WorldCat Rights and Responsibilities for the OCLC Cooperative (Draft for Community Review)—Frequently Asked Questions

For the review period, the current API terms and conditions remain in force. The months of April and May are an opportunity for libraries to respond to the draft.

However, based on the current draft of the WorldCat Rights and Responsibilities being reviewed, there are two different situations that affect bibliographic records as they relate to WorldCat Search API usage:

1. For records that your library currently has holdings attached, the WorldCat Rights and Responsibilities would apply. And the WorldCat Search API can be used for these possible uses.
2. For all other records not held by the library, the API can still be used for discovery purposes. There would be no change to the current terms and conditions for these records.

An OCLC member may make normal and customary use of data extracted from WorldCat that represents or enriches the member's own holdings in the member's system(s) and services. Such uses might include loading data into a library catalog, discovery system, resource-sharing system or the like for the purposes of supporting discovery of and access to the member's collections, supporting bibliographic verification, inventory control, circulation or supporting private study, teaching, learning, academic or scientific research.

Member libraries are encouraged to make innovative uses of WorldCat data within the member's system(s) and services for such purposes, and make reasonable efforts to attribute the OCLC cooperative as a contributor to their works or services based substantially on WorldCat data.

Uses of data extracted from WorldCat that represent or enrich the member's own holdings that involve transferring or making the WorldCat data available outside the member's systems or services by another party are discussed below.

Yes. Please note, however that such transfer and/or redistribution of WorldCat data and subsequent uses of the transferred data (including copying, displaying, publishing, modifying, reformatting and/or creating works or services from) should be carried out in keeping with OCLC member community norms, OCLC’s public purpose and this policy’s intent.

In the context of machine-to-machine transfers of WorldCat data, OCLC member responsibilities include making reasonable efforts to ensure awareness of WorldCat Rights and Responsibilities for the OCLC Cooperative among those who make subsequent use of that data. If a member becomes aware of machine transfers and subsequent uses of its WorldCat data that are inconsistent with the policy, the member is encouraged to discuss the matter with OCLC and/or the noncompliant organization or individual.

Yes, the member may make available or transfer WorldCat data that represents its own collections to an agent (see policy Glossary); however, the member should take certain steps.

1. OCLC has in place existing agreements with many agents. (OCLC will provide this list at the time this policy is implemented.) To transfer or make WorldCat data that represents its own collections available to these agents, the OCLC member need only check this list to confirm that the agent has a written agreement with OCLC covering the Service(s) the member is to receive.
2. If the list does not indicate the existence of such an agreement, and the agent's use of the WorldCat data is limited to performing services contracted for by the OCLC member, the OCLC member library can establish its own agreement with the agent. The agreement should contain language limiting the agent's use of the WorldCat data as suggested in Appendix 1 of the policy.
3. When language limiting the agent's use of WorldCat data is not appropriate for the agent's required use of the WorldCat data or acceptable to the agent, the OCLC member should request that OCLC approach the agent to negotiate a mutually acceptable agreement between the agent and OCLC. The agreement will generally contain terms comparable to those described in Appendix 2 of the policy.

Yes. Please note, however, that such transfer and/or redistribution of WorldCat data and subsequent uses of the transferred data (including copying, displaying, publishing, modifying, reformatting and/or creating works or services from) should be carried out in keeping with OCLC member community norms, OCLC’s public purpose and this policy’s intent.

Yes. Please note, however, that such transfer and/or redistribution of WorldCat data and its subsequent uses (including copying, displaying, publishing, modifying, reformatting and/or creating works or services from) must be carried out in keeping with OCLC member community norms, OCLC’s public purpose and this policy’s intent.

If the scholar requires large amounts of WorldCat data, the scholar may be referred directly to OCLC to request access to WorldCat data for the purposes of academic or scientific research. In keeping with its public purposes, OCLC has a long-standing tradition of providing qualified researchers with access to WorldCat data for the purpose of qualified academic or scientific research or study.

To determine the answer, the OCLC member should determine the type of nonmember or agency:

1. Is the requestor an individual scholar requesting use for his or her personal academic or scientific research or study, or another library, or a cultural or scholarly institution requesting use for its institutional or collaborative re-use? If yes, grant the request provided the requestor's intended subsequent uses of your data are consistent with OCLC member community norms, OCLC’s public purpose and this policy’s intent.
2. Is the requestor an 'agent' (see policy Glossary) that you have retained to provide services to your library? If yes, which case applies?

   a. The agent's use of my WorldCat data is limited to what is necessary to perform the services contracted for my institution. If this is the case, grant the request, ensuring either (1) the services to be provided by the agent are covered by an agreement between OCLC and the agent as indicated on OCLC's list of existing agreements (OCLC will provide this list at the time this policy is implemented); or (2) that your agreement with the agent contains language limiting the agent's use of your WorldCat data as suggested in Appendix 1 of the policy.

   b. The agent wishes to retain copies of my WorldCat data for the agent's own business purposes, beyond what is necessary to perform the services for me. If this is the case, check OCLC's list of existing agreements (OCLC will provide this list at the time this policy is implemented.) and (1) if an applicable agreement with the agent is there, grant the request or (2) if an applicable agreement with the agent is not there, ask OCLC to approach the agent to propose a mutually acceptable agreement between the agent and OCLC. The agreement will generally contain terms comparable to those described in Appendix 2 of the policy. (OCLC will provide contact information for such requests at the time this policy is implemented.)

