WorldCat Record Use Policy WorldCat Record Use Policy

Karen CalhounVice President, WorldCat and Metadata Services

NYLINKForum

January2009

BackgroundBackground

• Announced Nov 08: Policy for Use and Transfer of WorldCat Records to replace Guidelines for the Use and Transfer of OCLC-Derived Records

• Guidelines last updated in 1987 (21 years ago!)

• In response to ever-evolving WorldCat database and expanding need for WorldCat records

• Updates made with input from member libraries and partners around the globe but …

• That was not enough opportunity for input!

Review Board on Principles of Shared Data Creation and StewardshipReview Board on Principles of Shared Data Creation and Stewardship

• Jointly established – Board of Trustees, Members Council

• Chair, Jennifer Younger (University of Notre Dame)

• Read and study reports and postings on revised policy

• Organize information sharing and feedback sessions

• Recommend principles of shared data creation/maintenance and changes to policy

• Preliminary report from chair at February virtual meeting of Members Council

Implementation Delayed To Allow Time for Community Review

Implementation Delayed To Allow Time for Community Review

•The WorldCat Record Use Policy was scheduled to be implemented in mid-February; now third quarter calendar 2009

•OCLC paying close attention to all comments

•Specific comments and questions are invited and welcome at recorduse@oclc.org

•Watch for announcements of information sharing and input sessions organized by Review Board

Why update the policy?Why update the policy?

• Expand the opportunities for record sharing among member and non-member libraries, archives and museums

• Respond to the changing information landscape

• Modernize the language of the Guidelines

• Clarify how WorldCat records can be used and shared

Overall intent to ensure use of records created by OCLC members •benefits the OCLC cooperative as a whole

•offers a fair return to members by those who would use the records from outside the cooperative

Reactions to the Revised PolicyReactions to the Revised Policy

(besides issues with the process)

Questions and Use Cases: What Does It Mean In Practice?Questions and Use Cases: What Does It Mean In Practice?

Are the FAQs Part of the Policy?Are the FAQs Part of the Policy?

Yes.

The FAQs would be considered part of the policy in any legal interpretation of it.

Guidelines and the Revised Policy – What’s the SameGuidelines and the Revised Policy – What’s the Same

Both support

• Noncommercial sharing of member data among libraries (revised policy adds archives and museums)

• Consortial union catalogs and resource sharing systems

• Exposure of members' data in ILSes and new discovery layers

• End user data sharing from library catalogs

Both require

• Separate agreements with organizations making commercial use of members' data

• Separate agreements when libraries want to share members' data that doesn't reflect their own holdings

Guidelines and Revised Policy – Key DifferenceGuidelines and Revised Policy – Key Difference

The revised policy is framed as a legal document.

Why?

Overall intent to ensure use of records created by OCLC members •benefits the OCLC cooperative as a whole

•offers a fair return to members by those who would use the records from outside the cooperative

Examples of partnerships that provide a ‘fair return’ to OCLC Members

Examples of partnerships that provide a ‘fair return’ to OCLC Members

• New or enhanced content for WorldCat – e.g., linking digitized books to WorldCat (Google Book Search agreement May 2008)

• Support for making library workflows less costly – WorldCat Cataloging Partner agreements (e.g., Blackwell Book Services)

• Traffic driven from popular Web sites to library collections via WorldCat.org (e.g., Yahoo! agreement)

Other QuestionsOther Questions

•“I paid for the records and they are mine to do with as I please”

•“Catalog records were paid for with taxpayer dollars and should be free and open to all”

•“Data should be free and open to all”

Whose Records Are They Anyway? – They Are A Shared Community AssetWhose Records Are They Anyway? – They Are A Shared Community Asset

WorldCat: Shared Data, Shared Services, Shared Ownership

2%

98%

Records I Made andContributed to WorldCat

Records I Used ThatWere Contributed byOthers

“Catalog records were paid for with taxpayer dollars and should be free and open to all”

“Catalog records were paid for with taxpayer dollars and should be free and open to all”

•Probably not true, but even if true …

•It’s not just the data that OCLC members share

•They also share infrastructure and services

•The costs of cooperating are a fraction of the costs of not cooperating

Another Shared Community Asset: Swimming PoolsAnother Shared Community Asset: Swimming Pools

More than the water in the pool!

