The Collections Trust and Strategic Content Alliance Orphan Works Survey: 

Help Us to Address Barriers in the Provision of Access to Public Sector Content 


The Collections Trust and The Strategic Content Alliance are carrying out 
research to examine the impact of 'orphan works' (works for which the 
copyright owner is unknown or cannot be traced) on the delivery of services 
to library, archive, museum and information service users in the UK and other 
European countries. Background information on the research and its sponsors 
is provided below. 


As part of this research project, we would be very grateful if you could fill out 
a short online questionnaire. It will take just a few minutes to complete. 


As a thank you for taking part you will be entered into a prize draw to win 
£100 (or the equivalent in Euros), and we will also send you a synopsis of the 
findings once the research is complete.


To fill out the questionnaire click on the link below (or copy it into your web 
browser): 


<http://surveys.omni-web.co.uk/start.aspx?sid=5DZ6VD>


The closing date for completion of the Survey is Friday 16 January 2009. 

We apologise if you have received multiple copies of this email. It is being 
distributed by various project partners who hold their own contact lists which 
may overlap. 

If you know anyone else who might be interested in completing the survey, we 
would appreciate it if you could forward this email on to them. 


Thank you, Naomi Korn, IP Officer, Collections Trust. 



Background to the research 

The past 10 years have seen a tremendous investment in the development of 
public access to collections - whether online, on site, or through outreach and 
community engagement. 


'Orphan works' -- works for which the copyright holder is either unknown or 
cannot be traced -- present one of the most significant barriers in the 
provision of access to content across the Public Sector, to the detriment of 
the growth of the Knowledge Economy. 


Currently the library, archives, information and museums professions and their 
institutions have a major opportunity presented by both the UK government's 
implementation of the Gowers Review of Intellectual Property and, in 
particular, by the European Commission's Green Paper on Copyright in the 
Knowledge Economy to lobby for orphan works solutions both in the UK and 
throughout the EU. Yet, there exists almost no systematic evidence of the 
scale and impact of the 'orphan works' problem. This lack of evidence is 
preventing public sector stakeholder communities from exploring potential 
solutions, whether legislatively or through collective approaches to licensing 
and indemnity. We hope this survey will generate a good response and provide 
the evidence we need to help us raise the profile of the issues that we face 
and the need for appropriate solutions. 


The Project Partners 


The Collections Trust is the UK's focus for standards and best practice in 
Collections Management, representing the interests of cultural heritage 
collections. See: http://www.collectionstrust.org.uk    

The Strategic Content Alliance (SCA) is led by the Joint Information Systems 
Committee (JISC) which serves the higher and further education community in 
the UK and works with various European partners. Membership of the SCA also 
includes the BBC, National Health Service, Museums, Libraries and Archives 
Council, Becta, The British Library and several other key bodies. 

The purpose of the SCA is to identify and remove the barriers to public 
engagement with e-content, which includes digitised records, images, text 
and many other forms of media and information. See: 

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/themes/eresources/contentalliance.aspx 


This online survey is being managed by DJS Research, an independent 
research agency. See: www.djsresearch.com/  
 

To fill out the questionnaire click on the link below (or copy it into your web 
browser): 


http://surveys.omni-web.co.uk/start.aspx?sid=5DZ6VD