Accessible registries of rights information and orphan works towards Europeana (Arrow)
Objective
With its more than nine million published titles, the 20th
century accounts for roughly 80% of all printed works published
in the German-speaking countries. In order to safeguard access
to this information in the future, it is crucial to start mass
digitisation of content as soon as possible. However,
most 20th century works are subject to copyright, making it
necessary to obtain licenses from the rights holders. The aim
of the ARROW project is to help identify copyright holders of
out-of-print works, to create European registers of orphan
works and also to develop models for integrated access to
charged and free digital content. Effort is being made to
ensure that the project results are interoperable with the
future European digital library "Europeana".
Besides helping out on the technical work packages of ARROW,
each of the 16 partner institutes involved will contribute
digital content to the project. The German National Library
will scrutinise the various legal issues and the processes
involved in establishing the rights for each individual title
on the basis of a selection of copyright-protected books
(Archiv der Schönsten deutschen Bücher - Archive of the best
designed German books). This will make it clearer which
percentage of orphan works can be assumed to exist amongst the
German 20th century book stocks. The experience from this
clarification of rights will provide the basis for the future
strategy in dealing with out-of-print and orphan works.
Project partners
The German National Library and a number of other European national libraries, plus representatives of usage rights organisations and various European publishers' associations.
Project coordinator
Associazione Italiana Editori (AIE)
Funding
European Commission (eContentplus support programme)
Project duration
1 September 2008 - 28 February 2011
Project homepage
Thomas Jaeger
