Hello Jeremy. First off, I would like to reply to Penny McCann's post
from this past Monday, Oct. 3, regarding the impact of donor
restrictions for institution's holding archival collections, as having
an impact on their being deemed public domain with respect to public
access.
Museums and other institutions that engage in collection activities have
a moral obligation to those donors who deed archives to said
institution, if the donor makes such a donation conditional with respect
to public access. One criteria often utilizes in such negotiations, is
that the materials will only be made available to the general public,
once the donor is deceased. This is not the only example of a
"conditional donation" but is one of the most common encountered.
The collecting institution for its part, must try to find a balance
between cases of conditional donations, with an ideal of making all
collections available to the public. To this end, as a form of best
practice and practical day-to-day management of collections, a policy
that clearly states what an institution will and will not deem
acceptable for donation conditions, can help the institution find this
balance. However, if a donor has such restrictions in place, then the
institution ignores these at their peril. Not the least being their
reputation as an institution of the public trust, or non-profit
organization.
The degree to which collections are accessible also reflects directly on
an institution's licensing program, if it has one. Access, and the
ability to replicate collections in digital formats, have provided
institutions with new avenues of licensing revenue and related services,
upon which they may manage the outward flow of collection information
through licensing programs, restrictions on digital capture technology,
format limitations for online content, and policies to reflect these new
standards and guidelines of public access to collections.
On a separate note, I'd like to pass along a recent new article care of
VRA that just recently appeared in The New York Times online, and is
timely in its author's review of how U.S. Copyright law from 1994 is
viewed as negatively impacting the creative process:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/05/opinion/keep-works-in-the-public-domai
n-public.html?_r=1
Fred
Fred Poyner IV
Digital Collections Curator
WASHINGTON STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Washington State History Research Center
315 North Stadium Way
Tacoma, WA 98403
T 253.798.5911
F 253.597.4186
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