The issue of the terms of [the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration]’s agreements with their “digitization partners” has come up again lately, inspired by the recent news that Footnote.com, a NARA partner, has digitized and will make available on its site many NARA records relating to the Holocaust. Footnote is generously making those records available to the public during the month of October, but after that people will need to pay to have access to them on the Footnote site. ...
At the present time, NARA doesn’t have the resources to do large-scale scanning and hosting of its holdings. In making these agreements, they are making a trade. They grant the partners the right to profit from having the digitized records available on their sites and in exchange NARA receives copies of the images (and metadata) which NARA can do with as it chooses. ...
Acting on our behalf, as custodians of our public records, NARA trades a short term “bad” (access to these public documents only via fee-based sites) for a long-term “good”–copies of the digital images and metadata.
This long-term “good” that NARA has traded for is only realized when we get free public access to the documents online. ... What is NARA planning to do when it does get those copies and is legally able to make them available? Rather than speculate, I asked NARA for an official statement about whether or not there were plans to ingest the digital copies into ERA, NARA’s future Web interface for all its archival materials. Here is the pertinent part of their response:
You ask whether ingesting all or part of those digital files is explicitly part of the ERA schedule and supported in the projected ERA budget. The task of adding them to ERA is not part of the current ERA schedule or budget. We have just begun doing analysis relating to cost and other aspects of making these digital surrogates available. As the analysis proceeds, it is quite possible that other viable alternatives besides ERA may emerge. We do regard it as our responsibility to get the best deal we can for the public in terms of both access and cost, and will at the appropriate point reach out to stakeholders and the public for feedback on the various options.
I find this a somewhat curious answer ... What I don’t see in that answer is a firm commitment by NARA to making the copies freely available online. ...
Posted by
Gavin Baker at 10/20/2009 12:16:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
