A recent discussion draft from the Center for Research Libraries (CRL) raises an issue that libraries, archives and cultural institutions will increasingly have to confront.
When a collection is digitised, its value does not end with preservation or public access.
Digitised books, manuscripts, photographs and archival records can generate additional value through OCR, metadata, search systems, data analysis and, increasingly, AI development.
This leads to some important questions.
Who controls the digitised files?
Can a technology company use them to train or improve AI models?
Should AI-related uses require explicit permission rather than being assumed?
What should happen to the data when a digitisation partnership ends?
And perhaps most importantly, if a library’s collection contributes commercial value to an AI system, what does the library and its users receive in return?
The CRL draft takes a practical approach. It does not suggest that libraries should avoid working with commercial organisations or AI developers. Instead, it proposes clearer contractual terms around permitted uses, access, preservation, metadata, security, commercial exploitation and future reuse.
The discussion around metadata is particularly interesting. Cataloguing and descriptive information is often treated as supporting material. In an AI environment, however, metadata can itself become a valuable resource.
There is also a useful distinction between public access and large-scale machine extraction. Making a collection available for people to read does not necessarily mean giving unrestricted permission for automated systems to ingest the entire collection.
For libraries and archives, this changes the digitisation conversation.
The question is no longer only:
“How do we digitise our collections?”
It is also:
“Under what conditions should these digital collections be used, reused and monetised?”
As AI increasingly depends on large bodies of knowledge, cultural and scholarly collections will become part of a much larger conversation about data, access, stewardship and value.
This is worth reading, particularly for librarians, archivists, digital humanities researchers and organisations involved in large-scale digitisation.
Source: Center for Research Libraries (CRL), “Large-Scale Digitization in the AI Era: Issues and Model Terms for Libraries and Their Partners”, Public Discussion Draft, 9 September 2026.
www.crl.edu/sites/default/files/2026-09/crl-ai-digitization_publicdraft.pdf