A rich, robust public domain provides the building blocks of creation and culture. Works in the public domain are free to use without permission and can be reproduced, distributed, performed, translated, and reused to further education, research, and new culture.
On January 1, 2019, published works entered the public domain in the United States for the first time in 20 years. Although works published in 1923 were originally scheduled to enter the public domain in 1999, the Copyright Term Extension Act extended copyright term for 20 years, giving copyrighted works published between 1923 and 1977 an expanded term of 95 years.
In celebration of Public Domain Day, cultural heritage institutions are digitizing and making available a number of works and collections that are entering the public domain. The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is gathering information about these works published in 1923 that are available in ARL member institutions. View the new public domain works collected to date.
ARL institutions are encouraged to use this form to input information about their resources that entered the public domain this year.
About the Association of Research Libraries
The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 124 research libraries in Canada and the US whose mission is to advance research, learning, and scholarly communication. The Association fosters the open exchange of ideas and expertise, promotes equity and diversity, and pursues advocacy and public policy efforts that reflect the values of the library, scholarly, and higher education communities. ARL forges partnerships and catalyzes the collective efforts of research libraries to enable knowledge creation and to achieve enduring and barrier-free access to information. ARL is on the web at ARL.org.
