Toward a global record use policy

You will recall that in November 2008, OCLC announced that it was implementing a new policy to update the existing “Guidelines for Use and Transfer of OCLC-Derived Records,” which had been in effect since 1987. The goal was to foster innovative use of shared records in a Web environment while protecting the investment OCLC members have made in WorldCat.

As you will also recall, the proposed policy generated significant comment and controversy in the library community. In response, in February 2009, the OCLC Members Council and Board of Trustees jointly convened a Review Board on the Principles of Shared Data Creation and Stewardship to represent the membership and inform OCLC on the principles and best practices for sharing library data.

The Review Board gathered input from the library community, including the Association of Research Libraries, and sent a “Final Report of the OCLC Review Board on Principles of Shared Data Creation and Stewardship” to the OCLC Board of Trustees on June 22, 2009. The report noted that librarians and others had “emphasized their pride in the collective enterprise that is WorldCat, their appreciation of the public purpose OCLC serves in stewarding WorldCat, and their continuing support for sustaining WorldCat.”

Nonetheless, the Review Board recommended that OCLC withdraw the proposed policy, and subsequently, OCLC did indeed withdraw it.

On September 14, 2009, the OCLC Board of Trustees convened a new Record Use Policy Council that will engage with the global library community in the months ahead to develop the next generation of the WorldCat record use policy. Members of the Council are:

• Jennifer Younger, President-Elect, OCLC Global Council and Edward H. Arnold Director of Hesburgh Libraries, University of Notre Dame, USA (Co-chair)
• Barbara Gubbin, Director, Jacksonville Public Library, USA, (Co-chair)
• ChewLeng Beh, Chair, OCLC Asia Pacific Regional Council and Senior Director, Singapore National Library Board, Singapore
• Raymond Berard, Global Council Delegate and Director, ABES, France
• Karen Calhoun, Vice President, 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 Agricultural Library, USA
• Lorcan Dempsey, Vice President, OCLC Research and Chief Strategist, 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.

As the new Record Use Policy Council begins its work, I want to thank the Review Board for its efforts on behalf of the OCLC membership. I also want to thank the members of the OCLC community who offered constructive criticism and support. The dialogue surrounding OCLC’s record use policy demonstrated the great strengths of the OCLC cooperative—that we are indeed a membership organization, that our members are vocal, and that we at OCLC listen to the membership.

A modernized record use policy is essential for the future. The OCLC cooperative is moving toward next-generation cataloging and metadata management services with an open cataloging platform that supports library choice in a hybrid environment of metadata types and content standards (including RDA, the new cataloging code). Some of these services will interconnect in the Internet cloud through machine-to-machine interfaces. Others will reside where they are technically most appropriate, at the local, group or global levels. All will require a new view of WorldCat and record use that goes beyond bibliography and extends to the collective collection of libraries in the cooperative.

As OCLC Board Chair Larry Alford stated at the February 2009 OCLC Members Council meeting: “ … our common goal and single purpose must be to preserve that which needs to be preserved while enabling libraries and librarians to make creative and innovative use of WorldCat and the records contained therein, and to share those uses to enhance access to information around the world.”

I am fully confident that we will succeed.

Jay Jordan
OCLC President and Chief Executive Officer

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