Managing Digital Assets:Institutional Policy Issues

Managing Digital Assets

Strategic Issues for Research Libraries

An ARL, CNI, CLIR, DLF Forum

---------Ann J. Wolpert

Director of Libraries, MIT

Research, scholarship and scholarly communication are in transition.• Traditional publication is only one part of the

network enabled “system” of content• Business models of traditional publishing are

problematic and/or constraining• New formats present daunting preservation

challenges• Required responsibilities are not yet defined• Increasing amounts of intellectual output have no

print analog

Digital asset management appears to be a natural fit for research libraries.

• Educating their institutions about the risks of content privatization

• Mission is to understand and support education and research

• Trusted relationships with faculty• Technical competence and collaboration• Strong service orientation• Curatorial experience and orientation

Access to original material is crucial to innovation and creativity.• Every endeavor relies on prior work• Sensible terms of access permit

decentralized innovation - in science and technology as well as in art

• Assets must be visible and kept accessible to be useful

• Scholarship needs asset managers who share scholars values

And yet, it does seem that our perception of where information generally, and culture in particular, comes from came to be dominated over the second half of the twentieth century by a vision of Hollywood and the recording industry.

Yochaim Benkler

Yale Law Journal

Concentrated communications systems argue for alternatives.• STM journals: 6 publishers control ~80%• Music: 5 groups = 84% of market• Cable TV: 6 firms cover 80% of the US• Films: 6 companies earn 90% of theater

revenues• Multimedia: 6 corporations dominate the

business of daily newspapers, magazines, television, books, and motion pictures.

Research libraries must articulate and promote an alternative vision. • Failure to provide an alternative to the

business model of traditional publishing poses dangers to research and education

• Research libraries are well positioned to experiment: local, national, international

• The decision to provide an alternative to private ownership is a core policy statement

Managing digital assets is a new line of business for libraries.• Policy is at least as important as technology• Policy encodes the reasons for managing

the digital assets• Technology encodes policy• Key clients are not the norm in library

service• Business planning is not the norm in

libraries

Digital asset stores are not the same as research libraries.• Content comes directly from authors or

owners

• Preservation carries new weight

• Distribution has new meaning

• Metadata will vary

• A partnership with faculty/museum/etc. vs. an academic service

Policy decisions come in many forms.• Open source or commercial platform

• Open access, cost recovery, cost plus, mixed

• Copyright or Creative Commons

• IP regime desired for content, metadata, look and feel

• Design for promotion or discovery

Key policies required include the expected.• Qualifications of submitters

• Characterizations of what can be submitted

• Forms of submissions accepted

• Retention expectations

• Acceptable use and users

• Overlap with other institutional policies

• Privacy

Key policies required may also include the unexpected.• Exit strategy in the event of closure

• Revenue sharing

• Cost sharing

• Distribution licenses

• Research access/utilization

• Value added services

Policy choices and process will drive success.• Acceptance

• Adoption

• Operational sustainability

• Evolution

• Scalability

• Long-term affordability

Other rules of thumb that have been useful.• Be able to articulate the rationale for

policies

• Figure out what you want to do before you consult counsel

• Tolerate uncertainty

• Resist profit expectations

• Share your policies