Detail page - Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz

The SPK sees a limit to open access for public cultural institutions in the commercial use of the content provided. In their best practice guideline, the five signatories of the Berlin Declaration recommend ensuring access to scientific and cultural content in accordance with the principle of Open Access under the following conditions: The publication includes all associated data, including the applicable rights regulations, and takes place in an online archive in accordance with the Open Archive rules. The authors and rights holders of the respective publication grant all users a free, worldwide right of access to these publications, insofar as this is compatible with the respective legal tasks and obligations of the cultural institutions and the legal interests of the rights holders. The digital copies are used on the basis of the Creative Commons licences and for commercial purposes against payment.

Hermann Parzinger, President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, says: "The digitisation of their collections is the major task of the future for cultural institutions such as the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, which is in addition to the traditional tasks of collecting, preserving, researching and disseminating. Of course, this also includes making this knowledge accessible to all interested parties. In order to realise this goal, we use considerable resources and therefore consider it appropriate to charge a fee for commercial use. We hope that the recommendations on dealing with open access that are now available will also convince other public cultural institutions to join the Berlin Declaration and apply the principles of open access."

The five institutions of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation - the National Museums in Berlin, the Berlin State Library, the Ibero-American Institute, the Secret State Archives of Prussian Cultural Heritage and the State Institute for Music Research - make their digital offerings available on the foundation's "spk-digital" portal. They flow into the Europe-wide cultural portal Europeana via the German Digital Library (DDB).

The Berlin Declaration on Open Access, initiated by the Max Planck Society in 2003, aims to promote free, comprehensive and easy access to scientific knowledge and cultural heritage for everyone via the Internet. More than 450 national and international institutions, mainly universities, have so far signed up to this declaration - online at oa.mpg.de/lang/en/berlin-process/signatories.

Ten years of the Berlin Declaration - Event information

The accession of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg, the Federal Archives, the German Archaeological Institute and the Jewish Museum Berlin Foundation takes place as part of the tenth follow-up conference to the "Berlin Declaration", which is organised by the Max Planck Society. It will take place from 19 to 20 November in Berlin. A good 200 participants from 40 countries have registered to discuss challenges and trends at this internationally established forum of the Open Access movement. Open Access practitioners such as Cameron Neylon, Public Library of Science (PLOS), as well as politicians such as the British Science Minister David Willetts and the Vice-President of the EU Commission Neelie Kroes are expected to speak. Leading representatives of research institutions, academies and libraries from all over the world will also be present. Hermann Parzinger will give a welcome address at the evening event on 19 November 2013.

Further links

• Digitisation at the SPK
• Berlin Declaration
• Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg
• Federal Archives
• German Archaeological Institute
• Jewish Museum Berlin Foundation
• Recommendation for the implementation of the Berlin Declaration of 2003 in the area of the signatory cultural institutions (best practice recommendation) (PDF, 1.2 MB)