Users understand OpenGLAM. Do GLAMs?

Abstract

• For more than a decade, a dedicated bunch of Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums [GLAM] around the world have been advocating for opening up cultural heritage collections while pushing for openness in their own institutions. Today, more than 1,200 GLAMs worldwide feature open access to their digitised assets – making OpenGLAM a trend, but not yet the mainstream. Parallel to this, users are getting used to demanding free and open access to common cultural heritage. The days of “All rights reserved” on old masterpieces seem to be counted, and people outside the institutional walls are creating marvellous new art and knowledge resources using data from GLAM collections, spurring on developments in digital literacy, citizen science and democratic citizenship. While users are increasingly “getting” OpenGLAM, the GLAM sector at large is lagging behind in embracing the potentials of an open cultural heritage. What arguments are we missing to move forward?