Overview
ISO/TR 22038:2020 - Information and documentation: Description and presentation of rights information - is a technical report that guides how to present human-readable rights information in digital collections. It focuses on clarity and accessibility for end users of library, museum, archive and similar cultural heritage services. The report addresses where and how rights statements should appear on service pages (top, search, browsing, resource information, download, presentation, information, authentication and permission form pages) but explicitly excludes technical details of metadata schemas, machine-readable rights expressions and backend storage.
Key topics and requirements
- Human-readable rights presentation: Emphasize clear statements of what users are allowed and prohibited from doing with a digital resource.
- Rights information elements: Present the type of rights; rights-holder identification (identifier, name, contact); legal basis and jurisdiction; relevant dates (copyright year, term); and permissions/licenses (permitted actions, prohibitions, conditions, license names/links).
- Page-level guidance: Specifies which service pages should display rights information or links (e.g., resource download pages should provide rights info for each downloadable item). Search pages normally don’t display rights statements but may include rights conditions in queries.
- Synchronization with embedded rights: When resources contain machine-readable rights metadata, the human-readable presentation should be synchronized with that embedded information.
- Community-supported expressions: Recommends adopting widely used, community-supported formats for expressing rights (see Annex A for examples).
- International and jurisdictional sensitivity: Avoid assuming a single legal jurisdiction when presenting rights information; make legal bases and jurisdictions explicit where applicable.
Practical applications
- Designing and improving public-facing digital library, museum and archive websites to make rights clear and discoverable.
- Creating resource-level metadata displays, download interfaces and image/text viewers that include explicit, synchronized rights statements.
- Developing policies and workflows for collection digitization projects to ensure consistent, user-focused rights presentation.
- Helping patrons, researchers and educators quickly determine permissible uses and licensing conditions.
Who should use this standard
- Digital collection service developers and UX designers
- Librarians, archivists and museum curators managing digitized collections
- IT teams implementing online repositories and content delivery systems
- Legal or rights management staff defining access and licensing information
Related standards
Consult ISO/TC 46 (Information and documentation) outputs and standards on metadata, identifiers and rights expression for complementary technical guidance. Annex A of ISO/TR 22038:2020 points to community-supported formats to adopt for consistent rights expression.