Protecting the Past to Power the Future
The Digital Rights Statement aims to safeguard the essential digital activities of libraries, archives, and museums (collectively referred to as “memory institutions”).
It urges policymakers and communities to ensure these institutions retain the same rights and responsibilities online that they have historically held offline.
About
The Statement on Digital Rights for Protecting Memory Institutions Online emerged from a series of conversations sparked during the Internet Archive’s Library Leaders Forum in San Francisco. Loosely based on a 2022 report focused on access to eBooks in the United States, the Statement has a universal scope—encompassing all memory institutions and the diverse types of materials they house.
It was first signed at the Aruba symposium, “Connecting our Shared Heritage: Linking (Dutch) Caribbean Heritage Institutions and Collections,” in Oranjestad, 8-12 April 2024 by Archivo Nacional Aruba, Biblioteca Nacional Aruba, and other Aruban memory institutions.
Since then, libraries, archives, and museums around the globe have also signed the Statement, in recognition of the essential services that memory institutions provide to the public, as well as the urgent need to ensure these institutions retain the same rights and responsibilities online that they have historically held offline.
Our Future Memory provides a way for memory institutions and others who support them to sign the Statement and join a global community focused on Protecting the Past to Power the Future.
Why do the digital rights of memory institutions need protecting?
Memory institutions support communities by preserving and providing long-term access to the cultural, artistic, and scientific knowledge that make up our collective intellectual heritage. Memory institutions also help individuals seeking, obtaining, and sharing information by democratizing access and allowing everyone—no matter their income level or physical location—to educate themselves and participate in public life.
Authors, researchers, journalists, and other creators depend upon digital access to library, archive, and museum collections, because these memory institutions keep resources available without regard to commercial viability. Future generations depend upon memory institutions for access to the older, difficult-to-find materials that become building blocks for new creative works and scientific understanding.
These essential public benefits are possible because memory institutions have historically had the discretion and capacity to collect, preserve, and provide controlled access to books and other essential resources. Unfortunately, many of these activities have become less certain in today’s increasingly digital, networked world.
On the one hand, much of the world’s information remains undigitized in physical formats and thereby inaccessible to those without time and resources to travel. On the other hand, many of the materials that are published and accessed online in digital formats are locked up in commercial platforms that unduly restrict memory institutions in their public service mission. This state of affairs has left memory institutions with fewer (if any) practical ways to collect, preserve, and make materials available for future generations.
The 4 Rights
The rights and responsibilities that memory institutions have always enjoyed offline must also be protected online. To accomplish this goal, libraries, archives, and museums must have the legal rights and practical ability to:
1. COLLECT MATERIALS IN DIGITAL FORM, whether through digitization of physical collections, purchase on the open market, or other legal means.
2. PRESERVE DIGITAL MATERIALS, and where necessary repair, back up, or reformat them, to ensure their long-term existence and availability.
3. PROVIDE CONTROLLED ACCESS TO DIGITAL MATERIALS to enable advanced research techniques and to meet patrons where they are—online.
4. COOPERATE WITH OTHER MEMORY INSTITUTIONS by sharing or transferring digital collections, so as to aid preservation and access.
You can view the full statement here or download a copy here.
Sign the Statement!
The Statement can be endorsed by governments, memory institutions, and other public interest organizations following a verification process. If you are interested in signing the statement, or would like to learn more, please contact us HERE.
#PROTECTOURFUTUREMEMORY
Signatories List
- International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) – ✎
- Wikimedia Foundation – ✎
- Internet Archive – ✎
- Internet Archive Europe – ✎
- Archivo Nacional Aruba (ANA) – ✎
- Aruban National Committee for UNESCO’s Memory of the World Programme – ✎
- Biblioteca Nacional Aruba (BNA) – ✎
- Coleccion Aruba
- Museo Arkeologico Nacional Aruba (MANA)
- Stichting Monumentenfonds Aruba
- Union di Organisacionnan Cultural Arubano (UNOCA)
- Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision –✎
- Society for Culture, Art and International Cooporation ADLIGAT, Belgrade – ✎
- University library ”Svetozar Markovic”, Belgrade – ✎
- Serbian Library Association, Belgrade – ✎
- National library of Serbia, Belgrade – ✎
- Cultural Institution Golubac Museum, Golubac – ✎
- Public library ”Stefan Prvovencani” Kraljevo, Kraljevo – ✎
- Public library ”Veljko DUgosevic” Golubac, Golubac – ✎
- Public library ”Ilija M. Petrovic” Pozarevac, Pozarevac – ✎
- Internet club, Ljig – ✎
- Public library ”Radoje Domanovic” Topola, Topola – ✎
- Historical archive of Sumadija, Kragujevac – ✎
- Historical archive of Nis, Nis – ✎
- Secondary school ”Miloje Vasic”, Veliko Gradis – ✎
- Library Association of Republic of Srpska – ✎
- PI National and University Library of the Republic of Srpska – ✎
- The Athens University of Economics and Business Library – ✎
- Association of Greek librarians and Information Scientists – ✎
- Library of the University of Piraeus – ✎
- Creative Commons – ✎
- Climate Clock, Democratic Republic of Congo Chapter – ✎
- Musiikkiarkisto / Music Archive Finland – ✎
- Swiss Library Association Bibliosuisse – ✎
- University of Helsinki, Musicology Institution – ✎
- Library & Information Centre of University of Macedonia – ✎
- Internet Archive Canada – ✎
- Sir Arthur Lewis Community College – ✎
- Ionian University – ✎
- Royal Association for the Archive Sector in the Netherlands – ✎
- Library Futures, NYU Law Institution – ✎
- Boston Library Consortium – ✎
- Irish Universities Association Librarians’ Group (IUALG) – ✎
- Association of Research Libraries – ✎
- American Library Association – ✎
- Canadian Association of Research Libraries – ✎
- University of Galway – ✎
- Irish Research e-Library – ✎
- eBook Study Group – ✎