Special Collections Subcommittee Memo

Below is a summary of what we need to discuss next Tuesday. I also want to welcome a new member to our subcommittee - David Walls from Preservation. He is interested and knowledgeable about special collections preservation issues and will prove to be a useful member of our group.

April 24, 1997

Memo

To: CDC Special Collections Subcommittee

From: Chris Weideman

Re: Next meeting - items for discussion

Please review what the sub-subcommittee wrote (if you can't find it, let me know and I'll send you another copy) and bring your suggestions for changes, elaborations, etc to Tuesday's meeting. I have asked Carolyn for an update on conversations she might have had with Scott regarding setting up a Special Collections Preservation endowment fund and I will share with you what she tells me. Regardless of whether such a fund can be set up, I think individual units can begin using what's been written in whatever way might best help them.

Listed below are the questions I received from various subcommittee members regarding photos/copyright (I have combined and summarized questions when possible). Let's discuss how best to get answers to these - we might put together a subcommittee to work on them or there might be enough knowledge around the table to just address them on Tuesday.

1) Do we have the right to make a reproduction of any photograph in our collection for a researcher?

2) Can we give permission and charge a fee for publication of a photo if we have no legal document that transfers copyright of it to us? Does it depend on the language used in the facsimile reproduction form we ask the researcher to fill out when he/she wants to publish one of our photographs?

3) How can we determine the copyright status of photographs in our collection when we have no paper trail in our own files documenting that status?

a) do we own copyright to photos over 75 years old?

b) what to do with photos less than 75 years old (if that makes a difference) with or without a photographer/photographic studio stamp?

4) When donors donate photographs, either taken by them or by someone else, what rights can and should we request?

5) Can we "publish" any photograph in our collection on a web site (this ties in to the discussion below)?

Max Marmor and Ann Okerson have been closely following the national CONFU (Conference on Fair Use) that has resulted in a set of proposed guidelines for the educational fair use of digital images. The latest draft of the guidelines can be found on the Web at:

http://www.collegeart.org/caa/profession/CEI/

According to Max, the guidelines focus principally on educational fair use of digitized versions of analog study images (e.g. slides and photos), with special attention to collections like Yale's slide library, which is largely based upon copy photography from printed books. Less attention is paid to collections of original photographs owned by an institution. Max reports that he and Ann, and most other educational organizations, are recommending that the guidelines be repudiated. He and Ann would be happy to come to one of our meetings to discuss their ideas about what is happening with CONFU and educational fair use of digital images. We might think of doing that for our last meeting prior to the summer (which will probably be our next meeting) - Ann's schedule is such that we would not be able to meet with her on a Tuesday morning but I would try to arrange another time when she and as many as are interested could get together.

Regarding making Yale visual resources available on the digital marketplace, this too is of interest to Max. He is in the process of putting together a symposium, or conference of sorts, for next Fall at which this, as well as educational fair use of digital images, will be discussed. He and I are to discuss the Fall conference on Friday and I'll report back to you what he has in mind.

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