> It's not just the postage. It is addressing the envelope, packing it, > weighing it, and getting to the post office. That takes a bit more > staff time > Um, they have mail people who pick the mail up out of their out-boxes.... So gee, picking up an envelope and licking it, stamping it....let's say total it takes 5 mintues per 4 page will (more pages = a few extra seconds in the copier, not worth splitting hairs). If they do it continously, that's $180 an hour. I'd say that more than covers their costs. Then again, if they would allow the Historical or the Genealogical Society to digitize them as they've offered to do, it wouldn't cost them a cent or a minute. Puh-leez. Lynn

I don't know what world you live in but I am a government employee and here's the world I live in because I am answering to you the taxpayer. I sort my own mail because we laid off any mail people we had which of course means a trip to the mail room - and when I get back I have to answer any phone calls on my message lines. If I have a request for anything - I have to go through the indexes because the vast majority of people never include the information needed to find it quickly. Once I find it in the index, I have to actually find the copy of it - and then make a copy of it. That copy costs money - as does the envelope it goes in - and the postage to mail it - by now I am at least 45 minutes into any project and that is without interrupting phone calls or any other work I may have been assigned. Then to justify the postage I have to fill out a couple of forms because you the taxpayer tells me I as a government worker I am probably wasting money. And then i have to run it all to the mail room. Meanwhile I have my normal eight hours worth of work plus the additional work I have been assigned because of layoffs etc. Right now I have the duties that used to be performed by three people. And the governments we all work for are still going broke because you the taxpayer don't want to pay for the cost of doing anything. I am not an employee of the library but it sounds all too familiar to me. Almost every governmental agency is going through the same thing. No one wants to even pay the cost of an aspirin for an employee to put up with the complaints they get. At some point genealogists and those chasing their family trees must be willing to pay the costs of maintaining the information they receive. Those costs include maintaining the building the records are stored in, the staffing for that building and the materials for indexing and retrieval. The Philadelphia Library cost seems very reasonable to me. In fact the employees should be applauded for holding the costs down as long as they did. I sure haven't found any other employer or job doing that. Jackie On 10/4/2010 7:38 PM, ltguidetti wrote: >> It's not just the postage. It is addressing the envelope, packing it, >> weighing it, and getting to the post office. That takes a bit more >> staff time >> > Um, they have mail people who pick the mail up out of their out-boxes.... > So gee, picking up an envelope and licking it, stamping it....let's say > total it takes 5 mintues per 4 page will (more pages = a few extra seconds > in the copier, not worth splitting hairs). If they do it continously, > that's $180 an hour. I'd say that more than covers their costs. > > Then again, if they would allow the Historical or the Genealogical Society > to digitize them as they've offered to do, it wouldn't cost them a cent or a > minute. > > Puh-leez. > > Lynn > ********* > Visit the threaded archives of this list: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/PAPHILAD > ********* > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to PAPHILAD-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >