17 Rights

Rights indicates who has the authority to reproduce, display, adapt, perform, or distribute a resource. It can also indicate if an item is in the public domain or not.

Questions to Consider When Determining Rights

• How did the item I am creating metadata for come to the institution in which it is held, and what were the terms on which it was acquired?
• What year was the item created in and how certain am I that it was created in that year? Is the item in the public domain?
• If I know that an item is not in the public domain but I do not know the rights holders, how do I indicate that in the metadata or who can I contact to determine the rights holder? Do I want to include a statement in the metadata that it is the responsibility of the user to find the rights holder if they want to reproduce, display, adapt, perform, or distribute a resource or part of a resource?

Rights Examples

• Copyright information in the front cover of a book
• Anything created under a Creative Commons license
• Anything preceded by the © symbol usually indicates rights holders