RESOURCE: Finding the Public Domain: The Copyright Review Management System

Ithaka S+R has published “Finding the Public Domain: The Copyright Review Management System,” an issue brief written by Melissa Levine (University of Michigan). Providing an overview to the Copyright Review Management System (CRMS), “a system to train and coordinate reviewers to assess the copyright status of digitized books held in the HathiTrust Digital Library,” the paper shares lessons learned from this multi-year and multi-institution project and provides scholars, librarians, and administrators with a toolkit to conduct copyright review to help add works into the public domain.

While memory institutions have made significant inroads into identifying public domain works, I am truly in awe when I consider the wealth and variety of works that await our attention. The experience of CRMS indicates that we can tackle this challenge with improved information tools, carefully coordinated and distributed efforts, and ongoing advocacy and policy work.