Public Private Partnerships in Data Services: Learning from Genealogy

Abstract

As one strategy for expanding access to archival data, libraries and data archives are increasingly entering into Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) with commercial entities. In exchange for access to publicly held sources of information of interest to genealogists, commercial companies are providing financial resources for digitization and access. This paper reviews recent literature on these public-private partnerships, considers challenges and long-term implications of these relationships in data services by reviewing issues experienced in the including tensions with institutional missions, access differentiation, exclusivity agreements and nondisclosure agreements and marginalization of services financed by public data.