Recently Asked Questions

In April 2024, the Federal Register published the US Department of Justice’s final rule on Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The rule includes specific requirements for state and local governments to ensure that web content and mobile applications are accessible to people with disabilities. My question is related to the applicability of Title II to the online collections of public academic libraries, and more specifically, to born-digital archival collections, i.e., archival collections consisting of materials originating in a computer environment.

According to the rule, state and local entities must follow the technical standard outlined in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 level AA. However, this rule allows for five exceptions: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-28/section-35.201.

I understand the updated regulation does not override the existing obligations under Title II to make reasonable modifications on an individual basis, but it is unclear if Title II applies to born-digital archival collections, or if these collections fall under the exceptions linked above.

I am of the understanding that NYS departments documentation falls under public domain. Can you provide any insight into this? Thank you!

Our museum has an item on long-term loan that is potentially pretty valuable--a 200-yr old document.

We no longer wish to have this item in our custody unless it is gifted to us outright, and no longer on loan.

The gentleman who loaned it to us lives out of state and is considering donating the item to us, but is currently consulting with his attorneys to decide if he should gift the item to us (a non-profit museum) for tax deduction benefits or ask us to return it to sell the item elsewhere.

He is basing this decision on appraisals done by a company that has not seen the object in question in person for nearly 20 years (the length of time it has been on loan to us), and only has photographs to go by. These appraisals were paid for by the potential donor.

Our museum does not do appraisals, nor can we afford one of our own, so we have no way of knowing if the item is worth what he says it is. Is there any potential legal ramification to us if we decide to accept the item into our collection as a donation with the value he has listed (around $20,000)- i.e. in a situation like a tax audit?

An academic librarian relayed this question from a researcher/author:

"I am in the stage of tracking down photo permissions and have found images originally published by U.S. presses from the late 1800s and early 1900s (1887, 1893) that are now defunct--hence I cannot request photo permissions from them. The images are posted online by historical societies, but I'm not sure if they're in the public domain or not.   I plan to reach out to the society publishing the images on their digital archives, and credit them for using the images, but is there any other factor to consider?"

How long should the library retain employee records, payroll records, sales and purchase records, mortgage and loan documents, and other records?