One of the important missions of our Nation's libraries is to promote the advancement of knowledge by digitizing materials and preserving our history and cultural heritage for future generations. Today it is difficult and costly for libraries to track down copyright holders of older materials. Current law significantly limits the ability of libraries and archives to republish and disseminate works published between 1923 and 1943. In addition, it places substantial burdens on the public's access to and use of copyrighted works that would otherwise have gone into the public domain.
Passage of The Public Domain Enhancement Act is crucial to libraries as it would provide a single database that could be easily and quickly searched to determine whether or not a particular work remains under copyright protection or is in the public domain.