National Archives Proposed Rule on Reproduction Fees

The National Archives is proposing to change its regulations to add the methodology for creating and changing records reproduction fees, to remove records reproduction fees found in its regulations, and to provide a notification process for the public of new or proposed fees.

This proposed rule covers reproduction of Federal or Presidential records accessioned, donated, or transferred to NARA. Comments are due by September 20, 2011. Details on filing comments can be found in the Federal Register of July 22, 2011.

The National Archives Trust Fund Board (NATF) supports the programs of NARA through a variety of activities, including the servicing of requests for the reproduction of records. Researchers may order electrostatic, digitized and microfilm copies of textual (paper) records, reproductions of still pictures, motion pictures, sound records, videotapes, maps, architectural drawings, computer data sets, and other records.

NARA is proposing to remove from the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) the fees for reproduction of Federal or Presidential records accessioned, donated, or transferred to NARA and maintain its fee schedule on NARA’s Web site https://www.archives.gov. The proposed regulations will provide a notification process to advise the public on new fees or revisions to existing fees and it will also provide the methodology for creating and changing fees.

The statutory authority for the NARA Trust Fund provides for the recovery of their costs plus 10 percent. Records reproduction fees are developed by the process as contained in the proposed regulations. The current fees are based on the usual costs, such as salaries, equipment, travels, and supplies. However, NARA also has some unique circumstances in the development of its costs because of the unique characteristics of the records such as the fragility of the documents that necessitate additional manual handling or the varying degree of legibility of the original documents.

NARA’s current fees and information on how to order reproductions can be found at:

  • NARA’s fee schedule and ordering portal are located at https://www.archives.gov.
  • Fee schedules for reproductions made from the holdings of
    Presidential libraries may differ because of regional cost variations.
    Presidential library fee schedules are available at https://www.archives.gov/presidential-libraries/. Some services may not be available at all NARA facilities.
  • In order to preserve certain records which are in poor physical condition, NARA may restrict customers to photographic or other kinds of duplication instead of electrostatic copies.