Washington and Ottawa, February 15, 2024 – Globally, only seven percent of all printed works are available in accessible formats. The Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled is meant to remedy this dearth of accessible-format works. Under the treaty, participating countries must amend their copyright laws to allow for the exchange of accessible books and other works across borders for use by treaty beneficiaries.
Libraries are key to the implementation of the Marrakesh Treaty. The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) recently completed a three-year pilot project led by a joint task force exploring elements of Marrakesh Treaty implementation in the US and Canada. The task force examined what was required to enable scholars’ unfettered access to materials in accessible formats in their fields of scholarship and preferred languages. The ARL/CARL pilot investigated several aspects of Marrakesh Treaty implementation, including identifying beneficiary needs within a university setting, identifying and implementing metadata requirements for searching capabilities, implementing the discovery systems within the pilot libraries, and developing strategies and opportunities for the pilot project members to socialize the work being done.
“While the essence of the treaty is the elimination of the legal barriers that impede access to works, other barriers remain,” said Victoria Owen, chair of the ARL/CARL Task Force on Marrakesh Treaty Implementation. “Attempting to achieve the goals of the project—to identify and recommend the resources needed for research libraries to fulfill the promise of the treaty—revealed unforeseen complexity that included a lack of metadata standards to describe accessible works, library management systems with both untapped and inadequate accessibility features, and a web of policies and practices that hinder access.”
Today, ARL and CARL have released a final report that summarizes recommendations for libraries in each of the areas explored by the task force. The report also includes recommendations for ARL and CARL—each Association’s respective committees will carry forth these recommendations. The report is available in English and in French at doi.org/10.29242/report.marrakesh2023.
About the Association of Research Libraries
The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of research libraries in Canada and the US whose vision is to create a trusted, equitable, and inclusive research and learning ecosystem and prepare library leaders to advance this work in strategic partnership with member libraries and other organizations worldwide. ARL’s mission is to empower and advocate for research libraries and archives to shape, influence, and implement institutional, national, and international policy. ARL develops the next generation of leaders and enables strategic cooperation among partner institutions to benefit scholarship and society. ARL is on the web at ARL.org.
About the Canadian Association of Research Libraries
The Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) members include Canada’s twenty-nine largest university libraries as well as two national libraries. CARL provides leadership on behalf of Canada’s research libraries and enhances capacity to advance research and higher education. It promotes effective and sustainable knowledge creation, dissemination, and preservation, and advocates for public policy that enables broad access to scholarly information.
For more information contact Katherine McColgan or Katherine Klosek
