Agreements. The standard data agreement is the initial set of conditions. The Institutional Data Subscriber Agreement (sometimes incorporating a data exchange) is a different agreement, with a schedule that is agreed and generally written by the Research Manager. The latter agreement is with institutions rather than with individuals.
Charges. If the data request is "small" then the Research Manager determines the charges that apply, taking into account whether the request is for a student, commercial, from a funded project or person, how much data is involved, and how long the extraction will take. If the request is large, there is a flat fee as outlined in the Institutional Data Subscriber Agreement. Large requests also may require the approval of the Research and Conservation Committee (RACC) (this takes at least one working week assuming there are no concerns). Extremely good justifications are required for large data requests - proposals must be well-developed and demonstrate that only the required data is being sought.
Approval or non-approval by the RACC is communicated to the applicant.
Once all other steps are satisfied data extraction occurs in your choice of a number of popular formats (e.g. MS Excel), and is sent by email or CD.

Hints

The following may assist you access the data you need:

If you represent a state agency, and are doing conservation business on behalf of your agency, then chances are you have some of our data available through previous data exchange agreements. Contact your database administrators. If you ask us to extract it (this happens frequently!) then we will have to charge in order to assist us in meeting our costs
If you represent a state agency or are working within a University it will assist you enormously if your employer has signed an Institutional Data Subscription Agreement.
If you are writing a grant application for a project that requires Birds Australia data, contact us before writing the grant or tender. We can advise as to the availability and any costs associated with data provision. We can also advise as to the availability of the data you require. Contact the Research Manager.
Be patient! As a non-government organisation we are not a commercial seller of data, we do it to cover the costs of ongoing data management and to assist in the usability of the data. We endeavour to respond as quickly as possible, but large data requests may take considerable time to process.
If in doubt contact us.

Checklist:

Do I already have legitimate access to the data through an existing agreement (your responsibility)?
Have I narrowed my request as far as possible, so that it is as specific as possible (in terms of range, resolution, required format)?
Have I filled in an application form, providing all the required information?

Downloads

Request for data form
Example Atlas licence

Atlas data requests and data provision

Introduction

Bird Australia receives many requests for data provision from a wide variety of applicants. There are also many different types of data requested, from species lists to reporting rates to "standardised lists" to individual species records and so on. These requests arrive at National Office every day and it takes a good deal of time and effort to service this need. In response to this growing demand, Birds Australia has developed procedures for dealing with data requests and provision.

It should be noted that these procedures do not necessarily change pre-existing data exchange agreements.

What are the data?

Birds Australia maintains many databases, but the most commonly sought after ones are the Atlas datasets (Old, New and Ongoing). The word data here is used to describe the raw data and simple summaries of that data (e.g., grouped into grids, or within seasons). In fact, for large data requests, we generally only distribute data that has been summarised into grids. Higher order analysis is a different matter, and constitutes an additional step after data provision.

Why do we charge for data?

Data collection, data management, data extraction and the inevitable questions about how to manipulate and interpret the data cost a great deal of time and money. Most of our datasets are unfunded, and we simply must charge to cover our costs. To extract data, curate it and provide assistance to you requires a staff member and fees we collect from the sale of data assist in meeting this cost.

Why do we insist on agreements?

Unfortunately, we have learned from bitter experience that we have to limit the use of our data by agreement. This is because:

In the past, we have found ourselves competing against grants and tenders from other organisations which rely on unauthorised copies of our own data!
We think it is fair to recognise Birds Australia, and the organisations that helped support our data collection efforts. We also think that it is fair to recognise the volunteer contributions to a dataset.
We need to protect our interests by ensuring that data are not on-sold or distributed, and that we are not liable for any misuse of the data.
Some aspects of the data contain sensitive information on rare or threatened birds. Agreements help us determine that our data is being used for the good of birds.

How do I access Birds Australia data?

Online

Birdata custom lists provide quick access to Atlas data. These lists summarise species recorded at one or more Atlas survey sites. Data supply and licencing occurs in a single step.

Offline data provision proceedure:

Data Request. This is a formal request in writing to Birds Australia. It outlines the conditions under which data is provided, and seeks information on what the data is to be used for, whether the project/program is funded, the database in question, and the scope and resolution of data requested. This information forms the basis of how the request is treated, although we often need to ask additional questions if some things remain unclear. The request form can be faxed or emailed, and followed by the signed copy (fax or mail to National Office). Large or small is at the discretion of the Research Manager and is notoriously hard to define. Typically and as a guide if you want data for a large part of a State, a whole State or a greater area, a large number of records, then these will be considered "large" requests.