The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Board of Directors unanimously voted on July 26, 2010, to endorse a set of nine principles to guide vendor/publisher relations in large-scale digitization projects of special collections materials, recommended by its Transforming Special Collections in the Digital Age Working Group. The Board’s vote strongly encourages ARL member libraries to refrain from signing future agreements with publishers or vendors, either individually or through consortia, that do not adhere to the principles.
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Special collections often include valuable and unique materials, but also incur special responsibilities for their stewards. Digital access to special collections materials has become important in revealing hidden materials and promoting humanities research, and ARL member libraries often require appropriate collaborations and partnerships to implement large-scale digitization activities.
The nine principles address issues including implications of the distinctive character of special collections, the need for libraries to retain their own copies of the products of digitization projects, the importance of promoting broad access to digitized collections, and concerns regarding the collection of data about users of digitized collections.
Principle 1: Distinct collections demand extra vigilance in digitization.
Principle 2: Libraries must respect any donor-imposed restrictions on the digitization and use of materials.
Principle 3: Libraries should seek the broadest possible user access to digitized content. This includes patrons of other libraries and unaffiliated researchers.
Principle 4: Libraries should receive copies of all digital files generated from their collections, with the option for complete local access to the files (to the extent that copyright law allows).
Principle 5: Any enhancements or improvements to the digitized content including all metadata should be shared on a regular basis with the supplying library.
Principle 6: Restrictions on external access to copies of works digitized from a library’s holding should be of limited duration.
Principle 7: Libraries should refrain from signing nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) as part of digitization negotiations.
Principle 8: Libraries should ensure that the confidentiality of users is protected in the vendor’s products.
Principle 9: Libraries are encouraged to refrain from charging fees or royalties for access to or non-commercial use of public domain materials held in their collections.
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