It is all rumor at this point, but apparently OCLC will be making an announcement on November 2nd regarding its record use policy, and that using any OCLC records services (including WorldCat?) will imply acceptance of said policy.
Some people are worried about the services they have built around OCLC’s records; others feel that the policy may expand the application of the records; most are waiting and seeing.
Many libraries, including my own place of work, have integrated OCLC services into the OPAC and have a significant number of OCLC provided (not necessarily created) MARC records.
So we wait and see… will it be the lady or the tiger, or simply the 800 pound (mostly benevolent) gorilla of of the library jungle we have come to know so well?
Sources / further reading:
Next Generation Cataloging for Libraries (Ngc4Lib) list
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Update: I hadn’t noticed a communication in the comments section of the Thingology Blog from Karen Calhoun, OCLC’s Vice President of WorldCat and Metadata Services, regarding this news. She stresses that it is simply their updating of their 20+ year-old policy to reflect the expanded opportunities for the use of OCLC records. So, depending on the actual language of the changes, this seems to be the lady, or at worst an 800 pound lady gorilla. This may go down as an example, both for good and bad, of the rapidity of communication in the blogosphere.
Thanks to Karen for quickly stepping in, and to Mark Barnes for posting her statement as a comment.
So… how will this affect us? Wait and see, with patience.
