Review Board on Principles of Shared Data Creation and Stewardship releases final report

DUBLIN, Ohio, USA, 26 June 2009—The Review Board on Principles of Shared Data Creation and Stewardship, convened jointly by the OCLC Board of Trustees and Members Council to represent the membership and inform OCLC on matters concerning shared data, has issued its final report recommending that the proposed Policy on Use and Transfer of WorldCat Records be withdrawn and a new policy drafted.

After review of the recommendations, OCLC has formally withdrawn the proposed policy. A new group will soon be assembled to begin work to draft a new policy with more input and participation from the OCLC membership.

The Review Board's final report is available on the Web at www.oclc.org/worldcat/catalog/policy/board/default.htm.

"The OCLC Board of Trustees is grateful to the Review Board on Principles of Shared Data Creation and Stewardship for its diligent work in gathering input from the library community, examining the issues closely and reporting their findings back to the OCLC membership," said Larry Alford, Chair, OCLC Board of Trustees and Dean of University Libraries, Temple University. "The Review Board's recommendations and report will help shape the OCLC membership's approach to drafting a new policy."

"The Review Board did the OCLC membership a great service by pulling together the information needed to make informed decisions on how to proceed with this important issue," said Jan Ison, Executive Director, Lincoln Trail Libraries System and President of the OCLC Global Council, formerly the Members Council. "The OCLC Global Council appreciates the hard work and dedication of the Review Board, and will continue to make good use the Review Board's findings."

In May, Jennifer Younger, Review Board Chair, and Edward H. Arnold Director of Hesburgh Libraries, University of Notre Dame, presented a report to OCLC Members Council recommending that the proposed policy be formally withdrawn and a new policy should be drafted. "We affirm that a policy is needed, but not this policy," said Dr. Younger.

The Review Board gathered input from Members Council before submitting its recommendation to the OCLC Board of Trustees in June.

"The dialogue and debate surrounding OCLC's record use policy have demonstrated some of the great strengths of the OCLC cooperative—that we are indeed a membership organization, that our members are vocal, and that we listen to the membership," said Jay Jordan, OCLC President and CEO. "Soon we will announce a new initiative to develop a record use policy that reflects both the rights of individual libraries and the needs of the cooperative to sustain and grow WorldCat for future generations. In the meantime, I want to thank Jennifer Younger and the Review Board for their efforts. I would also like to thank the members of the OCLC community who expressed their concerns and offered constructive criticism and support."

An OCLC Review Board open forum will be held at the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago on Sunday, July 12, from 10:30 a.m. to noon, in the Chicago Hilton Waldorf Room. Members of the Review Board will discuss findings from their report and answer questions. Registration for this forum is available on OCLC's ALA events page at www.oclc.org/info/ala/.

A new group will be named to begin work to draft a new policy. Until a new policy is in place, OCLC has reaffirmed the existence and applicability of the “Guidelines for the Use and Transfer of OCLC-Derived Records,” which have been in place since 1987, as recommended by the Review Board.

More information on the Review Board on Principles of Shared Data Creation and Stewardship can be found on its Web site www.oclc.org/worldcat/catalog/policy/board/default.htm.

About OCLC
Founded in 1967 and headquartered in Dublin, Ohio, OCLC is a nonprofit library service and research organization that has provided computer-based cataloging, reference, resource sharing, eContent, preservation, library management and Web services to 71,000 libraries in 112 countries and territories. OCLC and its member libraries worldwide have created and maintain WorldCat, the world’s richest online resource for finding library materials. Search WorldCat.org on the Web at www.worldcat.org. For more information, visit www.oclc.org.

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