Implementing Open Access in GLAMs

In her first series (post one, two, three, four) Anne Young covered the essentials of rights and reproductions that are fundamental to enabling Open Access. In this second series, she’ll focus on what Open Access is, why it’s a good thing, and outline various implementation options for GLAM institutions.

1. What is Open Access, anyway?

Paul Gauguin (French, 1848–1903), Still Life with Profile of Laval (detail), 1886, oil on canvas, 18–1/8 x 15 in. Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, Samuel Josefowitz Collection of the School of Pont-Aven, through the generosity of Lilly Endowment Inc., the Josefowitz Family, Mr. and Mrs. Leonard J. Betley, Lori and Dan Efroymson, and other Friends of the Museum, 1998.167. Public Domain.

Defining Open Access necessarily involves defining the variety of terms used to describe “open” including not only Open Access, but also Open Content, Open Data, and Open Source. Open Access is often used as the overarching term to encompass many or all of these forms of “open.” Let’s take a quick look at the landscape:

The traditional definition defines Open Access as the “practice of providing unrestricted access via the internet to peer-reviewed scholarly journal articles. Open Access is also increasingly being provided to theses, scholarly monographs, and book chapters.” In this scenario, Open Access comes in two degrees:

• Gratis Open Access: no-cost online access
• Libre Open Access: Gratis Open Access plus some additional usage rights.¹

In some cases, full Open Access, or Open Content, also includes the right to modify the work, whereas in scholarly publishing it is usual to keep an article’s content intact and to associate it with a fixed author or group of authors.

Open Access, Open Content, Open Source, and other variations on a theme of “open” are becoming more prevalent among GLAMs that are endeavoring to provide broader public access to their collection materials. And there are important reasons that back this decision:

• allowing users to creatively modify works and distribute copies of their modifications;
• enabling Linked Open Data for Libraries, Archives and Museums (LODLAM) to connect related data to allow for new meaningful insights in research and content discovery;
• developing and promoting interoperability standards to facilitate the efficient dissemination of content.²

All these together work to expand and promote broad access to digital resources.

Harry Whittier Frees (American 1879–1953), Ten pins, about 1914, photographic print. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ds-04042. Public Domain.

Armed with these definitions, GLAM R&R Specialists can begin to assess what level of Open Access (used as an all-encompassing term here) can best suit the needs of their institution’s goals and mission.

While the adoption of a formal Open Access policy (I highly recommend one as part of a GLAM’s overall Intellectual Property Policy), or the introduction of Open Access or Open Content image and video files provided directly from a GLAM’s website are growing in number, there are several inconsistencies in delivery and formatting that R&R Specialists should be aware of when seeking to reuse content.

Therefore, it is worth carefully examining whether a collection is truly “open.” Some GLAMs use language like “free” and “open” to describe publicly available collections whilst simultaneously imposing limitations on use. Those practices are what I and other GLAM professionals often describe as “Semi-Open Access,” “NOpen Access,” or “NOpenGLAM.”

However, do not fret! Even with such inconsistencies around “open,” the good news is that a growing number of GLAMs are embracing Open Access, and there are tools available to R&R Specialists as they help guide their institutions.

In the next post, we’ll explore tools and programs that GLAM professionals can use to integrate Open Access in their institution.

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. 349.

[2] Idem, p. 348–349.