3.2.2. Open GLAM instances: open versus public domain compliant assets
Global. Of the total 1,208 GLAMs, 411 (34.0%) claim new rights and use open licences to publish assets generated around public domain works. Of the 411, there are 94 (7.8%) who take this position for all eligible data. The remaining 317 (26.2%) take this position for some eligible data.
The other 797 (66.0%) claim no new rights publish assets using public domain tools. Of the 797, there are 177 (14.7%) who take this position for all eligible data. The remaining 620 (51.3%) take this position for some eligible data. In EU Member States alone, new survey entries and the volume of public domain compliant assets are expected to skyrocket as GLAMs align policies with Article 14 of 2019 Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive and release all eligible data for any reuse.[1]
United Kingdom. Of the total 80 UK GLAMs, 49 (or 61.3%) claim new rights and use open licences to publish assets generated around public domain works. Based on the data immediately above, the UK is the inverse of the global position. Of these, 1 GLAM takes this position for all eligible data (Portable Antiquities Scheme). The remaining 48 take this position for some eligible data.
The other 31 (38.7% of UK) publish assets using public domain tools. Of the 31, there are 6 who take this position for all eligible data. These are Birmingham Museums Trust, National Library of Wales, Newcastle Libraries, Royal Pavilion & Museums Trust, Brighton & Hove, Wellcome Collection and York Museums Trust. The remaining 25 (31.3% of UK) take this position for some eligible data.
3.2.3. Open GLAM participation in top 10 countries
For comparison, the top 10 countries with high open GLAM instances and their volume are discussed in detail in Appendix 3: Top 10 countries with open GLAM participation. Short summaries are provided below.
The United States (98.9%), Poland (97.2%) and Spain (78.9%) lead on the percentage of instances who publish eligible data to the public domain, rather than claim new rights and publish data using open licences.[2] However, countries that lead on the national percentage of instances that publish all eligible data to the public domain are France (33.9%) and Spain (26.3%). Instances that publish all eligible data to the public domain are ordered as follows: the United States (50), France (21), Spain (15), Germany (14), Sweden (11), the Netherlands (8), the United Kingdom (6), Poland (4) and Norway and Sweden (1).
Representation among these countries may be influenced by one or more factors, such as cultural mindset, legal clarity on the question of copyright, the presence of local or national aggregators, partnerships formed with external platforms, or targeted digitisation campaigns and hackathons.
United States – 292 instances; 10,662,295 assets. The US has the most legally compliant open GLAM practice among instances. The most common platform for publication is Wikimedia Commons (201 or 69.1% of US instances). 56 US instances publish open collections via their own website, often at medium to very high-resolution formats. The US has a high representation of total instances that publish all eligible collections to the public domain: 49 total instances (or 16.8% of US instances). The Smithsonian Institution accounts for 37.0% of the total volume for the US, with 3,942,729 CC0 assets.
Germany – 157 instances; 2,360,368 assets. Most instances in Germany claim new rights and publish data using open licences (115 or 72.3% of Germany instances). Until recently, this was lawful
