Open, Extended, Closed or Hidden Data of Cultural Heritage

The National Library of Finland (NLF) agreed on an “Open National Library” policy in 2016[1]. In the policy there are eight principles, which are divided into accessibility, openness in actions and collaboration. Accessibility in the NLF means that access to the material needs to exist both for the metadata and the content, while respecting the rights of the rights holders. Openness in operations means that our actions and decision models are transparent and clear, and that the materials are accessible to the researchers and other users. These are one way in which the NLF can implement the findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable (FAIR) data principles [2] themes in practise. The purpose of this paper is to view the way in which the policy has impacted our work and how findability and accessibility have been implemented in particular from the aspects of open, extended, closed and hidden data themes. In addition, our aim is to specify the characteristics of existing and potential forms of data produced by the NLF from the research and development perspectives. A continuous challenge is the availability of the digital resources – gaining access to the digitised material for both researchers and the general public, since there are also constant requests for access to newer materials outside the legal deposit libraries’ work stations.