ALCS and PLS to provide ‘rights identification service’ for book digitisation

As described in a press release issued today, the Wellcome Library will be working in collaboration with the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) and the Publishers Licensing Society (PLS) to identify rights holders of in-copyright books for digitisation. This project is part of the Wellcome Digital Library pilot programme, focusing on the digitisation of around 1,700 key works relating to the history of modern genetics that are known to be, or likely to be, in copyright.

Dr Simon Chaplin, Head of the Wellcome Library, explains: “As a library that supports the understanding of medicine in culture, providing access to key scientific texts for historians is of paramount importance to our mission. By working with rights-holders and their representatives, we hope to create a robust and sustainable model that meets the needs of researchers, authors and publishers.”

The Wellcome Library has published a list of authors online and encourages copyright holders represented on this list to make contact. Rights holders may be added to this list from time to time if and when we add books to the scope for digitisation, or come across new copyright holders during the identification process.