London Metropolitan Archives services.

[mckha489]

I don't want to clutter up their no doubt very full inbox.  So am posting here first.

Does anyone know if the £80 research fee LMA quote on their website is charged even if you can give them the full reference from their catalogue.

The blurb with the fee seems to suggest it is for active research which this would not be.

[Romilly]

Pre lockdown, LMA looked something up for me, at no charge, over the phone, - because I had the reference details.

I don’t know what the present situation is, but it might be worth trying to contact them by phone?

Romilly.

[Bookbox]

Does anyone know if the £80 research fee LMA quote on their website is charged even if you can give them the full reference from their catalogue.

If you have the document ref, they don’t usually charge the full £80 research fee, but they do make a charge for accessing the document and determining the copying charge. See here ...

https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/history-and-heritage/london-metropolitan-archives/visitor-information/document-copying-services
If you are unable to visit us, we can provide copies of documents in our care, providing they are in good enough condition to withstand the copying process. We can consult the document(s) for you and advise you of the appropriate process, together with the cost, and set up your order for you.
Distance orders incur an additional research fee of a minimum of £20 for assessing the cost of copies from one document; requests from multiple documents are charged at a minimum of £40 because of the work we need to do to satisfy the order. Typically we need to identify the original item(s) fully, have it produced from the strongrooms, assess what form of copying is most suitable and provide costing's (often involving further discussion with the enquirer). The rates are set according to our hourly Paid Document Research Service rate. It reflects the fact that we have to undertake work on behalf of distance users which we do not have to undertake when the enquiry is in person, and that in our experience the fees represent a reasonable average time needed to deal with all the processes around such requests. Please contact our enquiry team for information.

I would advise you to leave it for a few days. LMA have just announced that they are reopening on 10 May (after a 5-month closure, due to the pandemic), and the booking process for that began today.

[mckha489]

Thank you very much Bookbox.  I thought I had scoured everywhere for a statement like that.

Yes. I saw the bookings had just been released.