Obtaining Copyright Permission to Digitize Published Works Remains a Significant Barrier. A review of: George, Carole A. “Testing the Barriers to Digital Libraries: A Study Seeking Copyright Permission to Digitize Published Works.” New Library World 106.1214/1215 (2005): 332-42

Objective – To assess the effectiveness and efficiency of the copyright permission seeking process and to suggest improvements in order to improve outcomes. Design – Workflow study. Setting – Carnegie Mellon University Libraries, Pittsburgh, PA, USA. Sample – A random sample of titles published 1999-2001 was selected from the library’s circulating collection. After eliminating duplicates, technical reports, theses, dissertations, and missing items, the sample comprised 337 titles. Of these titles, 70% were books, and 56% were from commercial publishers. From this a working sample of 273 titles was derived, comprising those titles protected by copyright and with the rights owner clearly indicated. About 73% of this working sample appeared to be out-of-print; their median publication year was 1981. Method – In this two year study (1999-2001), a random sample of books was selected, and pertinent bibliographic and copyright holder information researched and recorded. Permission letters were sent and, six weeks later, follow-up letters were sent to nonrespondents. The letter allowed respondents four options: 1. Grant full permission to digitize the work and provide unrestricted Web access; 2. Grant permission to digitize the work and provide read-only Web access, limited to Carnegie Mellon University users; 3. Declare that they do not hold the rights, and hopefully provide information to identify and locate the actual rights holder; 4. Deny permission for digitization. Results were then recorded and analyzed. Main results – Of the 273 letters mailed, a clear ‘yes’ or ‘no’ reply was obtained for just over half (52%) of the documents. Sixteen percent of the rights holders could not be found (the letter was returned, or a referral proved impossible to locate and contact). Another 25% of the copyright holders simply did not reply, and 7% were otherwise problematic. Of the 143 ‘yes’ or ‘no’ responses, 54% denied permission, while 46% granted permission. (Note: these percentage figures appear to be erroneously reversed in Table 1 of George’s article.) Therefore, of the overall working sample of 273 titles, permission to digitize was obtained for only 24% of the titles. A substantial portion of the permissions (41 of 66, or 62%) carried some restriction. This represents 15% of the total working sample. Only a few restriction requests were deemed too great to make use of the permission. Commercial publishers who made up 58% of the working sample granted permission at t