Integrating Open Access in your GLAM institution

In the second post of her second series (first post here), Anne Young shares some of the tools and programs GLAM professionals can utilize to integrate Open Access in their institution in the most automated way possible.

Roman, Funerary Monument of Flavius Agricola (detail), Antonine period (138–193 A.D.), marble, 26–1/2 x 70 x 27 in. Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, Gift of Alan Hartman, 72.148. Public Domain.

It is important to remember that the ability to institute Open Access stems from having solid licensing practices already in place, having high-quality digital content (images, videos, etc.) and as complete as possible metadata to accompany the content.

The most direct means of getting Open Access content online is through the coordinated delivery between a GLAM’s collections management system (CMS) and digital asset management system (DAMS) to populate online collections.

What is a CMS? “It is computer program that facilitates the administrative responsibilities (cataloging, accessioning, loans, exhibition planning, digital image retrieval, copyright management, etc.) associated with the documentation and stewardship of a GLAM’s holdings.”¹

A DAMS is a “digital program used for storing, managing, and retrieving digital assets, such as images or videos of collection objects.”²

There are a host of CMS and DAMS a GLAM might utilize to deliver content online and make available via an API. I will not even try to explain the technology behind how these all work together, but can vouch that without these systems Open Access can be much more challenging.

View of coordinated CMS, DAMS, and API functioning on a collection page for the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields. Artwork: J.M.W. Turner (English, 1775–1851), The Fifth Plague of Egypt, 1800, oil on canvas, 48 × 72 in. Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, Gift in memory of Evan F. Lilly, 55.24.

Beyond the tech itself, GLAMs need to consider the terms and conditions of both Open Access and their website platform(s) overall to ensure no conflicting clauses (i.e., don’t claim copyright and restrict use to content in one place whilst trying to offer Open Access in another).

No matter how a GLAM makes Open Access content available (e.g., direct downloads from collection pages or a separate microsite), always integrate policy information and cross-reference how users can license content not in the Open Access program.

Beyond the mechanisms of content delivery, there are a host of other decisions to make to define what Open Access parameters you want to apply to your collection. These are the questions that you need to ask yourself:

• Usage restrictions: will the GLAM look at different levels of uses: non-commercial uses only, unrestricted use, or somewhere in-between? Essentially, the question you want to answer for your GLAM is whether you’ll go full Open Access or “Semi-Open Access.”
• Object attribution and collection credit line: will the GLAM require or merely recommend the inclusion of this information to further assist in downstream identification of collection content? Or simply ask for: “Courtesy of [insert GLAM name]”?
• Gratis copies: will the GLAM request users send a gratis copy to aid the institution in its institutional records of where collection content is reproduced?
• Data collection: will the GLAM track downloads or types of uses of the content? If so, how does it intend to gather and record this information? Is this a hindrance to being fully open or does scholarly record of reproductions take precedence for the institution?
• File specifications: what size files will the GLAM provide? Single size, full size, multiple sizes optimized for different uses? Is the metadata embedded in files?
• FAQ: in addition to revising terms and conditions with existing online materials, the GLAM may wish to prepare FAQs (in advance) to address specific questions about its Open Access policy.
• Third-party copyright restrictions: GLAMs should ensure the collection content made available under Open Access is in the Public Domain or that the rights are held by the institution and free of any other copyrights or other legal restrictions.
• Privacy and/or publicity restrictions: GLAMs should ensure the collection content made available under Open Access is free of any Privacy or Publicity issues, if there are people depicted in the content.
• Contractual restrictions: GLAMs should ensure the collection content made available under Open Access is free of any contractual restrictions (i.e., donation or purchase restrictions to mandating credit lines with all reproductions).³

The coordinated consideration of these parameters in conjunction with the use of a CMS, DAMS, and API will enable a GLAM to implement the best version of automated Open Access downloads that their institution can facilitate.

In the next post, I’ll have a look to what you can do when you have limited resources and still want to get an Open Access policy running.

Disclaimer: The content of this post does not constitute legal advice nor does it refer to any particular or specific situation. If you have any doubts about your specific situation, you should consult with a lawyer.

These posts were compiled out of the set of tweets that Anne did during her curation of the @openglam Twitter account. Remember you can do it too, just sign up here!

Anne Young is the Director of Legal Affairs and Intellectual Property at Newfields and editor of “Rights and Reproductions: The Handbook for Cultural Institutions, Second Edition”, for which she received the Visual Resources Association’s Nancy DeLaurier Award in 2017.

[1] Megan P. Bryant, Cherie C. Chen, Kenneth D. Crews, John ffrench, Walter G. Lehmann, Naomi Leibowitz, Melissa Levine, Sofía Galarza Liu, Michelle Gallagher Roberts, Nancy Sims, Deborah Wythe and Anne M. Young, Rights and Reproductions: The Handbook for Cultural Institutions, Second Edition. Edited by Anne M. Young. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield, 2019, p. 343.

[2] Idem, p. 345.

[3] Idem, p. 176–177.