# /programs/ourwork/collectivecoll/archives/rights.htm

originally: http://www.oclc.org/programs/ourwork/collectivecoll/archives/rights.htm

# Introduce Balance in Rights Management Project Problem statement: Librarians and archivists often make extremely conservative judgments regarding the risk involved in copying unpublished collections.Many institutions have time-consuming, overly-cautious procedures to ensure vigorous compliance with copyright law—sometimes without a full understanding of the law or of the negative impact their procedures have on achieving their mission. If access is the goal, then any unnecessary restriction is counterproductive. The digital age has induced yet more caution, creating the ironic situation where, just when users ought to be getting improved services, they're not even getting as good a service as they could through interlibrary loan, in-person visits, and analog copying. The processes themselves are very costly, not just to the library or archive, but to society, in terms of what may be prevented from entering the scholarly record. Impact: Streamlined rights procedures will maximize use of increasingly limited staff and financial resources and will increase service to researchers. Developing a community of practice will establish a baseline that can be followed with some degree of confidence, improving visibility of and access to special collections. This activity will examine strategies for analyzing and developing acceptable risk behaviors and recommend practices for libraries and archives. We anticipate holding an invitational meeting, broadcast in real time, that collects imaginative thinking by experts from archives, special collections, time-based media and the law. This project is lead by OCLC Research Senior Program Officers Ricky Erway. |
For more information Ricky Erway Program Officer ricky_erway@oclc.org