EveryLibrary Institute Joins the Our Future Memory Coalition

Posted on by

The Our Future Memory movement continues to grow, with the EveryLibrary Institute (ELI) formally joining the global coalition and endorsing the Statement on Digital Rights for Protecting Memory Institutions Online. ELI’s participation brings a powerful policy-focused perspective to the effort to ensure that libraries, archives, and museums retain the rights they need to fulfill their public mission in a digital world.

EveryLibrary Institute explained its reason for joining the Our Future Memory movement:

By joining the Our Future Memory coalition and endorsing the Statement on Digital Rights for Protecting Memory Institutions Online, the EveryLibrary Institute is hoping to advance a broader conversation that reaches beyond copyright reform alone and asks deeper questions about ownership, stewardship, creativity, and the future of reading in a digital society. We believe that this conversation must include libraries and educators, but also independent booksellers, independent publishers, authors, technologists, policymakers, and readers themselves. The health of the creative economy and our democratic society depends on getting this right.

About the Statement

The Statement on Digital Rights for Protecting Memory Institutions Online aims to safeguard the essential digital activities of libraries, archives, and museums (collectively referred to as “memory institutions”). It urges policymakers and communities to ensure these institutions retain the same rights and responsibilities online that they have historically held offline, including the rights to:

  1. Collect digital materials, including through digitization and lawful acquisition;
  2. Preserve digital works, including repair, backup, and reformatting for long-term access;
  3. Provide controlled access to digital collections for research and public use; and
  4. Cooperate across institutions by sharing and transferring digital collections to strengthen preservation and access.

Want to Learn More?

Interested libraries and memory institutions can learn more about the Our Future Memory coalition and Statement at a free, public webinar on Tuesday, January 27 at 10am PT / 1pm ET. Register at https://blog.archive.org/event/protect-our-future-memory-join-the-call-for-library-digital-rights/.