WorldCat Record Use Policy

In September 2009, the OCLC Board of Trustees convened the Record Use Policy Council to engage the global library community in developing the next generation of the WorldCat record use policy. The intent was to recommend to the OCLC Board a new policy that would be aligned with the present and future information landscape. The new policy, WorldCat Rights and Responsibilities for the OCLC Cooperative, went into effect August 1, 2010 and replaces the Guidelines for Use and Transfer of OCLC Derived Records, developed in 1987. The work of the Record Use Policy Council has now concluded.

WorldCat Rights and Responsibilities for the OCLC Cooperative effective August 1, 2010

A policy created by members and reviewed by the community

Our 12-member Record Use Policy Council undertook a detailed investigation of the issues and drafted a new policy that we introduced for community review in April 2010—WorldCat Rights and Responsibilities for the OCLC Cooperative. More than 275 comments were gathered via e-mail, phone, meetings and letters, in an online forum, and by monitoring blogs, listservs and Twitter. Your comments resulted in substantive additions and changes to the draft. At the end of May 2010, we submitted our revised policy statement to the OCLC Board, which approved the document during its June meeting.

A continually evolving policy

The new policy recognizes as essential the need for OCLC members to share and reuse their data with many partners, across many systems, sites and applications. Our goal in developing this policy was to maximize the possibilities for open data sharing while balancing that imperative with some boundaries intended to sustain WorldCat, the services and outcomes it produces for members, and the OCLC cooperative over the long term. The new policy—WorldCat Rights and Responsibilities for the OCLC Cooperative—replaces the Guidelines for Use and Transfer of OCLC Derived Records. Because the data-sharing environment is constantly and rapidly evolving, this new policy will be regularly reviewed to ensure its continued timeliness.

A code of good practice for the OCLC cooperative

We decided to emphasize a code of good practice for members of the cooperative, based on shared values, trust and reciprocity. The focus of the new policy is on member rights and responsibilities—instead of data ownership issues, detailed provisions or restrictions—with the general aim of fostering innovation in our ever-changing information landscape.

The new policy outlines OCLC members' rights to:

Transfer their data to individual scholars for their personal, academic or scientific research or study;
Transfer their data to library consortia and public agencies working on behalf of libraries;
Transfer their data to other libraries and educational, cultural or scholarly institutions, whether these institutions are members of OCLC or non-members;
Transfer their data to agents acting on their behalf.

In addition, members are encouraged to refer OCLC to third parties to develop appropriate business arrangements and to refer new opportunities for working with third parties to OCLC.

Robust community review

During the community review period, members and other stakeholders in WorldCat sent us many carefully crafted comments and thoughtful advice. We thank those who took the time to submit questions, comments or suggestions that made the final policy better.

OCLC Record Use Policy Council Co-Chairs

Barbara Gubbin

Director, Jacksonville Public Library, USA

Jennifer Younger

President Elect, OCLC Global Council and Edward H. Arnold Director of Hesburgh Libraries, University of Notre Dame, USA

OCLC Record Use Policy Council Members

	ChewLeng Beh Global Council Delegate; Chair, OCLC Asia Pacific Regional Council; and Senior Director, Singapore National Library Board, Singapore		Raymond Bérard Global Council Delegate and Director, ABES, France
	Karen Calhoun Vice President, OCLC WorldCat and Metadata Services, OCLC, USA		Klaus Ceynowa Global Council Delegate and Deputy Director General, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Germany
	Christopher Cole Global Council Delegate and Associate Director for Technical Services, National Agriculture Library		Lorcan Dempsey Vice President, OCLC Research and Chief Strategist, OCLC, USA
	Nancy Eaton Dean of University Libraries and Scholarly Communications, Penn State University, USA		Clifford A. Lynch Executive Director, Coalition for Networked Information (CNI), USA
	Brian E. C. Schottlaender Global Council Delegate and The Audrey Geisel University Librarian, UC San Diego Libraries, USA		Lamar Veatch Global Council Delegate and State Librarian, Georgia Public Library Service–University System of Georgia, USA