From the FAQ:
What is OpenGLAM?
OpenGLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museum) is an initiative coordinated by the Open Knowledge Foundation that is committed to building a global cultural commons for everyone to use, access and enjoy.
OpenGLAM helps cultural institutions to open up their content and data through hands-on workshops, documentation and guidance and it supports a network of open culture evangelists through its Working Group.
What do we mean by “open”?
“Open” is a term you hear a lot these days. We’ve tried to get some clarity around this important issue by developing a clear and succinct definition of openness – see Open Definition.
The Open Definition says that a piece of content or data is open if “anyone is free to use, reuse, and redistribute it — subject only, at most, to the requirement to attribute and/or share-alike.”
There a number of Open Definition compliant licenses that GLAMs are increasingly using to license digital content and data that they hold. Popular ones for data include CC-0 and for content CC-BY or CC-BY-SA are often used.
Open access to cultural heritage materials will grow the need for better indexing/organization. As if you needed another reason to support it. 😉