Dale,
Postcards are generally considered published materials, like books, so anything produced before 1923 is in the public domain and is fair game for any type of use; if published before 1977 without a copyright notice, it is likely public domain, as well. It is possible that postcards produced before 1963 are in the public domain, as the copyright holder would have had to renew the copyright for it to be extended, but verifying this would take a lot of work. Institutions need to decide for themselves how much risk they're willing to accept in digitizing these materials. Most photographs should be considered to be unpublished materials, like letters and manuscripts, and those get more protection under copyright law, not less. Unless you know who created the materials and when he or she died, you should assume that they have some copyright protection unless they were created prior to 1890. There's a great chart of copyright terms by Peter Hirtle at http://copyright.cornell.edu/resources/publicdomain.cfm. I also heartily recommend his "Copyright and Cultural Institutions," available online at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1495365. For best practices in dealing with materials that may be under copyright but where the owner cannot be found, I recommend the "Orphan Works: Statement of Best Practices" from the Society of American Archivists: http://www.archivists.org/standards/OWBP-V4.pdf. Danielle Cunniff Plumer, Coordinator Texas Heritage Online Texas State Library and Archives Commission 512.463.5852 (phone) / 512.936.2306 (fax) [email protected] From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of D Ricklefs Sent: Thursday, July 22, 2010 9:39 AM To: Langenkamp, Stephanie; Laurie Mahaffey; [email protected] Subject: Re: [ctls-l] FW: [syscon-tx] Grant Opportunity - TexasCultures Online The museum industry is really into this, moreso than we have been as libraries. I sit on the Williamson Museum board, and this is where we really do differ, but up to this point we have not tried to make them available for the web-we're not reproducing them. While print material like newspaper clippings would definitely fall under what we're used to in terms of copyright, personal pictures given to us through the years are a different animal. Postcards pre-1915 are OK as copyright is 95 years today (I read that somewhere recently-can someone confirm?). Some of the bigger issues with personal items we may have in our files is how family members may respond to wide distribution. It is one thing to have the oral history tape in my possession. It is another thing for some family members to allow their release to the public without some type of statement signed by the interviewee as to terms of use. This is a good one for Karen (Taylor) to chime in on, too, as she has one of the best photo collections in Williamson County. Dale Ricklefs, Library Director Round Rock Public Library 216 E. Main Street, Round Rock, Texas 78664 512-218-7010; 218-7061 (fax); [email protected] Go to Facebook, and become a fan of Round Rock Public Library Visit our website at: http://www.roundrocktexas.gov/library We're on Twitter at RoundRockPL -------------------------------------------------------------- If you get a "mailbox full" or some form of message identifying delivery problems, please call me at one of the numbers above. Thank you! From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Langenkamp, Stephanie Sent: Thursday, July 22, 2010 9:14 AM To: Laurie Mahaffey; [email protected] Subject: Re: [ctls-l] FW: [syscon-tx] Grant Opportunity - Texas Cultures Online Laurie and others- I have looked into these UNT grants a little bit and wonder about a couple things: 1) Will "The Portal to Texas History" that UNT is creating, become the way that people will access these materials in the future for the whole state or are there other competing portals that are being launched by the state library or other large universities? (ie: does the UNT project have a special status within the state in relation to digitized Texas history collections?) 2) Most of these digitizing grants seem to require that the libraries obtain the copyrights to the materials in their collections. We have no idea how to do that, nor resources to do that. We have a wonderful hodge-podge of newspaper clippings, postcards, old photographs, miscellaneous brochures, etc. How could we ever claim ownership of the copyrights on a collection like this? Thanks, Stephanie From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Laurie Mahaffey Sent: Thursday, July 22, 2010 8:48 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [ctls-l] FW: [syscon-tx] Grant Opportunity - Texas Cultures Online -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Danielle Plumer Sent: Wednesday, July 21, 2010 4:24 PM To: [email protected]; [email protected] Subject: [syscon-tx] Grant Opportunity - Texas Cultures Online Grant Opportunity: Texas Cultures Online The University of North Texas Libraries is pleased to announce Texas Cultures Online, a project funded by the Amon Carter Foundation. In response to educators' expressed need for multimedia materials that support teaching about the many cultures of Texas, UNT seeks to digitize cultural heritage collections that represent the state's vast ethnic diversity. UNT is offering mini-grants, ranging from $500 - $20,000, to digitize collections of cultural significance and add them to The Portal to Texas History. The Portal to Texas History, http://texashistory.unt.edu/, is a digital gateway to over 100,000 historical documents, photographs, and publications belonging to partner institutions throughout Texas. Easy to search and explore, the Portal is a valuable resource for educators, students, and the public at large. To view the application, please visit http://www.library.unt.edu/digitalprojects/for-our-partners/portal-partn ers/texas-cultures-online. Applications are due September 15, 2010. ________ _______________________________________ syscon-tx mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe to this list please visit the following url http://lists.tsl.state.tx.us/mailman/listinfo/syscon-tx ________________________________ San Marcos, TX ...Business Week Top 10 Places to Raise kids in the U.S
