Abstract
In today’s digital environment, there are multiple barriers to accessing cultural heritage in the public domain. These barriers have implications for people’s enjoyment of and participation in cultural life and threaten our ability to connect with our past in order to understand our present and build our futures. It also calls into question the relevance of museums in the digital world, whose mission is to provide access to their collections for a variety of audiences and purposes. Open access holds enormous potential to overcome such barriers and boost museums’ leverage of new technologies to fulfill their mission. We will explore how museums can harness open licenses, tools, policies and practices to improve access to heritage collections. We will also share information about TAROCH (Towards a Recommendation on Open Cultural Heritage), a community initiative steered by Creative Commons that aspires to encourage the Member States of UNESCO to elaborate and adopt a Recommendation (or other non-binding standard-setting instrument) that would promote and encourage open solutions to removing barriers to accessing cultural heritage in the public domain, being mindful of the various governance frameworks that govern the ways in which cultural heritage is shared and used. With a Recommendation on Open Cultural Heritage, UNESCO would solidify the policy framework to enable heritage institutions around the world to more effectively contribute to building more connected, resilient, and sustainable societies. Join us in this session to learn how open efforts such as TAROCH strengthen access to cultural heritage and how you can get involved.
Presenters
Brigitte VezinaDirector of Policy and Open Culture, Creative Commons, Netherlands Jennryn Wetzler
Director of Learning and Training, Learning and Training, Creative Commons, California, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Theme
KEYWORDS
Open Access, Cultural Heritage, Copyright, Intellectual Property, Commons, Digital, Discoverability
