7 Conclusion

Archives and special collections libraries are committed to collecting, preserving, and sharing records that provide evidence of how our society and culture have come to be and help individuals and communities understand the world. Digitizing these materials and making them available online are critical to fulfilling this mission, and our team at the Emory University Libraries was committed to building copyright workflows that support rather than impede our institutional ability to do this work. Our commitments at the beginning of this project were twofold. We wanted to develop practical, scalable workflows and tools that could help us work more effectively and efficiently than our previous, item-driven rights clearance approach allowed. We also sought to reorient institutional thinking and decision-making toward an approach that prioritized thoughtfully assessing and responsibly mitigating (rather than eliminating) risk in order to support mission-critical work. We sincerely hope that some of these tools and strategies will be adapted by colleagues at other institutions and will help others to be more effective in advancing digitization programs in support of their own institutional missions and goals.