2003-4 RARIN Rights and Reproductions Survey
Back in 1995 dedicated staff members of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum presented findings from a survey they conducted to help them revise their Rights and Reproductions fees and policies to be in line with industry standards. The Gardner staff then published their survey results in hard copy and the R.A.R.I.N. web site published the results online. The data collected by the Gardner staff proved to be very timely and useful to those of us who fulfill the permissions function for our various institutions. Several of us, attending the 2002 AAM meeting's "open forum" sponsored by RARIN, decided enough time had passed and enough people were interested, that a new survey should be written and circulated.
Our purpose here is to update the previous survey findings emphasizing fees, policy and procedure. The goal here is not to standardize the rights and reproductions function in our museums but to offer information that may make our work lives a little easier. This is less of a statistical analysis and more of an information presentation. So many of us who have “R&R” in our job descriptions come from very diverse backgrounds and some of us had never even heard the term, “rights and reproductions” prior to being told we were “in charge”. For me personally, anyway, it was sink or swim. And over the past thirteen years I’ve run across many others in this employment position treading water. With the results of this survey I hope to toss those of you who need it, a life buoy.
Ruth Roberts
The results of the 2003-4 RARIN Rights and Reproduction Survey are made available here as a PDF (downloadable) file. This survey replaces the Isabella Stewart Gardner survey. It is hoped that in the future, the RARIN survey will be made searchable on this site. sq