We are OPEN! Share and reuse our public domain collections (and read about how we got there)
by Nele Gabriëls
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Read about how KU Leuven Libraries have made their collections accessible and reusable. For all items there is a clear copyright status, information that is held in the digital asset preservation system. There is also a link to the full descriptive records which provides users with the most current information on the item on view. This way, visitors are encouraged to become active users of digital content.
Here’s a piece of exciting news: KU Leuven Libraries has adopted an open data policy for its digitised collections! This means that nearly 42.000 digital representations of originals from the library’s public domain holdings may be freely shared and (re-)used by all. And of course this number continues to grow.
How it works?
It’s easy. Online visitors can check the copyright status of the images when viewing digitised collection items online. A direct link guides them to our terms of use page, where they will read that everyone is free to use and reuse images offered as open data at will, mentioning KU Leuven as the owner of the collection item where possible.
The IE viewer displays copyright status information and links to the general
terms and conditions.
The information pane of the IIIF-based Mirador viewer displays the same copyright status information and link to the general terms and conditions…
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