Statement on Principles of Membership of the OCLC Collaborative

February 10, 2002

The OCLC Members Council supports the OCLC Mission by serving as a key link between member libraries and OCLC management, facilitating communication and responding to expressed concerns from Members Council members, general members, and others to help shape future directions of the organization.

Introduction. The OCLC collaborative includes member libraries and similar organizations, such as museums and archives; OCLC management and staff; the OCLC Board of Trustees; OCLC Members Council; affiliated regional library networks; and OCLC service centers. Fundamental to membership in the OCLC collaborative is a willingness to share collections, data, and expertise with other members of the cooperative. Participants in the worldwide collaborative also share a common commitment to enhancing access to information resources, to supporting cost efficiencies in operations, and to enhancing user services. These efforts contribute directly to intellectual, social, and economic development throughout the world. In service to these goals, members participate in resource sharing for the benefit of their users; promote diversity of membership, viewpoints, and information resources; and seek interaction with and the building of communities among colleagues from around the world. These values are seen as the foundation of the collaborative and lead to the following

Principles of membership:

Members of OCLC make a commitment to:

1. Work together to achieve mutually beneficial goals and to optimize efficiencies
2. Share collections, metadata, best practices and expertise without expectations of parity
3. Be honest and open with one another, candidly sharing opinions and respecting partners' values, points of view, ideas and culture
4. Promote internationally accepted standards to facilitate resource sharing and information exchange
5. Provide feedback to OCLC on products and services in order to improve their quality, reliability, usability and cost-benefit
6. Assist OCLC in enhancing access to information resources, and in organizing, preserving and archiving such resources for future generations
7. Participate in and work to enhance the governance structure of OCLC through Members Council and the Board of Trustees.
8. Promote the responsible use of OCLC-derived records by approved users.