My only comment is what would OCLC do with this request? It is one thing to
pool information for a cooperative effort but another entirely to have
someone electronically gather your work and then sell the result. What would
you do if the request was for a photograph or similar item? If you choose to
give this away you should at least get a copy of the cd-roms in return.

Bob

Robert F. Nawrocki CRM
Electronic Records Coordinator
Records Management and Imaging Services Division
The Library of Virginia
804.692.3505
[log in to unmask]
Innovate and Infuriate

-----Original Message-----
From: STEVEN P. FISHER [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2001 2:17 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Who owns our catalog records?


Lydia,

I think the key word is "reproduce." Sure he can copy them, use them, take
information from them, etc. I do NOT think he can simply reproduce the
catalog record images and publish them without some agreement from you.
Someone correct me if I am wrong.

Steve Fisher
University of Denver

On Thu, 13 Dec 2001, Lucas, Lydia wrote:

> Here's an interesting question that's come down from our Reference
> Department:
>
> ***The requestor would like to select some bibliographic records from our
> online catalog and reproduce them in a union catalog of genealogical books
> and manuscripts.  He could possibly download quite a few - in 1999 he
> published the Genealogical Library Master Catalog with 300,000
bibliographic
> records on 3 CD-ROMs, which was picked by Library Journal as one of the
best
> 10 CD-ROMs for that year.   Maybe his conscience is bothering him?  I
don't
> know that we can stop him, but I do wonder who owns our records?***
>
> Seems to me that, by being publicly available, our catalog records are, in
a
> sense, in the public domain, and that downloading them is just the modern
> substitute for transcribing the information by hand (which anyone would be
> perfectly free to do).  The intended product being a union catalog, the
> matter of proper credit would not seem to be an issue, and an explicit
> blessing of this use could also be accompanied by an explicit request not
to
> alter any data.
>
> I would be interested in others' perspectives.
>
> Lydia Lucas
> Head, Processing Department
> Minnesota Historical Society
> 345 Kellogg Boulevard West
> St. Paul, MN  55102-1906
> ph (651) 297-5542
> fax (651) 296-9961
> e-mail:  [log in to unmask]
>
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