Many museums are considering how to use open licenses to support the delivery of their public mission and increase their visitor numbers. In this presentation, Nick Poole explores two case studies and provides some simple steps for museums wanting to 'open up' their collections online.

1. Open Content Licensing in
Museums
Nick Poole, CEO, Collections Trust
#ctcopyright

2. The Collections Trust is...
...the professional association
for people who work in
Collections Management

3. Special programmes
• We develop programmes addressing key issues and opportunities in
collections management & digitisation:
– Security www.collectionstrust.org.uk/security
– Energy efficiency www.collectionstrust.org.uk/energy-efficiency
– Pests! www.collectionstrust.org.uk/pest-management
– Insurance www.collectionstrust.org.uk/insurance
– Participation www.collectionstrust.org.uk/participation
– Going Digital www.collectionstrust.org.uk/going-digital
– Copyright & licensing www.collectionstrust.org.uk/copyright-and-licensing

4. Copyright and licensing
We provide free resources to help museums with copyright issues and we’re
addressing how recent legal reforms to copyright affect museums.
•Free resources at www.collectionstrust.org.uk/copyright-and-licensing
•Copyright: A Practical Guide – updated 2nd edition available to order today:
www.collectionstrust.org.uk/shop (Print version £24.99, ebook version
£20.00)

5. Case Studies on Open
Content Licensing

6. Defining terms: open
• “A piece of content or data is open if anyone is free to use, reuse, and
redistribute it — subject only, at most, to the requirement to attribute and/or
share-alike.”
www.opendefinition.org
• This means that something is useable by all without the need to ask permission
by the (rights) owner of a work.
• Open Culture or Open GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums) is a
movement that tries to help cultural institution to open up their collections: to
make them available to all for reuse without the need to asking permission.
(Source: ‘Open Data for #GLAMS’, P2P University)

7. Open knowledge
• “Open knowledge is what open data becomes when it is useful, usable and used.
The characteristics of openness are:
• Availability and access: the data must be available as a whole and at no more than
a reasonable reproduction cost, preferably by downloading over the internet. The
data must also be available in a convenient and modifiable form.
• Reuse and redistribution: the data must be provided under terms that permit
reuse and redistribution including the intermixing with other datasets. The data
must be machine-readable.
• Universal participation: everyone must be able to use, reuse and redistribute —
there should be no discrimination against fields of endeavour or against persons or
groups. For example, ‘non-commercial’ restrictions that would prevent
‘commercial’ use, or restrictions of use for certain purposes (e.g. only in education),
are not allowed.
(Source: Open Knowledge Foundation definition of ‘Open Data’)

8. Defining terms: reuse
• Describes a wide spectrum of activities and applications of digital cultural
content undertaken by 3rd
parties

9. Europeana’s ‘layers’

10. Degrees of ‘open’
• Attitudes and approaches to ‘open’ reuse of museum content exist along a
sliding scale:
‘Radically’
open
Fully
commercial

11. Degrees of ‘open’
• Attitudes and approaches to ‘open’ reuse of museum content exist along a
sliding scale:
‘Radically’
open
Fully
commercial
Toe in the
water

12. Degrees of ‘open’
• Attitudes and approaches to ‘open’ reuse of museum content exist along a
sliding scale:
‘Radically’
open
Fully
commercial
Toe in the
water
Mission
driven

13. Degrees of ‘open’
• Attitudes and approaches to ‘open’ reuse of museum content exist along a
sliding scale:
‘Radically’
open
Fully
commercial
Toe in the
water
Mission
driven
Steady
state

14. Degrees of ‘open’
• Attitudes and approaches to ‘open’ reuse of museum content exist along a
sliding scale:
‘Radically’
open
Fully
commercial
Thinking
about it
Toe in the
water
Mission
driven
Steady
state

16. Open is a business model
If you are not trading on your
brand or the uniqueness of
your collection, the chances
are an open strategy will drive
additional value to your
traditional revenue model

17. ‘Open’ drives sales
• There are isolated examples of museums for whom ‘going open’ (as in
licensing their digital content fully openly for both commercial and non-
commercial reuse) has driven significant increases across existing revenue-
generating activities
Source: ‘Democratising the Rijksmuseum’ Joris Pekel

18. Deciding what to share...
‘Radically’
open
Fully
commercial
‘Primary’
content
‘Discovery’
content

19. ‘Radically’
open
Fully
commercial
‘Primary’
content
‘Discovery’
content
Getty Open
Content
Program

20. ‘Radically’
open
Fully
commercial
‘Primary’
content
‘Discovery’
content
Getty Open
Content
Program Rijksstudio
British
Library
Flickr
stream

21. ‘Radically’
open
Fully
commercial
‘Primary’
content
‘Discovery’
content
Getty Open
Content
Program Rijksstudio
tate
Enterprises
V&A
Enterprises
National
Gallery
Company
British
Library
Flickr
stream

