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United States (English) Change

How to get involved

When to use the Registry

Similar to a microform master, a master copy of a digital object serves as the preservation copy from which use or access copies may be made. The following table describes the type of item available and whether to include that type of item in the Registry or not:

Type of item Inclusion in the registry
Master only Yes, may reside in the Registry.
Use copy only No, a bibliographic record may not be within the subset that represents the Registry, but may be in OCLC WorldCat.
Master/Use copy Yes, may reside in the Registry.
No Master/No Use copy No, may not reside in the Registry.

Metadata may be used to describe both the master and use copy on the same record. A use copy of every registered object needs to be available, but not necessarily free-of-charge.

Before you begin

Before beginning work with the Registry of Digital Masters, you must make some decisions about the standards you will use to digitize materials. Whatever choices you make—whether for a project, collection or a general policy for digitization at your institution—you should document them and make them accessible for Registry records.

The following resources on the Digital Library Federation Web site will help guide you in the decision-making process:

OCLC participants who help to grow the Registry of Digital Masters qualify for database enrichment credits when editing and replacing existing records.