R.A.R.I.N. ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER SURVEY
OTHER FEES AND CHARGES
We have included this section to make
note of several fees that appeared only once or twice, yet seemed
to be of great potential use to other institutions.
This is a flat fee that is attached to
all requests. This fee helps to cover overhead and material costs
involved with processing requests. For one institution, this fee
was 25% of the total fees (materials and reproduction), for another,
a flat $5.00. This fee could be combined with a Shipping or Postage
fee to help cover mailing costs.
Several institutions included in their
Conditions and Policies an expected date of delivery. A few of
these then assessed a rush fee to any applicant that wanted to
receive materials before the expected delivery. For instance,
if an institution had asked applicants to allow 3-4 weeks delivery
and a certain applicant needed materials the next week, the institution
would charge a rush fee usually 75-100% of the total fees, in
addition to the added mailing costs. Thus, the applicant who would
normally pay $200 for his request, would have to pay an additional
$150.00 - $200.00 and the costs of priority or overnight shipping.
With only a few exceptions, every institution required full payment before activating the contract or sending photographic materials. Several institutions specified a fee for waiving prepayment, usually 50% of the total fees, payable upon a mutually agreed date or time period, usually the date of publication. Using this standard, an applicant who wished to waive the prepayment on a request totaling $500.00 would pay (using the average) $750.00 to the institution upon publication.