Open licensing for cultural heritage

CHICAGO — Digging into the concept of “open” in relation to intellectual property, “Open Licensing for Cultural Heritage,” published by Facet Publishing and available through the ALA Store, provides context through the development of different fields, including open education, open source, open data, and open government. Gill Hamilton and Fred Saunderson explore the organizational benefits of open licensing and the open movement, including the importance of content discoverability, arguments for wider collections impact and access, the practical benefits of simplicity and scalability, and more ethical and principled arguments related to protection of public content and the public domain. Content covered includes:

• an accessible introduction to relevant concepts, themes, and names, including Creative Commons, attribution, model licenses, and license versions;
• distinctions between content that has been openly licensed and content that is in the public domain and why professionals in the sector should be aware of these differences;
• an exploration of the organizational benefits of open licensing and the open movement;
• the benefits and risks associated with open licensing; and
• a range of practical case studies from organizations including Newcastle Libraries, the University of Edinburgh, Statens Museum for Kunst (the National Gallery of Denmark), and the British Library.

Hamilton is Digital Access Manager at the National Library of Scotland where she leads on access to the Library’s extensive digital collections, and oversees its resource discovery and library management systems. Saunderson is the National Library of Scotland’s Intellectual Property Specialist where he has responsibility for providing copyright and intellectual property advice and guidance, as well as coordinating licensing and re-use procedures.

Facet Publishing, the commercial publishing and bookselling arm of CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, is the leading publisher of books for library and information professionals worldwide. ALA Store purchases fund advocacy, awareness and accreditation programs for library professionals worldwide. Contact us at (800) 545-2433 ext. 5052 or editionsmarketing@ala.org.