Preservation, Access and Intellectual Property Rights Challenges for Libraries in the Digital Environment

Digitisation of collections provides great opportunities for widening access to collections and especially to unique, rare and fragile material. It also enables preservation by creating a surrogate and thus reducing handling of originals. However, the legal status of such activity is unclear.

This paper points the way towards a common set of rights or principles to equip libraries with the tools they require to operate effectively and legally in digital environments.