Making the Business Case for Open Access: How the Royal Albert Memorial Museum adopted an open access strategy for digital collections with the GLAM-E Lab

Abstract

• Dr Andrea Wallace, Associate Professor of Law & Technology & Director of the GLAM-E Lab, the University of Exeter Dr Francesca Farmer, Research Fellow, GLAM-E Lab & Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery (RAMM) Julien Parsons, Collections & Content Manager, the Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery (RAMM) At the start of 2024, the Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery (RAMM) announced a new Open Access Strategy: for the first time, RAMM released digital surrogates of public domain works using the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. Like any major strategic change, RAMM’s move to open access required time, careful planning, and collective effort to see it through. It was also supported by the GLAM-E Lab, an AHRC funded project. This talk reflects on the process while sharing the lessons learned from RAMM’s journey. It sets out the research-led approach taken by RAMM and GLAM-E Lab to make the business case for open access, starting with a small set of 63 CC0 images published to Wikimedia Commons. It also addresses the recent Court of Appeal decision in THJ v Sheridan, what it means for copyright licensing services and how the cultural sector can respond by embracing open access.