22. ‘Radically’
open
Fully
commercial
‘Primary’
content
‘Discovery’
content
Getty Open
Content
Program
British
Museum
Collections
Search
Rijksstudio
tate
Enterprises
V&A
Enterprises
National
Gallery
Company
British
Library
Flickr
stream
Europeana

23. ‘Radically’
open
Fully
commercial
‘Primary’
content
‘Discovery’
content
Getty Open
Content
Program Rijksstudio
Academic &
educational
use
tate
Enterprises
V&A
Enterprises
National
Gallery
Company
British
Library
Flickr
stream
British
Museum
Collections
Search
Europeana

24. ‘Radically’
open
Fully
commercial
‘Primary’
content
‘Discovery’
content
Getty Open
Content
Program Rijksstudio
Academic &
educational
use
tate
Enterprises
V&A
Enterprises
National
Gallery
Company
Literally
nobody,
ever
British
Library
Flickr
stream
British
Museum
Collections
Search
Europeana

25. Case Study 1. Sharing
collections online at York
Museums Trust

27. York Museums Trust
• Formed in 2002 as an independent Trust
• Managing a range of venues and sites across York
• Funded since 2012 as a Major Partner Museum
• Early investment in documentation & information systems
• Digitisation providing high-quality content to reinforce offline offer

28. Key developments…
York Museums Trust on the Google Art Project

29. Key developments…
Pat Hadley, Wikimedian in Residence at York Museums Trust

30. Key developments…
400 images ‘donated’ to Wikimedia Commons by York Museums Trust

31. Images for open re-use…
‘Download’ button added to thousands of works in the online collection

32. Images for open re-use…
License identified as ‘Public Domain’

33. Images for open re-use…

34. Images for open re-use…

35. Conditions
• Conditions associated with re-use:
• All images currently published in the online collection are free from known
third-party copyright restrictions
• All images in the online collection are free to download
• All images in the online collection are licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 or Public
Domain
• York Museums Trust expects to be attributed whenever an online
collection image is used

36. Constraints
• “We have not yet released any images that have (or we suspect have)
copyright restrictions – like pictures of modern art, images of magazine covers
or photos of chocolate boxes. To use an image of a copyrighted work we
would have to seek permission from the person or persons who hold the
copyright. We would also have to negotiate terms of use.”
• Public Domain and CC BY-SA 4.0 materials are subject to a request for
attribution, eg:
“Image courtesy of York Museum Trust :: http://yorkmuseumtrust.org.uk/ ::
CC BY-SA 4.0”

37. Outcomes
• Outcomes of Wikimedian in Residence and GLAM-WIKI collaboration reported
as very positive
• Content relating to the Middleham Hoard incorporated into front-page article
generating some 6,000 views
• Positive outcomes in terms of profile, coverage and reputation
• “What actually surprised me most was the personal knowledge I gained about
the history of our collections. This in turn sparked my thinking that this is a
strong platform on which to spread knowledge of our collections to the
world.”
Mike Linstead, Digital Marketing Officer

38. ““It is the core mission of the Trust
to maximise access to the collection.
If you can do it for free, and give it to
as many people as possible, that’s
compatible with our mission. There’s
no marginal cost to sharing content
in this way, and it is ultimately what
we are there for.”
- Mike Woodward, YMT

39. Case Study 2. Sharing
collections images from
Derby Museum and Art
Gallery

40. Images via Wikimedia Commons…
Derby Museum & Art Gallery on Wikipedia

41. Images via Wikimedia Commons…
Link to images from Derby collections on
Wikimedia Commons

42. Images via Wikimedia Commons…
Derby images featured as ‘quality and valued’ images

43. Images via Wikimedia Commons…
Image available for download under ‘Public Domain’ license

44. Images via Wikimedia Commons…

45. Images via Bridgeman…

46. Outcomes
• 1,250 new articles on Wikipedia
• Over 100 articles in Russian, French, Czech, Catalan, Belorussion & others
• New articles in more than 28 languages & innovative QR code project

47. Decision-making process
• Start with your Mission (which should articulate how you will deliver value for
your audiences)
• Quantify your goals, whether in terms of engagement, revenue or other value
• Quantify your business drivers, including your costs and anticipated gains
• Review the value in your collection & associated brand equity
• Develop an Action Plan with key stages for monitoring and review
• Iterate, evaluate & iterate again

48. Doing nothing is not an
option
“At the moment, [sharing our
digital content for open re-
use] is an opportunity. But it’s
an opportunity that pretty
soon is going to turn into a
threat.”

49. Keep in touch!
LinkedIn community (8,000+ members)
www.twitter.com/collectiontrust
www.facebook.com/collectionstrust
www.slideshare.net/collectionstrust
Nick Poole
@NickPoole1
nick@collectionstrust.org.uk