What the University of Arkansas controversy can teach us about archival permission practices
Peter Hirtle’s article regarding an archive having a “permission to publish” policy makes many great points. Possibly the best one is that it could actually increase the chance that the library/archive is liable for copyright infringement.
The Arkansas case study demonstrates that archival “permission to publish” is a practice that is both poorly understood and which can be detrimental to the donor, the repository, and the researcher. Following this standard archival procedure, as the University of Arkansas suggests, is not “good business practice…[that] makes operations run smoothly.” It is time for repositories to get out of the “permission to publish” game and leave permissions to the copyright owner.
Michael Sauers is the Director of Logan Library in Logan, UT. Prior to this he was one of the founding staff and Technology Manager for Do Space in Omaha, NE. After earning his MLS in 1995 from the University at Albany's School of Information Science and Policy Michael spent his first 20 years as a librarian training other librarians in technology along with time as a public library trustee, a bookstore manager for a library friends group, a reference librarian, a technology consultant, and a bookseller. He has written dozens of articles for various journals and magazines and has published 14 books ranging from library technology, blogging, Web design, and an index to a popular horror magazine. In his spare time, he blogs at TravelinLibrarian.info, runs The Collector's Guide to Dean Koontz website at CollectingKoontz.com, takes many, many photos, and typically reads more than 100 books a year.
Unless otherwise stated, all opinions are my own and are not to be considered those of the City of Logan, UT.
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Peter Hirtle’s article regarding an archive having a “permission to publish” policy makes many great points. Possibly the best one is that it could actually increase the chance that the library/archive is liable for copyright infringement.