Open access |

Open Access

When an author dies, their books remain in copyright for 70 years, even if the book is long since out of print. Authors are no longer around to steward a book and often their heirs have no interest. If nothing happens the book becomes “orphaned” — it exists in printed form in libraries, but no one can legally create more copies, let alone digital ones. Today a large part of Icelandic scholarship from the latter half of the twentieth century is in danger of being orphaned. Many older authors would, however, like to allow open, digital access to their works — not just after their death but also right now. Over the years a number of such authors have contacted the Dagsbrún Library for help.

These are usually authors of books which were never intended to make a profit — rather, printing them on paper and selling them was a necessary evil in order to be able to distribute them in the pre-digital days.

Our staff has developed special expertise in assisting these authors and helping them rescue their own works from orphan status. There are several ways to ensure that these books are scanned and made available for free to future generations. We know how to do this at very little cost and while respecting any publication rights that publishers may still have.

In another open-access project, our staff have linked freely available scans of Icelandic books held by HathiTrust (a consortium of mostly American university libraries) to the books’ records in the Icelandic national library catalogue. These books are generally pre-1874 and some of them are difficult to find on paper. Linking these scans to the Icelandic national library catalogue helps ensure the catalogue’s continued viability as a search portal for Icelandic material.

Below is a list of some of the books which our staff has helped authors place in open access.

Arnar Bjarnason, Export or die: the Icelandic fishing industry

Ágúst Einarsson, Greinasafn: úrval greina og erinda um stjórnmál, menningu …

Ágúst Einarsson, Greinasafn: síðara bindi: úrval greina og erinda um …

Ágúst Einarsson, Hagræn áhrif kvikmyndalistar

Ágúst Einarsson, Hagræn áhrif tónlistar

Dagný Kristjánsdóttir, Frelsi og öryggi

Eiríkur Bergmann Einarsson, ‎Jón Þór Sturluson, Hvað með evruna?

Eysteinn Sigurðsson, Bólu-Hjálmar

Friðrik Haukur Hallsson, Útlendur her á Íslandi

Friðþór Eydal, Vígdrekar og vopnagnýr

Gísli Gunnarsson, Monopoly trade and economic stagnation