3rd January 2013, 10:58 PM
BAJR Wrote:I agree it is getting a bit excitable... however, the fair point remains...
If I phone up and ask what is available... and pay the going rate. what sort of information is being withheld that I (theoretically ) would have to travel in person to the office.
If I am told there is x number of reports, done by the diddleswick archaeology society... in 1975 and only available in a paper copy, then I could say... could you photocopy it for me - at the going rate.... rather than me having to travel down to watch the HER photocopy the info.
The main question is why a physical trip to the HER is required, when it can all be done on the phone and email. --- especially if the HER is a couple of hundred miles round trip.
Now before people panic - this is not me!
and indeed I recently had a brilliant conversation with an HER person who provided all the ifo and more that I needed. THE REASON WE NEED HERs!!!! but I did it... wait for it... on the phone!
amazing this technology!
Not to have would have required me to wait til monday ( if was Friday afternoon) and then I would have lost a day, travelling to the HER, sitting around and getting the same info.
Go figure?
:face-approve:
I quite agree. though a visit in person may not be the first approach...
No, indeed, a visit in person perhaps isn't the first course of action, but it is likely to be a necessary course of action. I'm not sure under what circumstances it would be a couple of hundred miles round trip, perhaps this is indicative of someone winning a tender by undercutting someone more locally-based then massively regretting it? If they haven't taken that sort of distance into account, then again, more fool them. In fact, do they even know anything about the archaeology of the area in which they are working, since they are apparently unfamiliar of the workings of the relevant HER?
You can hardly expect the HER staff to stand there photocopying sections of journals under any circumstances unless they: a) have this already in place as part of the service they offer (anyone with any sense/knowledge of the HER in question would have already asked this or would already know), b) have permission to reproduce someone else's copyright (as already pointed out), c) can expect to be able to invoice handsomely for the time it takes to do this (probably at anything between £25 and £100 per hour. Travelling down to watch them do it would be pretty stupid. Visiting in the first place and then photographing it with a digital camera yourself, free of charge, might seem a worthwhile reason to visit. Or going to a local library, that might hold the same thing and only charge 20p per page. Again, assuming that the person in question isn't having a 200 mile trip to visit the local library.
Some HERs will send you copies of basically everything they can digitally, which is great. Others can't, which isn't so great, but that's life. They should have found that out in the first place. At what point is 'information being withheld'?
Was the original query sent to you as: 'Dear BAJR, I tendered for a job miles from where I am based, without doing the proper research about how the HER is organised. I now find I need to actually visit the HER to get all the information I can and it is bloody miles away, which is going to cost me a lot more money than the £20 I budgeted Is there any way I can get round this without getting into trouble?'
Sorry, but this is doing my head in!