Contribute to JISC international survey on orphan works
Experts who create and curate digital content from public sector organisations across Europe, are invited to contribute to JISC’s international survey on ‘orphan works’ called ‘In from the Cold Europa 2010′.
There are millions of so-called ‘orphan works’ – photographs, recordings, texts and other ephemera from the last 100 years – which risk becoming invisible because rights holders are not known or easy to trace. Now this topic is the focus of this survey commissioned by the JISC-led Strategic Content Alliance in conjunction with the Association of European Research Libraries (LIBER), the European Bureau of Library, Information and Documentation Associations (EBLIDA) and the Wellcome Trust.
The survey aims to establish how much time, effort and money is spent on orphan works across Europe by people working in the public sector and to find out the effect orphan works have on cultural heritage preservation at an international level.
Organisations such as universities, archives, libraries, museums, health services and public service broadcasters are invited to participate.
Take part in the international survey to help provide real comparisons between European countries on the impact of orphan works. The closing date is 26 February 2010 at 1800 GMT.
Find out more about the issues surrounding this topic by reading the ‘In From The Cold: an assessment of the scope of orphan works‘ report. This report shows how the UK is in real danger of losing 20th century materials due to the current copyright laws, the levels of resources needed to trace the rights for each orphan work and the potential lock down of access to these important works.
