Every year, hundreds of thousands of new titles enter the European book market – but only a few turn into real bestsellers. A good number of them eventually go out of commerce as publishers cannot maintain the costs of marketing and storing books in print if they do not continue to sell well. While publishers are bringing more books back into commerce through e-books and print on demand, many titles still remain in the collections and archives of Europe’s libraries.
This situation is to change soon as Michel Barnier, European Commissioner for the Internal Market and Services, presided today over the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in which libraries, publishers, authors, and their collecting societies have agreed to a set of Key Principles that will give European libraries and similar cultural institutions the possibility to digitise and make available on line out-of-commerce books and learned journals which are part of their collections. The Key Principles contained in the MoU will encourage and underpin voluntary licensing agreements while fully respecting copyright and recognising that right holders should always have the first option to digitise and make available an out-of-commerce work. The MoU is an essential part of the efforts of stakeholders and of the Commission to address the needs of mass digitisation by European cultural institutions.
Commissioner Barnier said: “Today’s agreement marks an important step forward by stakeholders to find viable and concrete solutions to further the creation of Europe’s digital libraries and ensure access to our rich cultural heritage. I strongly believe this is a clear sign that, through dialogue and taking into account the specific needs of specific sectors, it is possible to reach negotiated solutions to surmount copyright issues in the digital era.”
The signatories also expressed their satisfaction with the outcome of the stakeholder dialogue.
Dr. Pirjo Hiidenmaa, President of the European Writers’ Council (EWC) said: “The MoU recognises the central role of authors, enables a new life to their books, and makes it possible for readers to continue enjoying them time after time.” “The library organisations welcome the positive outcome of the Stakeholder Dialogue on Out-of-Commerce Works. We hope that this first step in the development of efficient collective rights management mechanisms may be followed by initiatives in other areas” said Gerald Leitner, President of the European Bureau of Library, Information and Documentation Associations (EBLIDA).

Fergal Tobin, President of the Federation of European Publishers (FEP) continued: “European publishers welcome these sector-specific Principles which provide clear guidance to agree digitisation projects at national level, all the while allowing publishers to revive and to keep in commerce more and more publications through innovative solutions”.

“The MoU is yet another example of the kind of ground-breaking achievements that are possible when all the stakeholders collaborate constructively. IFRRO and European Visual Artists members are experienced collective rights managers and are eager to contribute to the important aim of making cultural heritage available in Europe” added Magdalena Vinent, President of the International Federation of Reprographic Rights Organisations (IFRRO).

Background

The MoU is the successful outcome of an eight-month long stakeholder dialogue facilitated by the Commission. European authors, publishers, libraries and collective management organisations have been working together since November 2010 and have agreed on a solution which takes account both of the interests of authors and the publishing sector on the one hand and of libraries and mass digitisation projects on the other. Collecting societies representing right holders in books and learned journals will play a key role in the practical implementation of the MoU which should substantially facilitate the negotiation and acquisition of the licences that libraries and similar cultural institutions need to digitise and put on line an important part of their archives (i.e. the books and learned journals in their collections which are out-of-commerce).

The MoU on out-of-commerce works stems from the Digital Agenda for Europe (see IP/10/581) and the more recent Communication on a Single Market for Intellectual Property Rights (IP/11/630). It is rooted in the overall objective of enabling the rolling out of Europe’s digital libraries and making European cultural heritage available online. This non-legislative initiative is complementary to the Commission’s recently adopted legislative proposal on orphan works (IP/11/630). Both initiatives are important to further the development of European digital libraries and the Europeana portal (http://www.europeana.eu).

