[open-bibliography] Openbiblio at OCLC

Fri May 27 11:27:29 UTC 2011

I wonder if anyone from OCLC might be interested in writing a short
piece for blog.okfn.org about their recent thinking in relation to
open data? If so it would be great if they could contact me off-list!
:-)

J.

On Fri, May 27, 2011 at 1:25 PM, Edmund Chamberlain <emc59 at cam.ac.uk> wrote:
> We had an interesting discussion with Karen this week regarding this as part
> of our work with the on the COMET project. It appears that OCLC are indeed
> considering ODC-By as the recommended license for libraries wishing to share
> data derived from Worldcat.
>
> My personal understanding was that this licensing was seen as being
> compatible (in terms of a legal substitute rather than an addition) with the
> rights and responsibilities of members whereas PDDL was not. Hopefully
> someone from OCLC can give us some clarification and greater specifics on
> this.
>
> Karen mentioned her upcoming retirement, indicated that was there was a
> clear handover path in place for her work on Open Data and that they have
> been consulting with acknowledged legal experts in Open Data licensing. They
> next hope to gain feedback from the library community and beyond on this
> issue, especially with regards to how attribution would work in practice.
>
> I'd be personally interested in the Open Data community's feelings on
> attribution licensing for data in general. Thoughts and ideas are good, but
> practical examples of where it has inconvenienced, disrupted or conversely
> assisted efforts would be very welcome.
>
> From a library point of view, I can see some advantage in having attribution
> retained, given that our hard work in creating an original record is
> acknowledged.
>
> From a developer point of view, I can only imagine it working in practice if
> OCLC give clear guidelines on attribution and make it painless. Quite how
> attribution would work in an 'ecology' of linked data is also something I'd
> also welcome thoughts and opinions on.
>
> I think its also worth highlighting that OCLC have clearly realised that
> non-commercial licensing is not suitable for bibliography, and have also
> avoided the mis-step of trying to 'roll their own' license. This is in
> itself a very good sign.
>
> Whilst I have a personal preference for PDDL/CC0 due to ease of consumption,
> I feel that if OCLC do adopt an Open Data Common License recommendation it
> will still be a major step forward for libraries wishing to share data on a
> wider scale.
>
> Best wishes
>
> Ed Chamberlain
>
>
> --
> Edmund Chamberlain
> Systems Development Librarian
> Electronic Services and Systems
> Cambridge University Library
> West Road,
> Cambridge
> CB3 9DR
>
> tel: (+44) 01223 747437
> fax: (+44) 01223 333160
>
> email: emc59 at cam.ac.uk
>
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>
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-- 
Jonathan Gray

Community Coordinator
The Open Knowledge Foundation
http://blog.okfn.org

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