something out. Do you still have to pay a transfer fee if they can accept payment by credit or debit card?

Best wishes
Lesley

[Kathy]

The person who drowned, I do have his death entry, but not the details that I am hoping to get in the newspaper article, any extra information I get will just help to put "flesh on the bones".

The story I'm told is that there were 3 men fishing, the boat capsized, one of the men was unable to swim, he held onto the capsized boat, the other two swam for help, the only survivor was the man unable to swim. I found the two deaths on the same page on SP.

I don't know Lesley exactly how much the bank charges for transfer, and the library didn't mention if they took credit or debit cards.

Kathy

[Ina]

I had a similar problem when trying to become a member of a Family History Centre in Scotland. They wouldn't accept a credit card nor would they accept a check in US currency. Luckily I still have a sister living in Scotland, she mailed them a check and I reimbursed her.

Sure makes it difficult for us ex-pats.

Ina

[Currie]

There’s also the possibility that the difference was that the “Librarian from Hell” was in charge at one library and wasn’t at the other. You know the one, *he can give you a look that can turn you into a pumpkin.

I can’t understand why they couldn’t just send the thing as an email attachment and avoid mail costs, all the extra handling and material involved, and the long wait.

Was there a newspaper online for that time period that may have carried the story? The incident may have been reported in full in areas outside of the two mentioned.

Alan

[Kathy]

Hi Alan,

The library that is posting is not the one with the charges, it's free one, I had thought the same as you, that it would have been cheaper to send as a file.

The other library suggested that after receiving the payment, the article was very small, and they could just transcribe it.

I did have a look at The Scotsman, appears to be nothing, also tried google, cant find anything online.

Kathy

[Currie]

Hello Kathy,

Apart from the normal Google a separate search in Google Books and also in Google News Archive http://news.google.com/archivesearch can sometimes be worthwhile. All sorts of things are cropping up there.

I take it that it must be a 20th Century event you’re chasing.

All the best,
Alan