Open GLAM

What is Open GLAM?

Open GLAM is a collective effort by international GLAM organisations (that is, Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums) to open up their digital collection items for sharing and reuse.

By removing barriers to reuse — and by ensuring the users don’t need to decipher complex legal statements or ask permission — GLAM organisations are finding their works accessed and reused by a broader spectrum of the public, including publishers, researchers, educators and students.

Open GLAM in New Zealand

A range of New Zealand culture and heritage institutions, including Te Papa, the National Library of New Zealand and Upper Hutt City Library, have started to make their collections more accessible. These organisations are applying Creative Commons licensing, making high-resolution digital reproductions of out-of-copyright works freely available and clarifying the legal status of in-copyright works. Many institutions have also chosen to make their metadata freely available.

For many GLAM institutions, an additional driver is the New Zealand Government’s Open Access and Licensing framework, or NZGOAL. Read more about NZGOAL at our Open Government page.

Creative Commons and Open GLAM

To open their collections, GLAM institutions can use our free licences, which you can learn more about here. GLAM institutions can also use our public domain tools, which can be used to clearly state that a work is out of copyright.

Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand believes that works hosted by GLAM organisations should be open by default, unless there is a good reason to restrict access, such as copyright or indigenous knowledge restrictions. More specifically, we support GLAM institutions adopting:

Clear open licensing for in-copyright works, where possible.
Clear ‘no known copyright’ or Public Domain Marks for out-of-copyright works.
Open licensing options for those who donate or deposit works with GLAM organisations.