The result is that various curated and layered forms of mediation will inspire, influence and ultimately limit how users encounter and engage with this media. This limits the potential of the UK's collections in the public domain to what bespoke projects can enable or permit based on GLAM desires to claim rights, retain exclusivity and commercialise collections for their individual benefit.
Participants expressed serious concerns that maintaining the status quo was negatively impacting the sector's public and international reputation, as well as its ability to keep pace and compete with relatable peers:
UK GLAMs need to be seen as innovative again. We have to make things exciting. The UK will never be seen as innovative until it embraces open access.
As another observed, "Doing nothing is setting the UK back."
5.4. What is the potential of open GLAM for the UK?
The research revealed clear and strong desires to engage with open GLAM. Although the UK may be behind its relatable peers, this inaction can be leveraged to the UK's advantage.
Open GLAM presents the UK sector with exciting opportunities to bring about change that truly can shape future knowledge(s) around cultural collections and position the UK sector as a world leader on open GLAM. Participant observations have been summarised below.
5.4.1. An opportunity of change
Opportunities stemming from change include:
Catching up to the UK's relatable peers. As demonstrated by the data, the United States is well in the lead with 292 instances of open GLAM. With new legal reforms, policies and funding, the European Union and its Member States are only just behind.[1]
Leveraging the sector's inaction to its advantage. The sector's early stage is also a benefit. Many participants engaging with open access discussed what they would do differently if they could start from scratch, starting by not proceeding with open access on an incremental basis. These participants noted the difficulties and legacy errors now embedded in collections data and internal processes that stem from starting with a closed licence approach, then moving to an open licence approach before finally embracing the public domain status for eligible digital collections. Others noted the carve-out impact on collections management and the internal policies required to manage sets of open data on an exceptional basis, rather than as a policy-wide approach across the GLAM. With each policy change, staff must update digital collections, data and metadata, website terms and conditions, replicating previous work and resulting in greater overall resource investment. The sector's inaction can therefore be seen as a blank slate. This data and other research published by open GLAMS can be used to design more direct and informed strategies for the UK sector and its many GLAMs who have yet to engage.
Supporting open access as a commercial decision. For the majority of GLAMs, commercial licensing is not a sustainable or profitable business model. Nor does it justify the copyrights of GLAMs that do see a profit. Instead, the financial impacts of open access are far greater for the
