Digital Ownership

When Licensing Isn't Enough

Though licensing and SERU act as the dominant access framework to develop digital collections, they present a number of challenges for libraries:

Perpetual Access

What happens if a publisher ceases operations? How will libraries access the content they have dutifully paid for if it is not transferred to another host?

Interlibrary Loan

Not all agreements allow for the interlibrary lending of licensed content, limiting the rights outlined in the U.S. Code § 107 & 108.

User Privacy

How are publishers and platforms using collected user data that is not directly shared with libraries and information organizations?

Text & Data Mining

As technological solutions develop to aid researchers in new forms of data analysis, licenses can restrict common excavation practices that content providers deem unnecessary.

These challenges, in addition to the increasingly restrictive nature of vendor licensing practices, present the opportunity to ask alternative questions about the resources we acquire:

True Ownership

What would it look like to own digital resources the way we do for print materials?

Collection Autonomy

How might we build collections differently if we owned digital resources instead of leased them?

Unceded Control

What freedoms do we regain by no longer perpetuating licensing regimes that prevent ownership?

These questions center the subject of digital ownership in a conversation about the ability and autonomy for libraries to acquire content to effectively meet the needs of their user communities.

The topic of digital ownership is not particularly new - from questions surrounding file migration and reproduction in Capitol Records, LLC v. ReDigi Inc. to Clarivate’s decision to phase out one-time perpetual purchases of print and digital books, calls for digital ownership have only grown as legal precedents and vendor decisions have collided with the increasingly difficult realities of developing cost-effective collections.

 

Digital Ownership Resources

In the face of a restrictive licensing landscape small strides have been made towards realizing an alternative path forward. The resources below highlight the organizations and vendors championing the concepts of digital ownership by effectuating real change in acquisition models and offering libraries the opportunity to actually own their digital collections. 

🌐 📜  Principles on Library Ownership of Digital Books - Library Futures

  • Published by the library advocacy organization Library Futures, this set of principles was developed by library experts and practitioners to “establish a foundation of trust between publishers and libraries so that publishers can sell digital books to libraries” in the manner of print books, further allowing libraries to “build permanent digital collections”. The principles focus on the core abilities of libraries to own, purchase, preserve, and provide access to digital books, as well as protect reader privacy from third-party entities. 

🌐 BRIET Bookmarket - BRIET

  • BRIET is a project from the Brick House Cooperative that allows independent publishers to sell (not license) permanent copies of e-books directly to libraries and schools rather than individuals. With the tagline of “E-Books, for libraries, for keeps”, the project is focused on protecting the traditional rights enshrined in libraries and providing sustainable revenue streams to independent publishers. Key resources include:
    • BRIET Terms of Sale, the conditions of BRIET’s e-book sales.
    • BRIET Bookmarket, where libraries can purchase e-books under these terms of sale in the vein of digital ownership.

🌐 Digital Ownership - Digital Public Library of America (DPLA)/Lyrasis

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