ARCHIVED - The Council on Access to Information for Print-Disabled Canadians

Vision and Implementation Plan for a Clearinghouse for Print-Disabled Canadians

4. Clearinghouse Vision

This section describes a vision for the services Clearinghouse could provide for publishers and alternate format producers, how Clearinghouse should evolve, and how it should be governed.

4.1. Audiences

There are five target audiences within the regulatory environment that need to be accommodated through the vision of the Clearinghouse:

1. Publishers;
   
   
2. Access Copyright;
   
   
3. Alternate Format Producers;
   
   
4. Library and Archives of Canada; and
   
   
5. The Print-Disabled community.

Each of these audiences has a slightly different set of requirements and priorities.

Publishers will provide e-text to a Clearinghouse in whatever format they are able to provide.

Access Copyright would provide copyright free access to the e-text in the Clearinghouse for alternate format producers. They would also register alternate formats and make them accessible to other alternate format producers.

Alternate Format Producers would get access to e-text to generate alternate formats. They want to be able to share alternate formats with other producers. They would act as the storage and transformation agents of the e-text. They would provide alternate formats to the Print-Disabled community.

Library and Archives of Canada acting as the partner in charge would coordinate the effort to build and manage the Clearinghouse. It would ensure access to the publishers and the alternate format producers through AMICUS and through the management of the meta data. It would facilitate the development of an agreement in place that ensures access to the alternative format producers via Access Copyright

The Print-Disabled Community are those with a disability that impacts their ability to utilize printed materials, it includes among others the student in class, and people in the community.

4.2. Vision

The vision described in this section looks specifically at the establishment of a Clearinghouse between publishers and alternate format producers.

The vision for e-text within the Clearinghouse is for a flexible, collaborative environment that provides the tools for effective and efficient development and sharing of alternate formats.

The objective is to build the process and tools for e-text exchange to facilitate the production, storage and sharing of alternate formats by and for alternate format producers. Alternate format producers will still provide material directly to the Print-Disabled community. Users will continue to gain access to the materials through agencies such as public libraries and through AMICUS at the Library and Archives of Canada.

The Clearinghouse will:

• Establish a clear relationship for exchange of e-text between publishers and alternate format producers across Canada;
  
  
• Protect the licensing rights of publishers and authors through Access Copyright and the direct relationship with the alternate format producers;
  
  
• Deal with the Digital Rights Management (DRM) of the e-text through a staged process involving the publishers; alternate format producers; Access Copyright; and the Library and Archives of Canada;
  
  
• Define a standard format for e-text masters working with the international standards bodies including; the Daisy Consortium; and WC3;
  
  
• Build on existing or planned digital repositories for the e-text masters and the alternative formats such as the development of the Digital Library being developed by the CNIB; Work closely with the Alternate Format Producers to build multiple repositories that that will act as the transforming and storage repositories
  
  
• Takes advantage of the early stages of e-text development to thoroughly explore and test concepts around rights management, standard formats and distribution;

The diagram below graphically depicts at a high level the proposed vision.

Figure 1 - Clearinghouse Vision

4.3. Vision Components

The vision is best understood by describing how the benefits of the Clearinghouse will satisfy the audiences that have been identified. These benefits can be grouped into the following components - Deposit, Manage, and Transform.

Deposit

Publishers would deposit requested e-text into one of the registered e-text repositories that would make up the Clearinghouse. The e-text would be provided in the format supported by the publisher. The deposit of the e-text would be facilitated by Access Copyright.

Manage

The e-text would be managed by Access Copyright and the managers of the e-text repositories. Management would include the organization and description of the e-text according to standards. Description would include all pertinent information about the e-text including its rights. The e-text repositories would also manage the alternate formats of the e-text and manage the relationship between the alternate formats and the original e-text. This would help ensure that already produced alternate formats could be found, thus avoiding duplication of effort.

Transform

Alternate format producers would be able to access the e-text through the Clearinghouse and transform it to alternate formats. Once transformed the alternate format would be deposited in one of the Clearinghouse's e-text repositories and registered with Access Copyright and the Library and Archives of Canada.

Coordinate

Facilitate and manage the relationships amongst the stakeholders via the Council for Print-Disabled Canadians and coordinated by the Library and Archives of Canada.

4.4. Realizing the Vision

A number of steps must be taken to realize the Vision as follows:

1. That the Council for Print-Disabled Canadians, co-ordinated by the Library and Archives of Canada work with Canadian publishers to establish an industry-wide agreement to support alternate format producers by providing electronic text of their publications for the exclusive use of Print-Disabled consumers, within the context of current Canadian copyright statutes;
   
   
2. That Canadian publishers agree to provide the electronic text of the final approved version of the work, with related documentation in the most viable format.
   
   
3. That a Clearinghouse be established for the purpose of receiving electronic copies of the final approved version of published works and their documentation from publishers, maintaining those files so that they can be quickly and easily accessed, and providing those files to alternate format producers when requested.
   
   
4. The Clearinghouse be established through the coordinating efforts of the Library and Archives of Canada, and that the Library and Archives of Canada establish a relationship with Access Copyright for the purpose of rights clearance as appropriate, and that the Library and Archives of Canada be funded to produce a business plan for the Clearinghouse.
   
   
5. That a liaison person be established at each publishing company to interact with alternate format producers, and later with the Clearinghouse, and that publishers begin immediately to create archival files of their publications.
   
   
6. That the Council for Disabled Canadians acts as the Steering Committee for the development and implementation of the Clearinghouse and that a committee be struck to directly manage the project.
   
   
7. Implement the Clearinghouse over a two-year period
   
   
8. Work with the current milestones of all of the participants and standards groups to establish:
   
   
   • Copyright Act requirements
   • Digital Rights Management standardization
   • e-text format Standardization
   • Digital Libraries
     
     
9. Put in place a funding model to support the coordination of the program and assist in funding the development of the Clearinghouse and the agreements.

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