This list has exhibited interest in the revision of the OCLC Guidelines on the Use and Transfer of WorldCat Records that happened a while back, and the controversy that led to its withdrawal and the creation of an entirely new process to produce another draft. Therefore, I’m pleased to let you know that earlier today the OCLC Record Use Policy Council, made up of OCLC members and two OCLC staff members (list below), notified the membership that the new draft policy is available for review and feedback. I’m certain you will find that it differs in some fairly dramatic ways from the previous revision attempt, and reflects both the rights and responsibilities of OCLC member libraries in creating and maintaining a vital and effective metadata aggregation and the important services that can be built upon it. Please read the draft policy and feel free to send your comments or questions to the Council at [log in to unmask] Thanks, Roy TO: OCLC Members FROM: OCLC Record Use Policy Council Co-Chairs Barbara Gubbin, Director, Jacksonville Public Library, USA; and Jennifer Younger, President-Elect, OCLC Global Council and Edward H. Arnold Director of Hesburgh Libraries, University of Notre Dame, USA RE: Next-generation policy for WorldCat records—open for community review DATE: April 7, 2010 The OCLC Record Use Policy Council members have been working for the past few months to develop the next generation of a WorldCat use policy, and we are pleased to announce that the draft document, WorldCat Rights and Responsibilities for the OCLC Cooperative <http://www.oclc.org/worldcat/catalog/policy/default.htm> , is open for community review. This Council, convened by the OCLC Board of Trustees last September, has produced a new draft document that incorporates many suggestions raised by the community over the past year. For example, rather than using legal language, we have drafted the new policy as a code of good practices, intended to outline the rights and responsibilities of OCLC members with regard to the use of WorldCat records. We intend for this document to help inform the decision-making process for member library leaders as they seek to innovate around the shared resource that is WorldCat. We have sought to encourage the widespread use of WorldCat data while also supporting the viability and utility of WorldCat and the OCLC network of services. The draft policy is not final. Between now and the end of May, we very much want your feedback. We hope you will take the time to review the draft policy carefully, and let us know your thoughts. You can post comments to the community forum <http://community.oclc.org/recorduse> , send an e-mail with your thoughts to [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> , or register to attend a webinar <http://www.oclc.org/worldcat/catalog/policy/council/default.htm> where you can ask questions and submit feedback to members of the Record Use Policy Council. We will continue to add content to the accompanying FAQ <http://www.oclc.org/worldcat/catalog/policy/questions/default.htm> as we get more questions from the community review process. We plan to send a revised version of the draft policy to the OCLC Board of Trustees at the end of May for final review and approval. We anticipate that a final document will be published mid-calendar year 2010. Many thanks are due to all the members and librarians who commented over the past year and whose feedback helped us formulate this new document. We would especially like to thank the members of the Record Use Policy Council: · ChewLeng Beh, Global Council Delegate and Chair, OCLC Asia Pacific Regional Council; and Senior Director, Singapore National Library Board, Singapore · Raymond Bérard, Global Council Delegate and Director, ABES, France · Karen Calhoun, Vice President, OCLC WorldCat and Metadata Services, OCLC, USA · Klaus Ceynowa, Global Council Delegate and Deputy Director General, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Germany · Christopher Cole, Global Council Delegate and Associate Director for Technical Services, National Agriculture Library, USA · Lorcan Dempsey, Vice President, OCLC Research and Chief Strategist, OCLC, USA · Nancy Eaton, Dean of University Libraries and Scholarly Communications, Penn State University, USA · Clifford A. Lynch, Executive Director, Coalition for Networked Information (CNI), USA · Brian E. C. Schottlaender, Global Council Delegate and The Audrey Geisel University Librarian, UC San Diego Libraries, USA · Lamar Veatch, Global Council Delegate and State Librarian, Georgia Public Library Service–University System of Georgia, USA