Authorship through participation

Several people can contribute to a resulting account or object. A depositor supplies a possession and history. A host arranges an occasion. A visitor makes a photograph with another guest. A later custodian adds an annotation. Staff record the particular contributions and the permissions for further use.

Providing a setting, owning equipment, appearing in an image, making a print, writing a caption involve different relationships. The institution needs an agreement appropriate to the actual contribution. A collective event can produce material with several authors or participants while leaving other conversations private.

Staff discuss publication, attribution, reproduction, later custody through contribution rights. They also examine the institution's own claim to the house's account. The house's history includes participants' activity without implying exclusive institutional authorship of every result.