...Given the growing base of experience in framing such agreements --and the prospect of more agreements to come-- this is a good time to consider the issues of practice and principle that surround contracts specifying how library collections can be used by other parties and what can be done with the digital files created or managed by those parties....
While Google’s aim is not at odds with the needs or goals of the academy —indeed it promises to advance information sharing dramatically— Google Book Search isn’t a perfect substitute for library digitization. And it does not necessarily anticipate the spectrum of opportunities and risks presented by digitization. For example, can anyone else build services that use the data —not just for indexing and access but also for other forms of computation?...
The Open Content Alliance, established in November 2005, pointedly embraced principles of open accessibility....
Microsoft is one of the OCA participants and committed to fund the scanning of 150,000 public domain books....According to the October 2006 Cornell announcement [of a Microsoft deal]:
Microsoft will give the Library high-quality digital images of all the materials, allowing the Library to provide worldwide access through its own digital library and to share the content with non-commercial academic initiatives and non-profit organizations.
But whether third parties will be able to develop services using these files is not stated and none of the Microsoft contracts have been made public....
PS: The most important parts of this article are impossible to excerpt: Johnson has brought in applicable principles from nine organizations that might guide the parties in drafting mass digitization contracts. He's also offered his own extensive checklist for institutions that might enter into such an contract.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 1/20/2007 03:15:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
