| International Association of Libraries and Museums of the Performing Arts Société Internationale des Bibliothèques et des Musées des Arts du Spectacle |  |
Charging for information services in UK Museums & LibrariesClaire Hudson Documents et Témoignages des Arts du Spectacle: Pourquoi et Comment? / Collecting and Recording the Performing Arts: Why and How? Société Internationale des Bibliothèques et des Musées des Arts du Spectacle / International Association of Libraries and Museums of the Performing Arts 20ème Congrès International / 20th International Congress Antwerp 4-7 September 1994. Acta. Antwerp : 1995, pp. 113-115 The Climate for ChargingIn the UK there has been a growing trend in recent years towards libraries charging for information services. This has been brought about partly by the political climate, which has favoured monetarism and has encouraged organisations to exploit opportunities to earn - many information units have experienced a gree of pressure to introduce fundraising strategies in order to recoup some of their costs, if not to make an outright profit; the trend has also been spurred on by the very real need for libraries and information units to supplement their running costs grants, which have suffered cuts during a period of recession. And for a small proportion of privately-owned UK libraries all their costs must be funded through income from charged services. An interesting example of the trend towards charging is that of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) libraries. A system called "Producer's Choice" was intoduced in 1993 which allows the producers of radio and television programmes complete freedom in the way in which programme budgets are spent. The costs of library services such as enquiry work, research, inter-library loans, and so on, are calculated by library staff and charged back to the programme for which they were supplied. Producers can now see the various costs involved in programme making, and are discouraged from making unnecessary demands on recources and thereby squandering their money. The more worrying aspects of the system for the rest of the library community is that producers can opt to use external services rather than those supplied in-house. The fear is that users who are faced with charges will seek to replace that service with cheaper ones or, even better, those which make no charge at all. A domino effect could result, with a diminishing free library sector suffering increasing demand as more and more libraries are forced to introduce charges to deflect that demand. The Charging DilemmaThe Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A), of which the Theatre Museum in London is a branch, has recently completed a study of the issue of charging for information services and has now formulated a police on charging. As well as investigating the Museum's information activities and current practices, the working party (of which the speaker was a member) examined the motives, potential, practicalities and the pros and cons of charging, and the following summary may be of interest to delegates: 1. Motives for charging. 2. Potential areas for charging 3. Practicalities - methods of charging 4. Pros - Advantages of Charging 5. Cons - Disadvantages of Charging Conclusions:The outcome of the study was to recommend that no charges be introduced for information services nor for access to reading rooms. A positive outcome of the review exercise will be to define the standard to which information work is carried out in the V&A, and to provide training and a procedural manual which will ensure a consistent approach throughout the organisation. The aim of this is not only to clarify to our users what they can expect of our services but also to limit the staff time devoted to this area of activity. As one branch of the V&A, with its own market and very different operational problems from the main museum, the Theatre Museum is not wholly satisfied with this outcome. Indeed, the starting point for the working party's deliberations was a request from the Theatre Museum to introduce a charging system for picture research. There is still a case to be made for this, and our photo library services will become the subject of a development plan and business proposal during 1995. However, it is necessary to stress the very strong aversion to the idea of charging for information felt by V&A curators and librarians, and the conviction that the provision of information is central to the Museum's mission is reflected in the working party's recommendations. Charging in UK Performing Arts LibrariesThe deliberations of the V&A reflect the approach and feelings of many curators and librarians throughout the UK to the issue of charging for information services. In addition to a survey of charging policies in UK museums, carried out during the V&A study, the Theatre Information Group (TIG) which is the UK branch of SIBMAS has recently organised a survey of its members to gather information on their current and projected charging policies. The results show that in most cases performing arts libraries and archives are charging for information very selectively or only where they have no choice - for example where their survival depends on raising funds from this source. Of 33 specialist libraries surveyed, only one charges for enquiry work. Six libraries have charging systems for lengthier research work but many others are simply stating that they will not undertake such work, thus avoiding the need to introduce charging mechanisms. It is common practice to advise users to approach freelance researchers in these cases; the charging relationship is thereby moved outside the organisation. There is a strong desire among UK curators and librarians to defend free information services - services which have been available to the public for over a century and have their roots in the Victorians' dedication to education and self-improvement. Lack of commitment to the idea of charging for information on the part of curators and librariens may be misread as woolly-mindedness or even as a genteel distaste for commercial transactions! It is far from being just that. We have may examples of successful information broking businesses in Britain, but all fall within the areas of business and science - areas where fact can be turned into profit, and where a strong and affluent market exists for the services. For the arts area, the picture is different. The market is dominated by the non-professional, the student or the recreational user; the product is more often opinion than fact. Few charged services in the arts do more than raise a token sum towards expenses and, if the costs of charging were to be accurately assessed, some fail even to do that. I am not denying that business opportunities exist for arts libraries and museums, nor that the application of good business principles would benefit our efficiency. However, we do need to scrutinise what we see as our core activities and concentrate on strengthening those. If a business opportunity appears to present itself, we must thoroughly investigate the market, the product, the competition, price, costs, necessary investment and likely profitability, as one would have to do for any commercial venture. What we must not do is to contribute to the trend towards charging without very serious consideration or simply because it is fashionable and well-favoured by our trustees and commitee members. Indiscriminate use of charging will inevitably obstruct the free flow of information and handicap curators and librarians with an onerous administrative burden. 20th Congress URL: http://www.sibmas.org/congresses/sibmas94/antw_34.html |
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