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18/05/2011
British Library welcomes Hargreaves Review recommendations
The British Library has welcomed the positive recommendations made to the Government by the Hargreaves Review, proposing an intellectual property framework designed to increase growth and innovation in the UK.
Dame Lynne Brindley, Chief Executive of the British Library, said: “This is a critical moment in the development of an intellectual property framework that is fit for the 21st century.
“The report has recognised the importance of copyright in the digital age to education and research. Hargreaves’ recommendations, including those relating to the digitisation of orphan works, text and data mining, and digital preservation will have an immediate benefit for research, life-long learning and teaching. I particularly welcome the recommendations for legislation to ensure that hard won copyright exceptions are protected and cannot be overridden by individual contracts.”
Dame Lynne also praised the proposal to create the world’s first Digital Copyright Exchange by the end of 2012.
The British Library’s submission to the Hargreaves Review called for reforms to make it easier for cultural institutions to digitise Orphan Works – including millions of items held in national collections where the rights-holder cannot be identified – and thereby deliver benefits for research and education.
The Library also supported measures to allow text and data mining with a view to encouraging medical, environmental and other scientific research – along with streamlined processes for clearing rights for commercially-produced works to be used in digital libraries and other cultural projects.
The Library’s submission to the Hargreaves Review can be found here.
Dame Lynne concluded: “The proposals in the Report will remove significant barriers to innovation, paving the way for digital access to a wealth of material of benefit to UK researchers. We welcome the Report and look forward to working with the Government to implement these recommendations in due course.”
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The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and one of the world's greatest research libraries. It provides world class information services to the academic, business, research and scientific communities and offers unparalleled access to the world's largest and most comprehensive research collection. The Library's collection has developed over 250 years and exceeds 150 million separate items representing every age of written civilisation and includes books, journals, manuscripts, maps, stamps, music, patents, photographs,
newspapers and sound recordings in all written and spoken languages. Up to 10 million people visit the British Library website - www.bl.uk - every year where they can view up to 4 million digitised collection items and over 40 million pages.