Solving Technical, Legal and Copyright Issues in Born-Digital Collecting from Independent Creators

Many authors, composers, performers, artists, and other creators forgo traditional publishers and market their materials directly online in digital format. Libraries, often tied to traditional vendors and formats, have struggled to purchase and preserve these materials. These published born-digital materials, however, are some of the most ephemeral and rare material libraries can collect, often representing both local and diverse creators. This presentation details the numerous legal and technical challenges to collecting born-digital materials for independent creators, while also providing solutions, including a model agreement created by the Music Library Association for digital music scores, and a newly launched digital ownership model from the Digital Public Library of America and the Independent Publishers Group. These models provide a path toward collecting this important material and underscore the need for digital ownership rights for libraries. The presentation will also discuss the intersections of access, storage, and preservation of born-digital materials and scalable solutions for institutions of varying budget sizes.