The City of Ottawa Archives has increased a printing service by 843.6%, according to an analysis of the proposed budget numbers from 2018.

Obtained from the city’s website, the City Clerk and Solicitor budget shows that the fees for printing oversize photographs substantially rose in 2018. In the last two years, the City of Ottawa Archives was charging $6.12 per square foot for colour prints and $2.04 for black and white prints. But in 2018, the price surged up to $19.25 for both types of photographs, increasing colour printing by 214.5% and black and white printing by 843.6%.

But City Archivist Paul Henry guarantees that this hefty increase is justified. Following a number of requests from researchers and city staff, the City of Ottawa Archives decided to run the service of oversize printing as a pilot project in 2016. After offering the service for two years, they realized that the fees they were charging did not cover the costs of printing photographs larger than 20 by 24 inches. Henry says that they “normalized the numbers based on the pilot results” to calculate the new fee.

Glenn Charron, the man behind the printers, explains that the fees had to go up in order to efficiently deliver the product, meet particular demands, and do so without any financial losses. The charges initially changed to recover the costs of ink and paper used during the printing process. But given that certain researchers wanted their photographs printed on speciality paper, the fees needed to be boosted even higher. Not to mention that oversize prints require additional retouching before they are handed over to the client. This takes up more staff time, and in turn, more costs.

“I generally scan for client orders from the reference room, for exhibitions, and for preservation reasons,” says Charron. According to him, the most common orders are maps, architectural plans, technical drawings and panoramic photographs.

Although the fee for oversize printing substantially increased, Henry is confident that his prices are a steal in comparison to his non-governmental competitors. “If you were to go to a commercial provider, you will pay four times as much as we do for the same thing,” says Henry.

Even with reasonable prices, the demand for large format prints recently dropped. When the City of Ottawa Archives launched the pilot in 2016, they sold 24 pieces – 12 in colour and 12 in black and white. But their sales in 2017 amounted to nothing. When it comes to oversize photographs, Henry believes that their sales missed the mark due to the push towards a digital future.

“If I was to prognosticate, I would suggest that in 2018, you are going to see more of a movement to scanning than print copies,” says Henry.

Seeing as how most of the people using printing services are researchers and city staff, scanning is a convenient and cost-efficient option to take advantage of. On the other hand, printing an oversized map or photograph usually comes into play when the client values aesthetics.

For Henry, digitization is key. Although the thought of an archive resonates with the past, he firmly believes that the City of Ottawa Archives is no relic.

“We’re not a dusty room, in a dank corner of a basement. I don’t have a tweed jacket. I don’t have elbow patches. We’re a modern archival facility.”

But increasing the fees for an old-fashioned service still doesn’t faze Henry – even when the demand plummeted.

“There are things we can do on the digital side that are far better than what we can do on the paper side,” says Henry. “But people love paper.”