Interesting question. I suppose that the positives to this are that it could most likely be done w/o a flash, therefore sparing the documents from light and heat of a photocopier. Also, the documents would not have to be moved from the file folder. On the down side, I suppose that it might be a bit disruptive to other reading room patrons. While traditional xerox copy orders are taken at one time and the work actually completed later at a time convenient to staff, the patron would of course want to make these images while you're open to the public. You would probably want a staff member supervising as well. It would be good to make a condition that the archive receive a .jpg copy of each image, so that you would have them on file for future use.
Overall, I think that the arrangements could be made to suit the archive and it doesn't seem a bad idea. You might have some problems with oversize material or people wanting to prop things up, but of course you would use your judgement to allow or deny the practice as you would with any other type of copying. I think that for most standard-sized documents, it would work quite well. I like your idea of placing the transparent sheet. I'm very interested to hear what others think--please post "reply to sender" replies to the list.
Peter F. Schmid, CA
Visual Resources Archivist
Providence Archives
4800 37th Avenue SW
Seattle, WA 98126-2793
Tel: 206-937-4600 ext. 1225
Fax: 206-923-4001
<mailto:pschmid@providence.org>
-----Original Message-----
From: Katherine Hayes [mailto:khayes@AIP.ORG]
Sent: Wednesday, December 26, 2001 12:10 PM
To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
Subject: researchers taking digital photos of archival documents
Searched the list archives and couldn't find anything addressing this issue. Can anyone think of reasons for NOT allowing researchers to photograph archival documents while doing research? This would be as an alternative to photocopying documents, using a digital camera.
We would ask them to use a transparent sheet with our "disclaimer/copyright" statement to be included in the image. Yes, I realize that digital images can be manipulated; we're assuming the best here, not the worst.
Katherine A. Hayes, Associate Archivist
American Institute of Physics
Center for History of Physics
Niels Bohr Library
301/209-3179
http://www.aip.org/history/
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