Risk Management Toolkit

Risk Mitigation in Open Access to Digital Cultural Heritage Collections

Background

This Risk Management Toolkit has been created by the Risk Management Working Group of the Creative Commons Open Culture Platform, which was formed in May 2024 to support the Platform's vision of "Moving 25 Institutions to Open". While other members of the Platform community worked on creating a policy template, conducting outreach, and providing a guide for identifying which collection items to openly license first, the Risk Management Working Group focused on identifying risks associated with making digital collections openly accessible, and providing practical guidance on mitigating these challenges. The overarching goal was to shift from cautious, risk-averse practices to embracing open norms within the open culture community and beyond.

Alongside the toolkit, the Working Group conducted a literature review, carried out an online survey between May and August 2024, and compiled a list of use cases documenting various risk scenarios. These activities informed both the toolkit and the final report of the Working Group, ensuring a comprehensive approach to supporting institutions in their transition to openness.

The "Moving 25 Institutions to Open" vision

The Creative Commons Open Culture Platform, coordinated by the CC Open Culture Programme, is on a bold mission: to inspire and support cultural heritage institutions worldwide in adopting open access policies and practices. Guided by the vision of moving 25 institutions or collections to open access by the end of 2025, the Platform is leveraging its diverse network of advocates, activists, and experts to foster meaningful collaboration and build capacity across the GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) sector.

To support this visionary goal, this Risk Management Toolkit has been designed as a comprehensive but dynamic guide collecting and curating resources and inspiring practices to help mitigate risks associated with opening access to digital cultural heritage collections.

How does the Toolkit support this vision?

The move to open is not without challenges. Concerns about copyright compliance, privacy protection, ethical representation, financial sustainability, and technical limitations often deter institutions from embracing openness. These barriers are particularly pronounced for under-resourced and under-represented institutions, which the CC Open Culture Platform is prioritizing in its efforts to enhance global diversity in open collections.

This toolkit responds directly to these challenges by:

  • highlighting key risks identified through insights from a literature review and an online survey;

  • presenting actionable strategies to address or prevent these risks;

  • curating a comprehensive list of practical tools and resources to effectively implement these strategies; and

  • offering use case scenarios and templates to be adapted for diverse institutional needs.

The toolkit aligns with the Platform’s broader goal of creating a global community of practice that facilitates knowledge exchange, and equips institutions with the tools they need to confidently share their collections with the world.

Who is this for?

The Risk Management Toolkit can be useful to GLAM professionals and volunteers working in memory institutions or community heritage initiatives, interested in open culture, and responsible for digitising, curating, cataloguing and making digital cultural heritage collections available to the public. GLAM professionals and volunteers include but are not limited to:

  • digital archivists,

  • librarians,

  • collection managers,

  • digitization specialists,

  • technicians,

  • metadata specialists,

  • rights and reproductions managers,

  • copyright officers,

  • preservation specialists,

  • project managers,

  • digital content curators.

How to use the Toolkit?

  • Use the table of contents on the left column to browse risk areas, and learn more about key challenges, mitigation strategies, practical tools and resources, and inspiring good practices.

  • Follow the recommended strategies and selected practices to manage risks effectively in your organization’s open access programme.

  • Explore use cases in each risk area to see if any of them applies to your local context, or visit the "Use cases" section to see the complete list by collection type.

  • Revise and adapt the provided templates so as to use them for your specific needs and requirements.

  • Check out useful related resources to deepen understanding and knowledge of risk management in open access initiatives.

Open invitation to contribute

If you have any suggestions to improve the toolkit content, please get in touch by contacting the 2024 Working Group co-leads: Ilkay Holt and Revekka Kefalea.

We would appreciate your help in making the toolkit more inclusive by incorporating diverse resources, use cases and policy templates, representing a broader range of communities from different regions.

Version history

v1.0 (current version) 13 December 2024 Published first time.

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