3. Is the requestor another type of organization? If yes, check OCLC's list of existing agreements and (a) if an applicable agreement with the organization is listed there, grant the request or (b) if an applicable agreement with the organization is not listed there, ask OCLC to approach the organization to propose a mutually acceptable agreement between the organization and OCLC. The agreement will generally contain terms comparable to those described in Appendix 2 of the policy. (OCLC will provide contact information for such requests at the time this policy is implemented.)

It is impossible to anticipate all of the conceivable uses to which members might want or need to put WorldCat data. OCLC members are encouraged to discuss with OCLC any uses that do not appear to be covered by this policy. If a particular use is determined to not be covered, OCLC and the member will seek a mutually agreeable resolution of the matter.

The OCLC cooperative welcomes feedback on the WorldCat Rights and Responsibilities for the OCLC Cooperative. The document will be periodically reviewed and comments will be sought during those review periods.

In the context of the policy, whether you are an OCLC member or not, there is no impact on your library's practice of downloading copies of records from the national library's online catalog. The policy states that your library's subsequent use of the WorldCat data should be in keeping with OCLC member community norms, OCLC’s public purpose and this policy’s intent.

OCLC only claims copyright rights in WorldCat as a compilation. Those rights are based on OCLC's intellectual contribution to WorldCat as a whole, including OCLC's selection, arrangement and coordination of the material in WorldCat. To the extent copyright rights exist in an individual bibliographic record in WorldCat, the copyright rights in the record would vest with the author of the record. Modifications, corrections and enhancements to a record may vest the author of those changes with copyright rights in the changes.

Having said that, the draft policy takes a very different starting point than who owns the records, what that means, or whether WorldCat data is public or proprietary. Instead, the draft policy begins with a new premise—the conviction that WorldCat is a shared community resource that is intended to benefit the cooperative of members who contribute to its growth and financially support it. Another principle underlying the draft policy is that the cooperative relies on WorldCat to share resources, reduce costs, and increase members' visibility and impact in the communities they serve. To that end, the draft policy sets out a framework of self-governing behaviors that will sustain WorldCat, the services based on it, the outcomes those services produce, and the cooperative itself over time.

Provided your library's use of the data is consistent with OCLC member community norms, OCLC’s public purpose and this policy’s intent, there is no impact on your library at all, and your library may continue in its use of WorldCat data from the consortium.

Yes, OCLC members have the right to make available or transfer extracted WorldCat data representing their own holdings to a consortium of libraries and/or cultural and scholarly institutions for collaborative re-use by the consortium, whether the consortium is a member or non-member of OCLC. This "collaborative re-use" of the collected WorldCat data by the consortium should be consistent with OCLC member community norms, OCLC’s public purpose and this policy’s intent.

In the context of the policy, WorldCat data is metadata for an information object, generally in the form of a record or records encoded in MARC format, whose initial source is or was the WorldCat bibliographic database.

You have received WorldCat data when (1) you have extracted it directly from the WorldCat database using one of OCLC's services for members (e.g., Connexion, WorldCat Cataloging Partners, CatExpress, the OCLC Z39.50 Cataloging Service, Batch Processing services) or under the terms of a non-member agreement with OCLC; or (2) you have extracted it from an online catalog or another source to which extracted WorldCat data has been transferred or made available.

Identifying WorldCat as the source of data that has been transferred or made available downstream of the initial extraction from WorldCat can sometimes be complex. A combination of the following data elements in a bibliographic record can help determine if the record was initially extracted from WorldCat:

• An OCLC Number along with
  • the 001 field that includes value characters "ocm" or "ocn" and/or
  • the 035 field that includes the value "(OCoLC)" and/or
  • the 994 field

Occurrences of the phrase "OCLC community norms" link to the OCLC Principles of Cooperation, a foundation document of the OCLC cooperative that was adopted by the OCLC Members Council in 1996. Some sections of the 1996 Principles document are out of date or inconsistent with the draft policy, most notably the bullet point limiting use of OCLC records, systems and services to "OCLC authorized users." The draft policy Section 3A, paragraph 3, subparagraph A supersedes this statement in the Principles document. The OCLC Global Council is currently working to update the Principles document.