Publicatie:Public Domain Day 2024: morning session
Public domain collections include works that are no longer protected by copyright and can be freely unlocked online. This makes them an excellent starting point for heritage institutions wanting to set up an open data policy. Since 2018, Public Domain Day has provided the heritage sector with an annual platform to highlight new material that has entered the public domain. It has become an important moment for raising awareness, networking and learning. The ninth edition of the national Public Domain Day took place on 7 March 2024 at the Royal Library of Belgium (KBR).
| Titel | Public Domain Day 2024: morning session (Voorkeurstitel) |
| Locatie | |
| Uitgever | [meemoo.be meemoo - Vlaams instituut voor het archief]
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| Jaar van uitgave | 2024 |
| Rechten | CC-BY-SA |
| Persistent ID |
In the morning session, together with co-organisers KBR and Wikimedia Belgium, we put together a programme focused on the Belgian context, with some theory and lots of practice. The afternoon session featured an international programme. We welcomed 55 participants in person and 76 attendees online.
Public Domain Day: what and why?
New works enter the public domain every year, as the copyright protection – which in Belgium lasts for 70 years after the author’s death – expires. This is the ideal material for heritage institutions to enable reuse. And, with the annual Public Domain Day, we offer these heritage institutions – and the sector as a whole – a platform to showcase their open collections and to share recent achievements, best practices and future plans.
Public Domain Day 2024: morning programme
The morning session on 7 March consisted of a general introduction, showcases of recently accessible public domain collections, concrete examples of reuse, announcements of future activities, and the winners of the Wiki Loves Heritage photo competition.
View the slides from the morning session here. Sebastiaan Ter Burg captured the day in photos – see them here and soak up the atmosphere!
To get things started, meemoo colleague Ellen Van Keer gave a general introduction on what the public domain is (and isn’t), and what the accessibility of public domain collections can mean for heritage organisations.
Showcases of recently accessible collections
Next, we highlighted several recently accessible public domain collections. With Public Domain Day, we aim to provide a platform for institutions taking steps towards an open data policy, for example, by uploading to Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons. Our annual upload workshop supports organisations in this. The following experiences were shared in this edition.
- Piet Janssens (KBR) explained the policy and achievements of public domain collections that the Royal Library of Belgium uploaded to Wikimedia platforms in 2024. They included coins by Arsène Matton, sheet music and recordings by Joseph Jongen, etching plates, prints and drawings by Jean Brusselmans, and works by Elisabeth Wesmael.
- Tanguy Habrand from the Archives et Musée de la Littérature shared their first positive experiences and results with uploads of public domain works to Wikimedia platforms.
- Lie Cauwelier (Eperon d’Or) followed our Wikimedia upload workshop in 2023. During Public Domain Day, she presented the findings and achievements of the project set up last year to make Belgian shoe heritage accessible in the public domain as linked open data on Wikimedia platforms.
- Bart Magnus (meemoo) explained the results of the DO IT! project, in which we supported various partners in determining the rights status of collections using the Public Domain Tool. The tool uses information about creators on Wikidata, among other things.
- Joeri Steegmans (Musea Brugge) presented the project Hub! From depot to digital collection, in which print dealer Guy Van Hoorebeke’s collection was uploaded to Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons.
(Creative) re-use
The following speakers discussed the reuse of public domain works in practice. Making works available is only part of the story. As a sector, we want to encourage value creation and facilitate creative reuse.
- Els Depuydt, Collyn Verlinde, Lisbeth Langouche (OB Brugge) presented the project Vrouwen van papier (‘Women of paper’). In this project, personal data from the archive of Guido Gezelle’s person register was included in Wikidata, and Wikipedia pages were written about several of Guido Gezelle’s notable correspondents – also helping to close the gender gap on Wikipedia.
- Dieter Dewitte (KMSKB / Ugent) presented how machine learning can be applied to heritage data. With the machine learning-based app Boeketje Kunst, you can create a bouquet of flowers from famous paintings in the collections of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium.
- Rein Debrulle (meemoo) showcased various (free and paid) tools to build IIIF stories. Thanks to IIIF, you can also build stories around collections across organisational boundaries more easily.
- Thomas Meynen (Waterzooi) presented the interactive game Please, touch the artwork, which he developed around the oeuvre of James Ensor, on behalf of the Flemish government. Attendees could play the game straight away on a display in the hallway during coffee and lunch breaks. Many images used in the game were found and downloaded from meemoo’s art and heritage image database artinflanders.be.
- Sven Lieber (KBR/ Ugent), presented the MetaBelgica project, a linked data platform for Belgian entities shared between the federal scientific institutions in Belgium.
As the cherry on top?
Colleague Bart Magnus (meemoo) concluded the day with a look to the future, and Geert Van Pamel (Wikimedia Belgium) announced the winners of the Heritage photo competition.
Afternoon programme: international perspective
In the afternoon, we took a more international look at issues and achievements related to making public domain works available. The report on this will follow. View the slides here.