Sharing and re-use of catalogue records: what are the legal implications?
As part of making library resources as visible as possible in the Web environment, libraries are increasingly interested in making their catalogue records available for use in Web applications and indexing by Web search engines.
The records in a university library catalogue typically have many different origins: created by the library, obtained from a national library or a book supplier etc. So, who ‘owns’ them? And what are the legal implications of making them available to others when this involves copying, transferring them into different formats, etc.?
The JISC has just commissioned a study to explore some of these issues as they apply to UK university libraries and to provide practical guidance to library managers who may be interested in making their catalogue records available in new ways. Outcomes are expected by the end of 2009.
The specific objectives of the study are to:
• Establish the provenance of records in the catalogues of a small but representative sample of UK university libraries and in the national Copac and SUNCAT catalogues;
• Identify any rights or licences applying to the records and assess how these apply to re-use in the Web environment. This work should include clarifying the legal status of MARC records and copies of MARC records, and the legal implications of translating records between different formats such as MARC and MODS XML;
• Provide practical guidance to UK university libraries about the legal issues to be considered in making catalogue records available for re-use in Web applications such as social networking sites – drawing on the findings from the sample;
• Make recommendations to the JISC and the UK higher education community about any initiatives which could usefully be undertaken to facilitate the re-use of catalogue records in Web applications in a way which respects legal rights and business interests.
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5 Responses to “Sharing and re-use of catalogue records: what are the legal implications?”
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I can’t find any description of this project on the JISC website – can you post the relevant URL here please so we can find out more about it (e.g. who’s going to be conducting it, what the deliverables are)? Thanks.
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There is a page on the JISC Web site for this study now: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/resourcediscovery/recordreuse.aspx
There is a limited amount of information there at the moment. The project plan should be available soon.
The primary deliverables will be guidance materials on the legal context for sharing and re-use of catalogue records; the precise format of those materials has not yet been agreed.
[...] JISC Information Environment Team have just announced a study to explore the legal and ownership implications of making catalogue records available to [...]