OCLC Policy Change

On 5-Nov-2008, OCLC announced the Policy for Use and Transfer of WorldCat® Records to replace the Guidelines for the Use and Transfer of OCLC-Derived Records. The goals of the policy, as described by OCLC, were "to modernize record use and transfer practices for application on the Web, foster new uses of WorldCat data that benefit members and clarify data sharing rights and restrictions." This new policy generated considerable discussion in the library community, including two petitions, several trade publication articles, and over 80 blog posts with related comments.

On 13-Jan-2009, OCLC announced a Review Board of Shared Data Creation and Stewardship with a charge to: consult with librarians and member representatives as appropriate; review reports, letters and comments including blog and listserv messages from the global library community regarding the revised Policy; and recommend 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. The review board is to present a preliminary report at the February meeting of the OCLC Members Council and a final draft of the report at the May Members Council meeting. The final report is to be submitted to the OCLC Board of Trustees following the May meeting. The implementation of a new policy is not set to occur prior to the third quarter of 2009.

This page documents the discussion of members of the library community surrounding the revision of the Guidelines and creation of the Policy. It can be edited by anyone who has registered for an account on the Code4Lib wiki. Registration on the Code4Lib wiki is open to anyone with an e-mail address.

• Press release regarding the Review Board of Shared Data Creation and Stewardship

• Policy for Use and Transfer of WorldCat® Records (Last known update is 19-Nov-2008; this version is in PDF)
• OCLC's summary statement about the policy
• Guidelines for the Use and Transfer of OCLC-Derived Records (the "Previous 1987 version")

• Archived copy of 2-Nov-2008 version
• Difference between the November 2nd version and the November 5th version
• Difference between the November 5th version and the November 19th version

On November 13, 2008, a petition called Stop the OCLC powergrab! was started by Aaron Swartz to repeal the new policy. Background in his blog post, Stealing Your Library: The OCLC Powergrab.

On December 1, 2008, Elaine Sanchez created a new petition with more depth and specificity. The petition calls for OCLC to vacate the new policy, create a more open process for revising the 1987 guidelines, and assert that the records are the property of the respective contributing members. Ms. Sanchez posted an announcement about it on the Autocat mailing list.

• pmurray - Is OCLC’s Change of WorldCat Record Use/Transfer Policy Related to the Google Book Search Agreement?
• jrochkind - viral nature of OCLC usage policy–like open source? No.
• Thingology - OCLC Policy Change
• Ed Summers - Bibliovirus
• Dan Scott - Archive of OCLC WorldCat Policy as posted 2008-11-02
• Libology - OCLC WorldCat is the Tiger, not the Lady

• "working as staff at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign"

Sometimes the best insight comes in the comments added to blog postings and other stories. This Yahoo! Pipe (also available as an RSS feed) is a concatenation of comments from the postings and stories listed on this page -- with the exception of those marked "(NC)" because of use of software that doesn't support comment feeds. It was last updated as of page revision 2026.