The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Ad Hoc Task Force to Review the Proposed OCLC Policy for Use and Transfer of WorldCat Records has issued its final report. The report calls on OCLC to develop a new policy to replace the one released in November 2008.
OCLC's release of the policy elicited serious concern from the ARL community, as well as the broader library community. As a result, ARL established an ad hoc task force to review the policy and identify issues of particular interest to research libraries. The task force report includes a brief overview of the policy and the task force's understanding of the policy's intent. This is followed by an explanation of specific issues and findings regarding both the policy itself and the implementation process. The report concludes with recommendations for OCLC and the library community.
The ARL Board of Directors has accepted the task force's report. The Association has shared the report with OCLC for the use of its Board of Trustees and its newly established Review Board of Shared Data Creation and Stewardship.
The report is freely available on the ARL website at http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/oclc-report-jan09.pdf.
