WorldCat® Copyright Evidence Registry

In May 2011, OCLC launched a pilot to explore the feasibility of building a cooperatively created and maintained repository of copyright evidence. Based on WorldCat, which contains more than 100 million bibliographic records describing items held in thousands of libraries worldwide, the Copyright Evidence Registry used data contributed by libraries and other organizations participating in the pilot. Those participating in the pilot were using the Copyright Evidence Registry to find information about a book, learn what others have said about its copyright status, and share what they know. Pilot participants included libraries, individuals, OCLC and other organizations collaborating to contribute data and build the repository.

The model proved less than optimal for use by members of the cooperative and the project was concluded.

Libraries and other organizations participating in the pilot were using the Copyright Evidence Registry to:

• Search for, create, analyze and share information available in the repository to form conclusions about copyright status
• Collaboratively generate metadata related to copyright status investigations
• Minimize duplication of effort
• Reduce the time and cost of copyright status investigations

Pilot participants were able to create and run automated copyright rules that conform to their institution's standards for determining copyright status. The rules helped participants to analyze the information available in the Copyright Evidence Registry and form their own conclusions about copyright status.

How it works

The Copyright Evidence Registry uses cooperation to help reduce the time and cost of copyright status investigations. It lets you and others in the Copyright Evidence Registry community share your evidence and work results and build consensus about best practices. Through cooperation, the community can address critical copyright issues more efficiently and effectively. Similar to the collaborative model used to build WorldCat, libraries and other users are encouraged to search the CER to learn what knowledge others have shared about a book before creating a new entry. The CER becomes more valuable as participation grows, building on the economies of scale inherent in the OCLC cooperative.

Pilot participants

• California Digital Library
• Columbia University
• Cornell University
• Harvard University
• New York Public Library
• UCLA
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• University of Michigan

Related articles, links and information

You are invited to participate in the WorldCat Copyright Evidence Registry community by going to http://www.worldcat.org/copyrightevidence. You can search the database freely, or if you would like to contribute knowledge to the project, you can create a WorldCat.org username and password and log in. If you are librarian from an OCLC Cataloging member library, you can log in with your OCLC Connexion® authorization and password. There is no charge to participate during the pilot phase of the CER.