[okfn-discuss] Submitting comments to the Library of Congress?

[Rufus Pollock]

Jonathan Gray wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> The Library of Congress has asked for comments on a draft produced by a 
> Working Group they initiated on the 'Future of Bibliographic Control'.
> 
> As some of you may have seen I recently blogged about this:
>  
> http://blog.okfn.org/2007/12/06/the-future-of-bibliographic-control-and-licensing-policies-for-bibliographic-data/
> 
> The deadline for public comments is 15th December. I think it would be 
> great if we could submit some brief notes on the potential benefits of 
> openly licensing bibliographic data!

We should definitely draft something. Would you be happy to put 
something together and then post it to the list (or on the wiki with a 
link for the list).

Looking through the PR from the LC in your mail (not included here) some 
  potential points to make would be:

* Best way to achieve sharing and deliver value for a publicly funded 
ORG such as LC is to make biblio metadata *openly* available. Why?
   * More bugfixing, possibilities for 'wiki-like' management of data 
etc => better quality data
   * Allows for possibility of distributed data provision and access 
(reducing load, reducing latency, risk of downtime etc etc)
   * Better access both in terms of multiple forms/formats and others 
designing a better interface (see comments in a recent blog post [1])
   * Possibilities for reuse and recombination with other data sources
* Must emphasize we are not talking about their content at this point 
just the *metadata*
* Might also want to point out that for content in which there are no 
rights problems (i.e. public domain) should make that stuff openly 
available for same reason.
* Overall: for publicly funded bodies open approaches maximize social 
welfare!

[1]:<http://blog.okfn.org/2007/10/31/british-history-online-why-the-restrictions/>


> Does anyone know if any groups or individuals have already submitted 
> comments along these lines?

No-one to my knowledge but that might not be saying much ...

> Can anyone think of any organisations/individuals who might be 
> interested in helping out with this?

Should obviously contact archive.org/openlibrary. Paul from Talis has 
already posted so it looks like something is happening there. Might want 
to also try contacting CC (perhaps Jon Phillips) though the time 
constraints might be a little tight.

~rufus