Session IV  Learners Permits, Licenses and the Electronic Highway :
Finding your way March 7, 1998 Moderated by Hinda Sklar and Katy
Poole, co-chairs of the Public Policy Committee. 

Maryly Snow, Librarian, Architecture Slide Library, University of 
California-Berkeley,  gave some recommendations to those who will be 
launching  image database projects, structuring her talk around the
concepts of metadata, data standards, image database software, image
protocols, electronic archiving and maintenance, and copyright and
licensing.  Essentially,  Snow  said that anything can be accomplished
once you are finally aroused to undertaking an image database project,
that your committment will lead you through the inevitable
problem-solving steps as they develop. Using SPIRO as an example of a 
robust  distributive image database, Snow presented some lessons to
learn  regarding successful management of a web accessible image
archive. Revisions of the database will be needed as it grows.   The
support of  your institution is very helpful  especially since  the
complexities  of networked environments  do require cooperation among
the  contributors. The nature of slide libraries is changing as the 
new imaging technology creates a need for electronic data standards 
and image protocols, requiring the slide librarian to develop
intra-institutional partnerships. In the area of copyright, Snow drew
a distinction between digitial permissions, which can be initiated by
the slide librarian with the vendor signing the agreement, and site
licenses, which are vendor-initiated and signed by someone with legal
signatory authority at the educational institution.  Both digital
permissions and site licenses are legally binding contracts, although
site licenses are generally more complex documents. More and more
vendors are beginning to permit copying  thumb nails and larger size
vignettes  without restrictions.  As  licensing  agreements become
more prevalent  negotiating with vendors will be  easier.  Snow
acknowledges SPIRO as one of the few, if only, image databases
available on the world wide web, using thumbnails of all images,
linking each image to its books or periodical source, its donor, or
vendor, with hot links to vendor email and web sites.  While vendor 
and donor images represent secured permissions, copy stand images
fulfull the four fair use factors. Snow's handout referred
participants to her articles on digital permissions and site
licensings in slidelibraries, "fair use and licensing agreements:
digital permissions in the slide library" in visual resources
association bulletin, summer 1996, vol. 23:2, pp. 73-74. and her more
recent article, "digital images and fair use web sites" also in vra
bulletin, winter 1997, vol. 24:4 pp. 40-43 and on the web AT
http://vrl3.arts.ohio-state.edu/vrab/244/toc.htm


Nancy Allen, the  Museum of Fine Arts Boston, gave a brief history and
overview of the AMICO project.  The Art Museum Image Consortium,
AMICO, was founded  in 1996 by the  Association of Museum Directors,
AAMD. The AMICO  project is a non-profit venture  in its preliminary
stages.   The  goal of the project is to create a shared database of 
images of art  objects and documentation from the collections of the
member museums. The intended audience for this database will be
education institutions. One of the goals of the project is to
encourage  collaboration among educational and museum institutions
through  access to the AMICO library. At present twenty Universities
have been chosen as test-bed sites for the 1998/99 academic year.     
  They will utilize the system and provide feedback to improve the
content and usability of the database. The proposed  licensing fee is
$2500 to $5000 varying with the size of the institution.  RLG  will
mount the AMICO database on RLIN.  Other means of distribution and the
formation of licensing  agreements will be established. AMICO will
have the right  to draft legal documents to control use of the
material.  It  will permit the records to be used for research, study,
students' assignments, displays in  galleries, displays in lectures,
reproduction in dissertations, making copies, and allowing
manipulating and alteration of the images.  It will not allow
distribution for profit, commercial use, fund raising, publication,  
long term storage,  redistribution,  displaying without accreditation,
nor distribution of manipulated images.

Hinda Sklar, Librarian , The Architectural Association,  presented a
strategy for negotiating a site license for digitized images.
Licensing agreements must be carefully studied.  You have a right to
ask for concessions from the vendor.  There is a difference between
licensing and copyright.  A license is a set of regulations for use
agreed upon by a user and a vendor.  Copyright is legal protection of 
personal property control by the rightful owner of  intellectual or
artistic work.  When establishing a contract for a site license
remember to clearly define  who  the authorized user will be.   Do not
allow restrictions that would prevent "normal" use by the users of
your library, or that may require you to monitor the users. Try to
make the best agreement for the broadest base of users at your
institution including use for all  printed course packages and
electronic reserves.  Negotiate use for minimum needs. Clarify your
rights to share the resource through interlibrary loan.  Controlled
access through a logon is best because it allows access from remote
locations.    Find out about archival control,  warrantees - quality
of performance and  intellectual property rights.  Consult with the
person in charge of electronic licensing at your institution.  Have
them look at the contract before signing it. Rewrite the contract if
needed.


Chuck Broadbent, Director of Information Technology for the Free
Library of Philadelphia, discussed the technological dilemmas of
delivering electronic information in public libraries.

The full cost of providing electronic technology in libraries is not
always understood or provided for up front.  The ownership price is
clearly the purchase price of the equipment, software and databases. 
After that the cost of implementation is ongoing and not always
provided for adequately.    There needs to be continuous financial
support for the staff who will maintain and service the systems and
those who will train staff and patrons in their use. CD-ROM products
frequently have poor quality images and in addition present numerous
problems from the technical support side. At present a wide variety of
systems are available including CD-ROM towers and Local Area Networks
which have different incompatible requirements. It is essential that
technological standards be established to assure the ability to
deliver the information to the public. The following problems exist. 
Independent Branches  do not have access to the  CD-ROM network at the
Main Library. Sound is a problem in public areas and headsets present
a sanitation issue.  The lack of clear guidelines concerning
intellectual property rights and the restrictions that may follow are
a concern. The reference staff  is burdened with the queries of remote
users of library websites.   Clear policies concerning the censorship
of objectionable information  must be established.   Methods to
monitor children's use or to build in restrictions for the general
public has, in one case, brought on litigation from a patron
professing the right to view Internet pornography  at the library.   A
project to digitize a special collection of original printed
photographs to improve access  and  preserve it was also discussed.

Marilyn Healey,  University of Georgia