Pocahontas County History Preservation, Digitization, Community

Via Library Law Blog, I found out about Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for Digitization for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums. It's available as a free pdf, and also as a print book. Here's the abstract:

Digital communications technologies have led to fundamental changes in the ways that cultural institutions fulfil their public missions of access, preservation, research, and education. Institutions are developing publicly-accessible websites in which users can visit online exhibitions, search collection databases, access images of collection items, and in some cases create their own digital content. Digitization, however, also raises the possibility of copyright infringement. "Copyright and Digitization" aims to assist understanding and compliance with copyright law across libraries, archives, and museums. It discusses the exclusive rights of the copyright owner, the major exemptions used by cultural heritage institutions, and stresses the importance of “risk assessment” when conducting any digitization project. It also includes two cases studies, examining digitizing oral histories and student work. As well as free availability here, print copies are available for purchase via createspace.

This will be a valuable reference for our project, and thanks to the authors' and publisher's altruism, it's free for us, and for you if you like. Visit the link to the book title.