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Re: Advice needed - book publication



> Greetings!
>
> We've been asked by a book publisher to prepare a book based on one of our
> better collections. It would be primarily photographs from the collection.
> The publisher sent us a contract for the book, and it contains several
> very questionable clauses. For instance:
>
> We are forbidden from publishing any document that is based on material in
> the book without the publisher's written permission. I'm sure that this
> publisher has never dealt with an archives before and has never heard of a
> finding aid.
>
> The publisher will return all original photographs used in the book within
> 30 days of publication and assumes liability for any loss or damage to the
> photographs, but there is no commitment to a publication date. Also, all
> of the photographs to be used are irreplaceable.
>

Just based on those two provisions alone I'd say thanks but no
thanks, and there's the door.  The thing this reminds me of is how
publishers, media, editors, and so on always want you to respond
to their needs, meet their deadlines, fill out their forms, indemnify
them (as if!), and in general dance to their tunes.  I always
respond, (usually) politely, by reminding them just who calls the
shots.  It's _your_ collection (by which I mean your institution or
agency, of course); the photographs are _your_ responsibility; the
forms to be used and the procedures to follow are _yours_, not
theirs.  If they don't like it, why they are more than welcome to go
find the same picture somewhere else; no skin off my nose.  I've
heard people say oh, my archive needs the exposure.  That might
well be true but do you need that type of exposure?  Where they
are jacking you around and endangering the integrity of the
collection?  I don't think so.






Roy Webb, C.A.
Multimedia Archivist
Special Collections
J. Willard Marriott Library
295 South 1500 East
University of Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah   84112
(801) 585-3073  //  fax (801) 585-3976
rwebb@library.utah.edu

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