OCLC Review Board Recommends Withdrawal ofProposed WorldCat Policy

Recommendation made to OCLC Members Council, though board suggests a new policy is still necessary

Josh Hadro -- Library Journal, 05/20/2009

• Recommendation made in presentation to OCLC Members Council
• Suggests reaffirming 1987 Records Use guidelines
• New policy still needed

According to a presentation (PDF of slides) given May 18 to the OCLC Members Council  by Jennifer Younger, director of Hesburgh Libraries, University of Notre Dame, the Review Board of Shared Data Creation and Stewardship has officially recommended that OCLC "[f]ormally withdraw the proposed policy." 

In the wake of sustained criticism since the policy change was announced on November 5, 2008, OCLC announced the creation of the Review Board, headed by Younger and charged to "[r]ecommend principles of shared data creation and changes in the Policy for Use and Transfer of WorldCat Records that will preserve the community around WorldCat infrastructure and services, and strengthen libraries."

Recently, a number of library consortia, including ARL and ICOLC, have signed on to statements calling for the proposal to be significantly revised, or pulled altogether. Last week, three ILS user group associations signed on to the ICOLC statement.

Same goals, but new policy
The presentation affirms that a new records policy is necessary, but maintains that the proposed policy is not acceptable and did not sufficiently account for input from member libraries. Until these grievances can be addressed, the Review Board has suggested that OCLC "reaffirm the existence and applicability of the Nov. 16, 1987 'Guidelines for the Use and Transfer of OCLC-Derived Records.'"

While essentially sending OCLC back to the drawing board on the policy, the Review Board presentation is sympathetic to the organization's concerns over the significant technological and cultural shifts governing data sharing and curation, enumerated by OCLC VP of WorldCat and metadata services Karen Calhoun in a blog post making the case for the policy update. 

The presentation echoes a number of those points, including the recommendation that OCLC "[i]dentify threats to the sustainability of WorldCat and strategies for protecting it against unreasonable use."

The presentation cites broad issues from the library community raised via a survey that elicited 1620 responses from librarians worldwide, including 50% in academic libraries and 21% in public. Describing the survey respondents' general concerns, Younger said, "they do not see the problem, and where they do, they do not see how the proposed policy will address the problem."

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