For immediate release:
September 13, 2011

For more information, contact:
Prue Adler
Association of Research Libraries
202-296-2296
prue@arl.org

Brandon Butler
Association of Research Libraries
202-296-2296
brandon@arl.org

ARL Releases "Resource Packet on Orphan Works: Legal and Policy Issues for Research Libraries"

Washington, DC—Today the Association of Research Libraries released a "Resource Packet on Orphan Works: Legal and Policy Issues for Research Libraries." Prepared by Prudence Adler, Jonathan Band, and Brandon Butler, the resource packet provides general information on legal and policy issues concerning orphan works and the University of Michigan’s Orphan Works Project, an FAQ, and a legal memorandum by Jonathan Band, policybandwidth, which describes the legal issues associated with making orphan works digitally available. While not a comprehensive response to or analysis of the lawsuit filed yesterday by three authors’ groups and eight individual authors against HathiTrust and five of its partners, this packet will help readers understand some of the core issues in that suit, including the scope and applicability of fair use to orphan works.

To view the Resource Packet, please visit http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/resource_orphanworks_13sept11.pdf.

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 126 research libraries in the US and Canada. Its mission is to influence the changing environment of scholarly communication and the public policies that affect research libraries and the diverse communities they serve. ARL pursues this mission by advancing the goals of its member research libraries, providing leadership in public and information policy to the scholarly and higher education communities, fostering the exchange of ideas and expertise, facilitating the emergence of new roles for research libraries, and shaping a future environment that leverages its interests with those of allied organizations. ARL is on the web at http://www.arl.org/.