Center for Puerto Rican Studies Archives of the Puerto Rican Diaspora

The CENTRO Archives offers fee-based reproduction and licensing services for collection materials. These services include digital scans of archival materials, delivery of high-resolution files for existing digitized content available in CENTRO’s Digital Collections portal, and permissions to use digital copies of archival materials in printed and online publications, film and television, performances, and use of digital surrogates in exhibits. For more information about our holdings, please visit our collections page. For loan requests of physical items, please visit our loans page. 

Please review the following terms and conditions before submitting your reproduction or licensing request: subject to the following considerations:

• Compliance with donor agreements and other restrictions
• The size and format of the original item
• The condition of the original item
• Resources available to fulfill the request

We reserve the right to:

• Limit the number of copies made
• Restrict the handling of rare or valuable items
• Deny requests due to copyright law, privacy concerns, donor-imposed restrictions, or other rights-related or privacy issues

Reproductions

The CENTRO Library and Archives provides digital reproductions of archival materials upon request. These reproductions include digital scans of physical materials and high-resolution files for existing digitized content available through CENTRO’s Digital Collections portal. Reproductions are intended to provide access for research, education, and personal use. Approval of a reproduction request does not automatically grant permission to publish the items.

If you don't need a high-resolution image, you can directly download a JPEG from our digital collections.

Turnaround times for reproduction requests vary depending on factors such as the size, format, and condition of the materials, as well as staff availability. We recommend submitting your request in advance to ensure timely processing. Please be aware that the CENTRO Library and Archives does not handle audiovisual (AV) digitization in-house. As a result, AV reproduction requests generally have a longer turnaround time, which is outside of the control of our staff. 

Licensing

The CENTRO Archives encourages the use of our collections in publications, exhibits, and media. For works in the public domain, you do not need permission to publish or use them. Similarly, you may make fair use of copyrighted materials as defined by copyright law without requesting permission. However, we cannot determine whether fair use applies to your specific intended use. For more information on fair use, please visit Copyright.gov’s Fair Use FAQ.

Please note that while the CENTRO Archives owns the materials in our collections, we do not own the copyright to all materials in our holdings except where it has been explicitly transferred to CENTRO. You are solely responsible for determining the copyright status of materials and obtaining permission to use material from the copyright holder. CENTRO cannot provide permission to publish or distribute materials when CENTRO is not the copyright holder. Likewise, CENTRO does not charge a use fee for materials in the public domain, fair use of materials, or materials for which CENTRO is not the copyright holder.

For permission to publish from collection material for which CENTRO does hold copyright, you will be required to sign a permissions document and the following terms and conditions apply:

• For commercial publication or distribution of facsimile reproductions of collection items, we will supply permission and charge a use fee. This includes any use for which the creator receives or intends to receive a payment or royalty. The fee may be waived for non-commercial publications, such as dissertations submitted for a degree at an academic institution.
• For a non-commercial publication, you must supply a statement as to the non-commercial nature of your intended use. Please note that submission of documentaries, short, or feature films to festivals is not considered non-commercial use, as such submissions often involve public screenings, distribution, and potential profit-making activities.
• All approved uses of collection material must include a credit line, the exact form of which will be specified on notice of approval.
• Permission granted by CENTRO is non-exclusive and does not remove the author’s or publisher’s responsibility to guard against infringement of rights that may be held by others.
• Fees for permission to publish collection material for which CENTRO is the copyright holder are separate from fees charged for supplying digital facsimiles of the same material.
• Written permission from the copyright holders and/or other rights holders is required for publication, distribution, or other use of protected items beyond that allowed by fair use.