- privacy, data protection, rights in user-generated data and other legal and ethical frameworks. An absence of reuse restrictions exposes materials to machine learning, artificial intelligence and computational processes that can replicate bias in collections data and lead to harm. The growing uncertainty in this area causes collections holders to take new risk averse approaches to guard against reuse and fears of misuse. With public domain collections, the focus should be what collections and data are appropriate for online display, and how. New projects examining these questions are proceeding without UK involvement, with some notable exceptions.[1] There is an urgent need for greater insight on the non-copyright-related issues arising from open GLAM.
- More diverse and accurate representation among open collections. Collections management systems have many issues related to storing and publishing historical terminology and data without adequate contextualisation to support ethical reuse. Some collections cannot be published until the technologies and labour can be invested in to update information so it is fit for purpose. Project-based solutions designed to filter this information or connect collections within a platform can limit the harms raised by publishing data. However, they result in short-term patches to addressing deeply embedded issues found across collections, rather than systemic change across GLAMs and heritage management. These aspects and other reasons discussed above negatively impact diverse and accurate representation and require our urgent attention. Otherwise, what is presented on the front-end will continue to shape public perceptions around value and exacerbate underrepresentation and bias.
- New open access business models. GLAMs have real and serious concerns around the resources required to digitise, prepare and publish collections, including the fear that open access poses risks to commercial partnerships and income that is direly needed. Many expressed desires for new research on open access business models that can support creative opportunities while taking a holistic approach to asset creation, management and open access goals.
- How open access to the digital national collection can support the UK economy. To this point, it worth quoting from the Commission Recommendation on a common European data space for cultural heritage, published 11 October 2021:
Cultural heritage is not only a key element in building a European identity that relies on common values but also an important contributor to the European economy, fostering innovation, creativity and economic growth. For example, cultural tourism represents up to 40% of all tourism in Europe, and cultural heritage is an essential part of cultural tourism. Advanced digitisation of cultural heritage assets and the reuse of such content can generate new jobs not only in the cultural heritage sector but also in other cultural and creative sectors, including for instance the video game and film industries. Cultural and creative industries contribute to 3.95% of EU value added (EUR 477 billion), employ 8.02 million people and involve 1.2 million firms of which 99.9% are [small and medium-sized enterprises].
[...] The creation of a common European data space for cultural heritage will give the cultural heritage institutions the possibility to build on the scale of the single market, in line with the
