I am typically not a fan of online petitions, but Elaine Sanchez has created a petition that includes a good summary of the situation with the upcoming new OCLC Policy for Use and Transfer of WorldCat Records. I have blogged about this previously so my thoughts are on record and I’m not going to rehash all of them here. I believe that many people at OCLC really want to do the right thing for libraries (both member and non-member) but I don’t think the policy as currently formed does that. I also am still a little dismayed with the fact that they put some things in the FAQ that clarify things a little or imply that libraries will have the right to do this or that, but they don’t put them into the policy. Remember, the policy is the legal document, not the FAQ.
Elaine Sanchez’s petition does not call for the policy mot to be changed. Instead it calls for OCLC to “[f]orm a truly representative group of OCLC members, non-members, and other cataloging service entities to review the 1987 policy in light of the current environment.” Even if you don’t want to sign the petition, it is worth reading for its summary of the situation.
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I think what will get the most attention at OCLC is if decision-makers (ie, administrators, heads of depts, directors) of OCLC member libraries contact OCLC expressing concern about this issue.
If anyone who works in such a library and has the right kind of relationship with their administrators to encourage/help them to do this, that would be the highest impact. You can even write a form letter for them, could be as simple as emailing it to whatever OCLC contact your institution has, whether a salesperson or Karen Calhoun.
I think few administrators understand or care about this issue, which means those of us who do care about it are not particularly relevant to OCLC’s decision making. If you have the right kind of relationship to get your administrators to care, that’s the way to do it.
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