Policy Specification for Digital Library Objects Vicky Weissman

Common Policies for Digital Libraries

From Sandy Payette's Interview with Anne Kenney and Peter Hirtle
(Co-Directors of Cornell Institute for Digital Collections):

Object: Course Reserve Packet (CRP) contains several scanned articles
Subject: course members
Actions: read all articles
Subject: professor
Actions: read or delete articles, delete CRP
Subject: all others
Actions: no access
Object: CRP contains syllabus, multiple articles, multiple reports
Subject: course members
Actions: read syllabus, articles, and reports
Subject: professor
Actions: read syllabus, read, add, or delete articles and reports, delete CRP
Subject: all others
Actions: read syllabus
Object: Book - bib record and scanned images
Subject: users who have not purchased the rights to access the book
Actions:

read bib record and table of contents

pay fee #1 for read (download/print) of low resolution page images

pay fee #2 for read (download/print) of high resolution page images

pay fee #3 for read (download/print) of whole book of high resolution page images

pay fee #4 for read (download/print) of book updates
Subject: users who have purchased right to access the book
Actions:

read (download/print) whole book in high or low resolution until expiration date

read updates until expiration date

Object: a remotely-stored article
Subject: members of Cornell community (CC), identified by IP address
Actions: read (download/print) whole article
Subject: all others
Actions: none

Object: an article in an inter-library loan agreement
Subject: CC
Actions:

read until CC has made X accesses to the article in Y years
read until CC has made X1 accesses to the article's parent journal
pay copyright fee to read article if CC has lost read right
Subject: all others
Actions: pay copyright fee to read article

Object: slide collection (donated from dubious origin)
Subject: CC
Actions:

read access for 3 yrs (while copyright is being secured)
after 3 yrs., read access to slides that have CUL copyright clearence
after 3 yrs., read access to slides that are in the public domain
after 3 yrs., pay fee to read slides with CUL NO copyright clearence

Subject: members of the Yale community
Actions:

no access for first 3 yrs.
after 3 yrs., read access to slides with CUL obtained 'special' copyright clearence
after 3 yrs., read access to slides that are in the public domain
after 3 yrs., pay fee for read access to all other slides

Subject: all others
Actions: read access to public domain slides after 3 yrs.

Object: film clip
Subject: all users
Actions: access (download/view) first 10 seconds, pay fee to access entire clip

Object: book with copyright of text belonging to person A and copyright of images to person B
Subject: all users
Actions:

pay copyright to view text until A's rights expire
pay copyright to view images until B's rights expire
read text and view images after relevant rights have expired

From the Corporation for National Research Initiatives's work
with the Library of Congress's National Digital Library Program

Policies are from "Implementing Policies for Access Management" by William Yeo Arms, D-Lib Magazine, Feb 1998

Object: a general collection, a reserve collection, and reference materials
Subject: faculty
Actions:

check-out a portion of the general collection for 12 weeks
check-out a portion of the reserve material for 2 weeks
use reference material in the library
Subject: student
Actions:

check-out a portion of the general collection for 2 weeks
use reserve material in the library
use reference material in the library
Subject: all others
Actions: no access

Object: a general collection, a reserve collection, and reference materials
Subject: faculty and students
Actions:

check-out a portion of the general collection for 12 weeks
use reserve material in the library
use reference material in the library
Subject: all others
Actions: no access

Object: a set of roles, possible roles are:
All (any user)
Educational (holds educational site license)
In_LC (in Library of Congress)
LC_Staff (Library of Congress staff member)

Subject: correct ID and password for an educational site
Actions: may act in Education role
Subject: correct ID and password for LC staff member
Actions: may act in LC_Staff role
Subject: IP Address matches a computer in LC
Actions: may act In_LC role
Subject: any
Actions: may act in All role

Object: work for which at least one of the following holds:
the copyright has expired and the work is published or registered
the work is associated with a deed of gift from the donor permitting universal access
LC review of work revealed no extant right, universal access permitted
information on work is incomplete and LC review indicates low risk
Subject: all users
Actions: general operations

Object: work for which the deed of gift from donor restricts access
Subject: Educational
Actions: general operations
Subject: all others
Actions: no access

Object: work for which information is incomplete, LC review indicates high risk
Subject: In_LC
Actions: general and statement-1 must be shown with each access
Subject: all others
Actions: no access

Object: copyrighted work for which permission has not been granted by owner
Subject: LC_Staff
Actions: general and statement-2 must be shown with each access
Subject: all others
Actions: no access

Object: copyrighted work for which permission has been granted by owner
Subject: any
Actions: general and statement-3 must be shown with each access

Note: Policies were collected from various libraries at Cornell University and the Tomkins County Public Library, however, the policies were not significanly different from those given above.

Misc. Examples

The following examples seem reasonable, although they did not come from discussions with people in the digital libraries field.

Object: a collection
Subject: law-enforcement agency or self
Actions: obtain a listing of what self has checked-out in the last 6 months.
Subject: all others
Actions: no access to listings
Examples - Why have this type of policy?:
- you're very interested in topic X, but don't want anyone to know, because topic X is not well-respected among your peers
- a suspect in a burglary has been checking out books on home security systems
Object: a policy
Subject: senior library staff
Actions: view and change policy
Subject: all others
Actions: view policy
Purpose: to correct mistakes and to adapt to new circumstances.
Object: a collaborative work between persons A and B
Subject: A
Actions: change work
Subject: B
Actions: change work with consent of A
Purpose: to facilitate collaboration.
Object: new object
Subject: library staff
Actions: can add new objects to repository but additions must come with a description and a policy.
Subject: all others
Actions: cannot create objects
Purpose: to allow the creation and growth of repositories
Object: an object
Subject: trusted third party
Actions: label object as 'verified'
Subject: all others
Actions: cannot label object as 'verified'
Purpose: to protect consumers from misinformation

Questions concerning this project should be sent to Vicky Weissman.