RightsStatements.org - a key tool for cultural heritage

Rights Statements are valuable tools that support digitisation projects of cultural heritage institutions worldwide. They facilitate communicating rights information in a standardised way and are available for any cultural heritage organisation to use.

RightsStatements.org plays a crucial role in the infrastructure of Europeana.eu and the common European data space for cultural heritage. Every digital object shared through the data space has a rights statement assigned to it, chosen by the providing cultural heritage institution, that communicates to users if and under which conditions the materials can be legally used.

Digital Scholar takes up a new role

Over the past years, the organisational structure, tied to the financial support of the RightsStatements Consortium, has resulted in an unsustainable effort. We are happy to announce that Digital Scholar has stepped in to offer an administrative and operational home for rights statements.

Digital Scholar (Corporation for Digital Scholarship) is a nonprofit organisation that sustains open-source tools and platforms for digital scholarship, publishing, and cultural heritage. Digital Scholar focuses on building strong communities and resilient business models around software that supports research, teaching, and public access to knowledge.

Implications for Europeana and the data space

In Digital Scholar’s proposed work plan, one of the first aspects that it will focus on is re-designing the governance structure, and separating it from the financial and business strategy. As a result, there will be opportunities for members of our network to take a more active role in the governance, development and implementation of rights statements. Europeana data providers should be reassured that rights statements will continue to be available as they currently are, and continue to be a central part of the data space infrastructure.

Safeguarding the sustainability of rights statements is very important for the Europeana Initiative and the data space, and we are therefore grateful to Digital Scholar for taking on the responsibility of making that possible. With Digital Scholar’s expertise and support, we are hopeful that Rights Statements will continue to develop into a useful tool for cultural heritage professionals and users of digital cultural heritage worldwide.

Find out more

As we make progress, we will share updates through the data space news section and our social media channels (you can follow Europeana on LinkedIn and Bluesky). In the meantime, do not hesitate to reach out to [email protected] if you have any questions.