Ethics and Archives A perspective from the Arts and Humanities Data Service Alastair Dunning, AHDS Executive Office King’s College London, Research Governance and Ethics Workshop 8 th February 2007

How is the AHDS Organised? Established in 1996 Managing Executive (King’s College, London) AHDS Literature, Languages and Linguistics (Oxford Text Archive, Oxford Uni.) AHDS History (UK Data Archive, Uni. of Essex) AHDS Archaeology (Archaeology Data Service) AHDS Performing Arts (Uni. of Glasgow) AHDS Visual Arts (University for Creative Arts) Funded by the JISC and the AHRC

What does the AHDS do? Advises on the creation of digital data Collects, preserves and distributes high-quality digital resources for research and teaching These resources are online for free for educational and private use – national collections at subject levels

Relevant digital subjects & material Oral history Linguistics Medical history Copyright Moral rights (Soft ethics?) Data protection and copyright cause overlapping problems Text, images, video, audio, GIS …

Interaction with AHRC Giving advice to applicants with any technical component Marking Technical Appendices Collecting digital material from successful applicants Dissemination of material Preservation of material Issues relating to monitoring legal status of materials occur at each stage

Technical Appendix Obligatory for Research Grant and some other AHRC applications Candidate shows proficiency in digital context – project management, data development, access, rights issues Marked by AHDS – feedback provided to AHRC Peer Review Panels – applications can be rejected or labelled conditional

Resource Creation Projects are informed on best practice in clearing copyright or gaining consent –Lack of fixed practice a problem –Projects unaware of time / cost issues –Project unaware of positive aspects –Many assume copyright does not apply to them –Less naivety about data protection

Archiving All digital material should be deposited with AHDS Depositor signs AHDS licence – –Non-exclusive –No rights transferred –Depositor ensures he has appropriate permissions –AHDS / University involved accepts no responsibility –(Licence needs updating …)

that the Depositor is the owner of the copyright and associated intellectual property rights in the whole Data Collection or is duly authorised by the owner, or owners, of these rights and is capable of granting under this agreement, a licence to hold and disseminate copies of the material. that the Data Collection is not and shall be in no way a violation or infringement of any copyright, trademark, patent, or other rights whatsoever of any person. that the Data Collection does not and will not contravene any laws, including but not limited to the law relating to defamation, or obscenity. that the Depositor is not under any obligation or disability created by law, contract or otherwise which would in any manner or to any extent prevent or restrict him from entering into and fully performing this Agreement. to notify the AHDS of any change of copyright ownership affecting the Data Collection. to notify the AHDS of any confidentiality, privacy or data protection issues pertaining to the Data Collection.

Delivery Options (I) Freely available –Material available to everyone –Obviously depends on depositor Higher Education Only –Disseminate collection to HE users only –But difficult to authenticate addresses –Rather useless boundary in legal terms Preservation Only –Material only available to depositor –Legally safe but data is not circulated –What happens when contact with depositor is lost?

Some examples Preservation Only –TV Times –Newcastle Corpus Access Restricted –French Learner Language Oral Corpora Freely available –Spanish Civil War posters Dependent on idiosyncrasies of depositor as well as legal position

Delivery Options (II) – in the future Making index terms available freely –Therefore letting others at least know of material’s existence Encouraging data preparation (e.g. anonymization) –Matter of course in some subject area –Easy-ish to anonymize some data (e.g. census data); Can be difficult for other data types (e.g. transcription) More sophisticated authentication?

From the user’s point of view All users must agree with AHDS Common Access Agreement – common-access.htm –Use in non-commercial research or teaching only –Rights still remain with depositor –(who reads it by the way….?)

Issues Proper monitoring (currently taking word of depositors on trust) Getting permission for distributed archiving; and for use and re-use Preparing material for re-use –Projects have little time for others –Keeping the chief on top Agreeing and circulating best practice –Managing creators’ expectations