#5 Policy Recommendation Area
Design a model for ethical cultural heritage practices
5.3 Empower a stewardship mindset in cultural heritage institutions
Target Stakeholders
Cultural Heritage Institutions
Heritage Networks
Recommendation
To stimulate public reuse of digital collections leading to the generation of new knowledge and ideas, heritage professionals must give up their traditional roles as gatekeepers of collections and knowledge, and instead act as community enablers and stewards of collections and knowledge. This mindset change and bigger capacity building efforts are crucial to avoiding persistent copyright-related bad practices in the heritage sector, e.g. claiming copyright when no rights exist, or when CHI is not the rightsholder. etc. Such practices need to be addressed immediately, with an aim to protect the public domain* from additional copyright layers** and to remove unjustified barriers to reuse.
