I. Open access and rights of use

The University, State and Public Library Fulda (HLSB) and its cooperation partners are committed to open access to digitised cultural assets. Digitisation facilitates access to historical and academic materials and supports their use in research, education and the public. Our goal is to minimise the pass legal and technical hurdles to the use of digital objects and to strengthen cultural participation.

We therefore make digitised material available - as far as legally possible - in the public domain or with the freest possible Creative Commons licence. This practice follows the principles of Open Access.

The metadata we create is not subject to any property rights on our part, provided that there are no legal property rights to the contrary. They are made available for free re-use in line with the open data concept.

The Hessian state government supports the digitisation of cultural heritage in order to facilitate access to historical and academic materials and to facilitate/promote the use of cultural objects. Restrictions that hinder open access are to be dismantled in order to enable new, target group-orientated offers. The open access policy of the cultural heritage facilities in Hesse supports free digital access to cultural assets and is based on the FAIR principles of findability, accessibility, interoperability and reusability.

Fulda University of Applied Sciences published a university-wide Open Access Policy on 24 October 2018. At the same time, it signed the Berlin Statement on Open Access to Academic Knowledge. The signatory facilities support the idea of open access and actively support the further development of the open access paradigm with the aim of maximising the benefits for research and society. This should enable barrier-free, location-independent and equitable access to cultural heritage. The following classifications and notes apply.

Please note: Not all digitised material is subject to the same rights of use. The respective possibility of use depends on the copyright of the original work as well as on the laws granted to the HLSB Fulda and its partners. If you have any special requests or questions, please contact us at digitalisierung(at)hlb.hs-fulda.de.

II Works in the public domain

Use
The digital copies of public domain works may be used, redistributed and edited without restriction. The HLSB Fulda and its cooperation partners do not claim any rights of their own to these digital copies. These are true-to-original digital copies that do not reach the level of copyrightable creation.

Labelling
Such works are labelled in FulDig with the Public Domain Mark 1.0 (CC PDM 1.0) from Creative Commons.

Note on source citation
When reusing a work, please cite the University, State and Public Library Fulda (HLSB) or the Fulda City Archive as the source if the digitised work originates from these facilities. An example of a source reference is as follows:

- If a digitised item passes from the stock of the University, State and Public Library Fulda(HLSB): "Digitised item provided by the University, State and Public Library Fulda, platform FulDig."
- If a digital copy passes through the stock of the Fulda City Archive: "Digital copy provided by the Fulda City Archive, FulDig platform."

Conditions of public domain
Works are generally in the public domain if the author has been deceased for more than 70 years (§ 64 UrhG). Please note that other deadlines can also manage the public domain (e.g. missing level of creation, official works, etc.).

How can I download digitised works from the historic stock?

Since 2013, the HLSB Fulda has been digitising its valuable historic stock, which can be viewed in the in-house digital library called "FulDig". If you grade pages of individual works as images, you can download them yourself from our digital collections free of charge. To do this, please click on "Downloads" in the right-hand column of the respective digital copy. Here you can choose between different resolution qualities and file formats. You will receive the highest resolution by selecting the "Image Master" option.

III Works protected by copyright

Use by third parties
For works that are still protected by copyright, only the laws to which the HLSB Fulda and its cooperation partners are entitled can be granted. Any further use (e.g. publication, redistribution) is only permitted with the consent of the copyright holder. Uses within the scope of the statutory limitations of copyright law remain unaffected, e.g. for private purposes (Section 53 UrhG) or academic research (Section 60c UrhG).

Labelling and case groups
- Out-of-print works: These works may be digitised and made publicly accessible within the framework of a corresponding contract (e.g. with VG Wort). However, no further laws may be granted.
- Works with granted laws: For some protected works, the HLSB Fulda or the Stadtarchiv Fulda has received permission from the rights holders for digitisation and non-commercial use. Further laws must be clarified directly with the rights holders.

IV. Restricted access - laws reserved

For some works, only limited access rights can be granted for copyright or other legal reasons. These works may only be available on the library's premises for academic and private purposes (Section 60e (4) UrhG).

V. A request to users

If you use digitised material from the HLSB Fulda or a cooperation partner in your own publications, we would be pleased if you would inform us of this and provide us with the bibliographical details of your publication. Specimen copies of your publications are also welcome and support our work.

VI Note on barrier free accessibility

The digitised material on the FulDig platform is not completely barrier free. Due to technical and conservation requirements, certain digitised material cannot be made available in barrier-free form. We are continuously working to improve access for all users.
For more information on barrier free access, please contact us at digitalisierung@hlb.hs-fulda.de.

Contact

University, State and Public Library Fulda (HLSB)
Digitisation Division
Email: digitalisierung(at)hlb.hs-fulda.de
Phone: +49 661 9640-9844

Cooperation partner
Stadtarchiv Fulda
Image Archive and City Archive division
Email: Irene.Hoefert@fulda.de
Phone: +49 661 102 1460