Lifeguards, swimlessons, water slides …

Community cost sharing – Admission rates pay for pool and itsservices

Policy providesterms for non-residentuse

By xcode, http://www.flickr.com/photos/wongjunhao/416266898/

Data Sharing Environmental Scan by OCLC Record Use Study Group

Data Sharing Environmental Scan by OCLC Record Use Study Group

• Evaluated policies and licenses related to use and re-use of metadata and content

• Commercial and non-commercial data providers

• Prevailing opinion in the blogosphere:

• “Data should be free and open”

• Reality:

• Nearly everybody has terms and conditions that impose some degree of restriction on data re-use and transfer

NO RIGHTS RESERVED SOME RIGHTS RESERVED ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Sample Terms and Conditions for Metadata/Content – Private Sector

Sample Terms and Conditions for Metadata/Content – Private Sector

• Amazon – Amazon Associates Web Service

• Purpose of data access is to drive traffic to Amazon; any user of data must link back to Amazon

• ProQuest MARC Records

• For use by purchasing institutions only; loading records into shared cataloging system not permitted

• All Media Guide/AllMusic

• For use online only and solely for personal, non-commercial use; all other use and transfer prohibited

• Twitter

• Twitter data can be shared on other Web sites; pages on other Websites that display Twitter data must link back to Twitter

Sample Terms and Conditions for Metadata/Content – Public or Social Sector

Sample Terms and Conditions for Metadata/Content – Public or Social Sector

• Wikipedia

• GNU Free Documentation License makes documents free to copy, distribute, modify, for commercial or non-commercial use; requires attribution of original author’s/publisher’s work

• OCLC

• Free non-commercial use of WorldCat.org data (end user service); conditions for data re-use and transfer; non-library uses/transfers require agreements between OCLC and user/transferee(s)

• Sherpa/RoMEO

• Free to interested parties with conditions for re-use; re-use governed by Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License; RoMEO logo must appear on public pages

Perspective on “Open Data” Correlated With …Perspective on “Open Data” Correlated With …

• Economic interest

• How financial viability is achieved

• What is the degree of dependence on revenue from content, metadata, or content/metadata-based services?

• Amazon – majority of revenue from online sales

• Google – majority of revenue from ads

• Wikipedia – almost all revenue from donations to Wikimedia Foundation

• Sherpa/RoMEO – public and social sector funding

• OCLC – a cooperative – relies on recovering costs of infrastructure and services based on member-contributed metadata

• All Media Guide/AllMusic – revenue comes from licensing the content and metadata it creates to others

A Landscape Rich in “Lessons in Contradiction”A Landscape Rich in “Lessons in Contradiction”

Other people’s data should be free

What Will Help Libraries?What Will Help Libraries?

•Reduced operational costs for data creation and management, resource sharing, public services

•Exposure of library data and collections in as many places as possible on the Web

•More traffic to libraries from popular Web sites

•To do these things, libraries need to collaborate more than ever, and …

•They need shared data, shared infrastructure, shared services …

•On the network

•Partners not adversaries

La Grande bibliothèque nationale du Québec Attribution: Uploaded on May 8, 2005by Master Long http://flickr.com/photos/long/12987307/

Are WorldCat and the Shared Services Built Upon It Worth Having?Are WorldCat and the Shared Services Built Upon It Worth Having?

• Share the costs of metadata creation and maintenance

• Few records are the work of one cataloger, but the result of iterative work that WorldCat enables catalogers to record

• OCLC staff make a massive investment in maintaining WorldCat and making members’ data work harder

• Share a comprehensive international union catalog

• Now at 125 million records; in 2008, almost 5 new holdings were added every second

• Share resources with other libraries and make the ‘collective collections’ of libraries more visible on the Web

Are OCLC’s Public Purposes Still Relevant to Libraries?Are OCLC’s Public Purposes Still Relevant to Libraries?

Establish and operate a computerized network for libraries

Promote the evolution of library use, libraries, and librarianship

Provide processes and products for the benefit of library users and libraries

Increase availability of library resources to individual library patrons

Reduce library costs

Further access to and use of worldwide scientific, literary and educational knowledge and information

Some Fundamental Questions to Consider Some Fundamental Questions to Consider

• Community norms – what are the appropriate principles and best practices for collaboratively creating and sharing data, infrastructure, and services, and for sharing the costs of such a system?

• How should these norms be articulated?

• Should these norms be voluntary, or should they be enforceable?

• What principles should govern use of the data outside the community that bears the costs of creating and sharing the data, infrastructure, and services?

• What makes a shared community asset (like a library cooperative) sustainable?

Opportunities for InputOpportunities for Input

•OCLC paying close attention to all comments

•Specific comments and questions are invited and welcome at recorduse@oclc.org

•Watch for announcements of information sharing and input sessions organized by Review Board

Thank YouThank You

recorduse@oclc.org