1. Creative Commons License for our Morningside History project site
Near the start of our process, we discussed Creative Commons license options and settled on a CC-BY 3.0 US License. This is featured on the front page of our Developing Librarian process / blog site, which states in the bottom margin “This work is licensed under a CC-BY 3.0 US License.” In our meeting today we discussed licensing and terms of use issues for our Morningside Heights Digital History project site. Unlike our process / blog site, our project site contains a substantial variety of different types of the_content: for example, original exhibit text written by team authors, images used with permission of institutions, etc. Various things emerged clearly in the discussion:
- We need two kinds of license, or terms of use statements–one covering our original content and one covering images or documents that we are using with permission or through public domain. We have authority to determine reuse conditions under a CC license for our original content. For images or documents we did not create, however, we need an appropriate statement in which responsibility for seeking reuse permissions, where needed, is left with the user.
- The default when no CC license statement is included is that originally authored materials are covered under ordinary copyright. We decided, however, that we should select and apply a specific CC license to the original content on our project site. The CC licenses http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ all share in common attribution, or crediting of author, as a basic element. There were varying opinions about whether or not we should select a CC license that adds ND (no derivatives) and/or NC (no commercial use) onto the basic CC BY license. In the course of our discussion, we found it very helpful to consider Omeka showcase which provides links to a variety of Omeka sites and their statements of terms of use conditions.
Action Item: Bob Scott and John Tofanelli will draft and send to the group for approval a terms of use statement for the project site. Once the group has approved that statement, Bob and John will submit it to Rina Panatalony, Director of our Copyright Advisory Office for review.
2. Libraries Information Technology Office (LITO) guidelines
Our Morningside History project site will be moving to a Columbia University Libraries (CUL) server before it launches publicly this June. We therefore need to bring it into conformity with standards applicable to all sites housed on CUL servers. We looked at Columbia Univerity Libraries’ “Visual Identity & Website Guidelines,” which is the key document. Alex will bring our site into conformity with these guidelines in terms of incorporating Columbia banner, etc.
