Just a caution about the use of the term "public domain", which has occurred
in some of the messages about deaccessioning.  Since this phrase is used in
copyright discussions to denote either uncopyrighted items or those whose
copyrights have expired, I think it is unwise to use it to describe material
which is in "public" collections but nevertheless may still be under
copyright protection.  This can lead to considerable confusion.  In at least
one case of which I'm aware, a new employee assured a researcher that our
collections were all "public domain," by which she merely meant that we owned
the physical objects.  The researcher selected for reproduction in a
commercial book some photographs by well-known living photographers, and was
chagrined (and annoyed) when I explained that we could make copies available
only through written permission from the photographers (which was unlikely
since they would undoubtedly prefer to provide their own prints for
reproduction and charge their own reproduction fees).

There must be an alternative term to distinguish objects owned by museums and
other non-profit, tax-exempt public collections--without regard to copyright
status-- from those which are in private hands, although I can't think of
what it is.  My collections fall into four copyright categories: (a) clearly
under external copyright protection; (b) unknown copyright status, but within
the time frame for copyright to be in force (we allow such items to be
reproduced at the user's own risk and responsibility); (c) clearly old enough
to be "public domain"; and (d) material for which we own the copyrights
because the creators expressly transferred them to us.  Probably the majority
of our holdings fall into category B.

David Haberstich
Archives Center, National Museum of American History

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://museums.state.nm.us/nmmnh/museum-l.html. You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to
[log in to unmask] The body of the message should read "Signoff
Museum-L" (without the quotes).