The Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library holds a wide range of audiovisual media within its collections, many of which are obsolete or on fragile media or both. To ensure that the information contained within these materials remains accessible, no original media are played for research purposes. Mudd's policy requires that originals be dubbed to a digital medium, checked for copyright at that point a reference copy may be provided to researchers. All costs of transferring are borne by the researcher. Princeton University's Media Services handles most of our digitization for audiovisual materials, which is processed by Mudd Library staff. Media Services may require up to 6 weeks to complete a request and this does not include the 1-2 days that Mudd Library staff require to locate, deliver, retrieve, and send requests. For material that Media Services cannot transfer an appropriate vendor will be contacted but the transfer time required can be as little as several days to as long as several months, with costs of upwards of hundreds of dollars per item required for many of these formats. In a very few instances, the library may already have a dub copy available, saving both time and costs.

For quotations that are fair use as defined under U. S. Copyright Law , no permission to cite or publish is required. The Trustees of Princeton University hold copyright to all materials generated by Princeton University employees in the course of their work. If copyright is held by Princeton University, researchers will not need to obtain permission, complete any forms, or receive a letter to move forward with non-commercial use of materials from the Mudd Library. For materials where the copyright is not held by the University, researchers are responsible for determining who may hold the copyright and obtaining approval from them. If you have a question about who owns the copyright for an item, you may request clarification by contacting us through the Ask Us! form.