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Reading Room Photography
Policies and Procedures
The American Antiquarian Society allows readers to use their own cameras to take photographs of suitable items, for research purposes only, at no cost. The purpose of this policy is to alleviate photocopying and supplement note taking, not to allow readers to create a complete personal copy. For more extensive requests AAS offers professional-quality images in a variety of formats for a fee. If you are interested in publishing images in any form you will need to sign a licensing agreement and fees may apply. To place any such request, please login to your My Web AAS account at http://aeon.mwa.org.
The policy guidelines for personal reading room photography are as follows:
- All reading room policies for handling materials will be enforced. Items in folders must be kept flat, bound items kept in cradles. Materials may not be manipulated to produce a better image.
- Items that are already available digitally, restricted collections, fragile items, items in full, or anything which does not safely fit on the table may not be eligible to be photographed. AAS retains the right to deny requests for any reason.
- No camera flash, tripods, special lighting or extra equipment are permitted.
- As a courtesy to other readers, please change your camera settings to "mute."
- You may not publish the images you create in any form, online or in print. However images may be used for research and educational purposes (i.e. "Fair Use") in the classroom and for conference presentations.
AAS offers reproduction services as an aid to scholarly research in accordance with its mission to provide access to materials while preserving them for the use of future generations. Copies of library and archival materials are provided to scholars and researchers for use in specific projects, not for general library acquisitions. The Society limits copying requests to those permitted under the copyright law. Public Law 94-553, section 107 (fair use) and 108 (reproduction by libraries and archives). It is the responsibility of the researcher to know and to comply with all copyright provisions.
In registering for your MWA account, you have agreed to comply with the above policies and guidelines. If you wish to use images for publication, you must contact the Society at reproductions[at]mwa.org and fill out the American Antiquarian Society licensing agreement. All uses of images from the collections of AAS must be licensed by the Society in consequence of its proprietary rights that applicable fees and/or royalties are charged and licenses granted are non-exclusive, for one-time use, and for a single edition, production, or medium.
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