What happens if VRC staff can’t find an existing high-quality digital image for you, scan one from a published source, or request a file at no cost from a museum, gallery, or studio? The VRC may be able to purchase an image from a commercial vendor, archive, museum, or other repository on your behalf. Please contact visualresources@uchicago.edu to inquire how to proceed. Generally, we follow these guidelines:
- The VRC can only pay for an image file. We cannot pay for copyright permission, licensing, or other publishing fees. (Depending on the vendor’s terms, you may be able to publish the image—the VRC can discuss with you.)
- The VRC can only purchase an image file if we are allowed by the vendor to ingest the file into our LUNA database for teaching and research purposes. We are willing to embargo the image for up to 5 years or until your publication comes out, after which point it will be made publicly available on LUNA.
- The VRC’s budget for purchasing images fluctuates throughout the fiscal year. Funds are available on a first-come, first-served rolling basis.
- This policy is meant for purchasing one-off images or small numbers of images at one time. If you need access to a large research corpus of images or an entire database project, please write to Bridget Madden, VRC Associate Director to discuss.