1. Expanding Access, Fair Use, and Creative Commons
Kathryn Michaelis, Georgia State University Library
October 22, 2015

2. August 2013
28 digital collections
Approximately 35,000 items

3. October 2015 52 digital collections More than 66,000 items
Most of our digitized material comes from Special Collections and Archives, and most of it was created after 1923, so much of it is still under copyright protection
We want to digitize as much of it as possible, but we don’t want to violate privacy or copyright

4. Planning Atlanta Identified creators Sought license agreements
Planning ATL stuff was different because it involved digitizing stuff from the general library collection, not an archival collection with copyright status stated in a donor agreement
Since we’ve been digitizing more, we’ve also been talking to our university counsel more

5. Scrapbooks
PP scrapbooks were already digitized and restricted to the reading room. We had several collections slated to be digitized that included similar scrapbooks, and we thought we’d talk to UC about whether it was okay to digitize them

6. Transformative Use
Greater transparency in digital collections reflected a larger commitment to OA throughout the library

7. Creative Commons Licensing
Creative Commons task force
Licenses applied to library-created material (LibGuides, library blog, website)
Digital collections posed more of a challenge
Efforts to expand access to digital collections reflect a larger commitment to open access throughout the entire library
We agreed that anything the library or GSU owns copyright to should be licensed as CC-BY

8. Creative Commons Licenses

9. I was assigned the digital collections part of the CC task force
I was assigned the digital collections part of the CC task force. First I made a list of all the collections along with the copyright holders that I could identify easily. Then I met with the curators of each area to discuss the copyright status of their collections. Some collections have a copyright status that is common to all items, some have variations within a collection

10. After talking with the curators and getting copyright specifics on the collections, I was able to group them into four categories

11. We were able to get several donors to agree to license their material under Creative Commons

12. One donor originally said he wanted no one to have any rights to his collection, not us, not him. But he also didn’t want people to be able to use the stuff for profit.

13. Copyright Scenarios For landing pages:
Where copyright status is known and shared by all items in a collection:
Copyright to items in this collection is owned by [Rights holder]. Items may be used for personal, non-profit, or educational purposes only. Additional uses will require permission of the rights holder. or
Copyright to items in this collection is owned by [Rights holder]. [Rights holder] has made this digital collection available under a Creative Commons [type] License.
The items in this collection are in the public domain and may be used without restriction.
Where copyright status varies from item to item:
Copyrights to the items in this collection are held by various entities. Rights information, if known, is specified in the item’s description.
Items in this collection that are dated 1923 and earlier are in the public domain. All other items are protected under U.S. copyright law and may be used for personal, non-profit, or education purposes only.
Where collection-level copyright status is unknown:
The copyright status of items in this collection is unknown. If you believe you own the copyright to these materials, or have information about their copyright status, please contact

14. Copyright Scenarios For item-level metadata:
Where copyright status is known:
Copyright to this item is owned by [Rights holder]. Items may be used for personal, non-profit, educational purposes only. Additional uses will require the permission of the rights holder. or
Copyright to this item is owned by [Rights holder]. [Rights holder] has made this item available under a Creative Commons [Type] License.
This item is in the public domain and may be used without restriction.
Where copyright holder is unknown, but dates indicate that item is still protected:
This item is protected under U.S. copyright law. This item may be used for personal, non-profit, educational purposes only.
Scrapbooks that comprise clippings from publications:
These materials, gathered by the donor from many sources, have been digitized for preservation purposes and are being made available on the Internet for scholarship, educational, and personal use only. These materials document a thematic assemblage of manuscript, photographic, and printed research materials, and neither the donor nor Georgia State University claims ownership of the intellectual property rights for printed materials not created by the donor or Georgia State University. If you are a copyright holder of any part of the content and believe that that content should not be made publicly available, please contact Special Collections and Archives.