For more information on the MoU see MEMO/11/619

For the Memorandum and other information on copyright in the EU :

LIBER (http://www.libereurope.eu) and EBLIDA (http://www.eblida.org) are jointly organising the 3^rd consecutive workshop on Digitization of Library Material in Europe, to be held at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague from 5^th to 7^th of October.
This biennial workshop will run for the third time this year, kindly hosted by the National library of the Netherlands. The workshop is open to everyone; anyone interested in digitization is welcome to participate and we would like to take this opportunity to call for your support in disseminating this invite (attached in different formats) amongst your contacts and help us to spread the word!
The Workshop provides a venue for presenting innovative new ideas regarding the digitization of library materials with the aim to bring professionals together on brainstorming sessions that show how libraries can best move forwards to the EC’s Digital Agenda for Europe. Presentations will be focusing on four different themes: User Experience, Business Models, Re-use (Metadata) and Workflow.
The Workshop presents itself as a unique opportunity to network with your European colleagues. If you are to attend, do register before Friday 16^th of September. To note, LIBER and EBLIDA libraries are entitled to a special rate on the registration fee. Go to http://indico.eblida.org/conferenceDisplay.py?confid=22 for registration and the programme.

The MA in Digital Humanities at NUI Maynooth is accepting applications until 31 July 2011 for the coming academic year.
Available as a one-year full-time or two-year distance learning programme, the MA in Digital Humanities integrates the needs, practices and challenges of humanities research with new methodologies, theories and practices in Information Communications Technologies. The programme is of benefit to those wishing to embark in careers such as information management or as software engineers, or educators; to existing practitioners in all of these fields who seek further professional development; and to students planning doctoral projects in the Humanities or Computer Science which require a digital humanities or humanities computing dimension.
The MA in Digital Humanities is funded under the Graduate Skills Conversion Programme (GSCP), a joint initiative with the Department of Education and Science and the Higher Education Authority, under the National Development Plan.
Fees for the 2011-12 academic year have been set at €2,750 per year.
Further details on the course can be accessed at http://www.learndigitalhumanities.ie/

The Reflection Group (Comité des Sages) on Bringing Europe’s cultural heritage online has been set up by the European Commission to provide recommendations on how best to speed up the digitisation and online accessibility of cultural material. The Comité des Sages has launched a consultation process to feed its reflection and subsequent recommendations. The consultation covers key issues such as the sources of funding for digitisation, the exploitation models of content digitised with public funding, and the conditions governing public-private partnerships for digitisation. The Comité is gathering the views of stakeholders and the general public through, amongst others, an online consultation and a public hearing.

1) Online consultation: At present a public consultation is ongoing with a number of closed questions (&http://ec.europa.eu/yourvoice/ipm/forms/dispatch?form=comitedessages&lang=en). Deadline for submission is 30 September 2010. If you have not replied to it yet, please take 15 minutes to do so.
Please forward this link to anyone you think could be interested in the consultation.
2) Public hearing: A public hearing will take place on 28 October 2010, from 10:00 to 16:30, in the Charlemagne building, Rue de la Loi 170, 1040 Brussels, Belgium.

Practical arrangements for the hearing
Registrations for the hearing, either to speak or simply to attend, should reach the following address by 15 October 2010: INFSO-COMITE-SAGES@ec.europa.eu.

Upon registration, and in order to facilitate the organisation, each applicant wishing to speak and to be interviewed by the Comité des Sages should indicate the topic(s) which he/she wishes to address. All applicants are invited to submit a position paper (max 2 pages) that will be analysed and taken into account by the Comité des Sages.
Given time constraints, it is possible that not all applicants will be invited to speak and to reply to the questions of the Comité des Sages. In case of an oversubscription, a selection will be made by the Comité des Sages, giving priority to the applications most relevant to the fulfilment of the mandate of the group, while ensuring the highest possible representativity. Those who registered but are not invited as speaker due to time constraints, will of course have the possibility to assist to the hearing and to submit their contribution in writing.

For more information:
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/digital_libraries/comite_des_sages/index_en.htm
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/digital_libraries/index_en.htm

If you have further questions, you can contact Luca Martinelli (tel. +352- 4301 38101) or Yvo Volman (tel +352- 4301 38086) of the Commission’s Directorate General for the Information Society and Media or Anna Athanasopoulou (+32- 2 – 29 97977) of the Commission’s Directorate General for Education and Culture.

The British Library is announcing a new partnership which will

‘… deliver the most significant mass digitisation of newspapers the UK has ever seen: up to 40 million historic pages from the national newspaper collection will be digitised, making large parts of this unparalleled resource available online for the first time.’

For more information see the BL website.