Some big news from OCLC: They are creating a review board to solicit feedback about their licensing policy (and judging from the press release, the entire concept of sharing library data). They are drawing from the OCLC Board of Trustees and the OCLC Members Council in creating this committee, and are delaying the implementation of their record licensing until the third quarter of 2009.
I like that they are drawing from a wide range of sources, including blogs, listservs, librarians and members, as well as the ARL/ASERL Task Group (whose report is scheduled for release later this week). One addition I would like to see would be some means of submitting one’s own commentary (or links to existing commentary) directly to the group.
This is a positive step on the part of OCLC. I suspect that there are a few people at the organization who were surprised at the negative response to the license by many in the library community. It has taken a bit of time, but this appears to be an honest effort to obtain input.
I still think that they are like a tiger defending its territory; but for the first time since this broke loose, I don’t feel that they are acting defensively. This is a good thing for everyone. The library community knows that they offer excellent resources and tools, and OCLC understands that they exist because the library community respects what they offer.
I cannot predict that the end result of this will be a fair data sharing policy, but this is how that journey should start.
found via LISNews
