[Genealib] Obituary look-up policy

[Paula Manzella]

    Burlington County Library reference department instituted the fee 
structure below in 1997 for non-cardholders.  If the request comes from 
a cardholder and it will take less than 15 minutes, we do not charge for 
the search, but will charge photocopies at 25-cents-per-page.  The 
research fee covers not only obituaries and death notices, but includes 
requests for marriages or birth announcements and other news stories 
like accidents, weather reports for insurance law suits, murder trials, 
etc.

    "If you are looking for a newspaper notice of a specific event, i.e. 
a birth, marriage, or death notice, and you know the date, the BCL 
charge is $5.00
search fee PER NOTICE plus $.25 per photocopied page (e.g., 2 obituaries 
= 2 notices = $10.50).  Please send as full a citation as you can supply.
Pre-payment is required and the fee includes postage.  Please allow 15 
working days."

  We search the two week period around the death date in the most likely 
newspaper title.  If customer cannot supply at the very least the month, 
we refer them to the SSDI, newspaper indexes, etc.  We do not limit the 
number of items requested at any given time, as a matter of fact, the 
request I'm finishing up this afternoon has 18 items to photocopy. 

Regards,
Paula Manzella
Burlington County Library
Westampton, NJ


Patty O'Connor wrote:
> I would like to know what policies other libraries have regarding obituary
> look-ups and other research services you may or may not provide.