going forward”.[1] The policy provides a link to the final report.[2]
In addition to these, the Science Museum Group and the British Museum define documents related to human remains separately in public tasks. In the ‘Copyright and permissions’ policy, the British Museum goes further, explaining they reserve all rights for some digitised materials “due to cultural sensitivities, or if doing so would be against any existing Museums policies (such as our human remains policy)”.[3] In this sense, the Museum’s approach is to make these images available online, claim IP rights as © Trustees of the British Museum and use copyright law (in theory) to secure and monitor ethical reuse. Users can locate relevant images and records via searches for tags like ‘human remains’, ‘human skeleton remains’, and ‘human mummy’.[4]
Finally, the British Library has a statement specific to “ethical and permitted usage of recordings”, which was prepared with the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). It begins by explaining “[d]ue effort has been made to ensure culturally sensitive material has been cleared for use or has been removed from wider access”. The collections themselves are digitised and made available “purely for the purposes of safeguarding them and for making them available for noncommercial research, study and private enjoyment” and include “culturally sensitive materials, among them ethnographic sound recordings”. The policy prohibits use and alteration “in ways that might be derogatory to the indigenous and local communities who are traditional custodians” It notes that while “the British Library, or contributors to its collections, may be the owners of intellectual property in the digitisation of the sound recordings and in the sound recordings themselves, the Library recognises that broader rights and interests [in the materials] reside with the traditional custodians”. As a result, “prior informed consent of the British Library and/ or [sic] other contributing parties, as well as the traditional custodians is required for the republication and commercial use of part or whole of these materials”.[5] This reflects the many layers of rights that can arise in such materials, while also suggesting additional rights can apply to the digital file as a result of their digitisation.
Aside from these, no other policies discussed rights in reuse, cultural sensitivities and how users might consider context around digital collections and data encountered online. This does not mean such work is not ongoing within institutions, only that the majority of public facing policies do not extend to these concerns.[6] This reflects the wider dynamic of such research and activities being access-focused, project-based or exceptions to collections management, rather than comprehensively built into systems and operational budgets in a way that reflects their systemic embeddedness among UK collections and concerns of reuse.
4.2.11. Discussion of open access
Finally, policies were reviewed for express mentions of open access. Some policies include or link to specific statements on open access, but few explain what this means or use open access to anchor
- ↑ Archaeology and Numismatics, 23. Leeds Museums & Galleries (C. Ethical policies)
- ↑ https://museumsandgalleries.leeds.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Visitor-Responses-to-Human-Remainsin-Leeds-Museums-and-Galleries-final-report.pdf
- ↑ Copyright and permissions, 8. British Museum (C. Ethical policies)
- ↑ https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection
- ↑ Sounds, Licences, 7. British Library (C. Ethical policies)
- ↑ For example, see https://www.tate.org.uk/about-us/projects/provisional-semantics; https://photoarchive.paul-melloncentre.ac.uk/groups/Archival-Silence-and-Historical-Bias; https://www.bl.uk/collection-guides/major-named-collections-of-printed-booksnow-in-the-british-library
