NJHUNTER-L Archives

From: <>
Subject: [NJHUNTER-L] County Library
Date: Mon, 12 Jul 1999 22:57:52 -0500 (CDT)

I was re-reading e-mail received as I was cleaning out my "mail box" and
came across the following-

Received on 06/21/99:

>My husband and I had the opportunity to visit the Hunterdon County Library
>in Flemington on Thursday last. It was a delightful.... The only difficult
>thing was that they would not make copies for us. We had to pay and then
>wait till they are mailed. The copier was not assessable. And the copies
>were far too expensive. 25 cents....

I couldn't tell from this whether the copies were from a book/magazine or
other paper original, or if they were from microfilm/fiche.
I work in a Family History Center, and we have to charge 25 cents per paper
copy made from microfilm or fiche. We are a non-profit organization, and are
not allowed to make any "profit", but we do have to pay for our own supplies
and maintenance for most of our machines. A reader/printer is rather costly
to upkeep. The toner for our reader/printer cost more than that for our
standard copy machine, plus it has to have a "base" toner replaced at
periodic intervals. The drum of the machine is more expensive also. And the
lenses, if damaged, cannot be repaired, but have to be replaced and they
cost $900 each. I could go on regarding this but you get the picture. We
have to charge enough per copy to be able to have the funds on hand when we
have to have a service call!
I don't know what the funding is for the County Library in Hunterdon, but
I'm sure that they do not receive enough from the county budget to keep them
in pens and scotch tape, they are probably using any public funds for
acquisitions. So I expect that they use making copies as a way to help keep
from being drowned in red ink!
I know that our FHC is seriously considering raising the prices for their
copies of every thing because we are in a serious budget deficit! At present
we are charging 5cents per computer print-out, 10cents per regular copy
(from a Sharp copier), and of course the before mentioned 25cents per copy
from film/fiche.
Pat B

PS - I'm SLOWLY putting the early NJ marriage bonds on line via the NJ
GenWeb site. I'm starting from the beginning and going thru 10 microfilm
reels so it's going to take some time. I'm only half-way thru the first
film. I'm including ALL names found on the bond, but they are arranged
alphabetically by first letter of the surname of the GROOM and
chronologically (for the most part) within each beginning letter. It's been
very interesting, there's even a fellow named John DOE (wonder if his wife
or daughter was named Jane?).

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