Creating and Sustaining Communities Around Shared Data: The Case of OCLC

Creating and Sustaining Communities Around Shared Data: the Case of OCLC Karen Calhoun Vice President, WorldCat and Metadata Services ALCTS Forum January 2009

The OCLC Cooperative’s “Ecosystem of Collectively Valuable Content”

It’s not just the data that OCLC members share

They also share infrastructure and services

The costs of cooperating are a fraction of the costs of not cooperating

Data sharing practices governed by Guidelines for the Use and Transfer of OCLC-Derived Records

http://www.oclc.org/support/documentation/worldcat/records/guidelines/default.htm

A Shared Community Asset: Swimming Pools More than the water in the pool! Lifeguards, swim lessons, water slides … Community cost sharing – Admission rates pay for pool and its services Policy provides terms for non-resident use By xcode, http://www.flickr.com/photos/wongjunhao/416266898/

OCLC’s critics … “ OCLC is trapped in an increasingly inappropriate business model—a model based upon the value in the creation and control of data. Increasingly, in this interconnected world, the value is in making data openly available and building services upon it. When people get charged for one thing, but gain value from another, they will become increasingly uncomfortable with the old status quo.” Wallis, Richard. “OCLC and ROI.” Panlibus Blog (Talis), December 11, 2007. http://blogs.talis.com/panlibus/archives/2007/12/oclc_and_roi.php

Then and Now: A Time of Transition

THEN:

“ A model based upon the value in the creation and control of data”

NOW:

A model based upon the value in the exchange and linking of data

Janus, guardian of doors and gates

Updating the Guidelines

Expand the opportunities for record sharing among member and non-member libraries, archives and museums

Respond to the changing information landscape

Modernize the language of the Guidelines

Clarify how WorldCat records can be used and shared

Overall intent to ensure use of records created by OCLC members

benefits the OCLC cooperative as a whole

offers a fair return to members by those who would use the records

from outside the cooperative

OCLC’s Record Use Study Group: Our Charge (January 2008)

Identify key values or principles underlying the Guidelines

Principles of cooperation: http://www.oclc.org/worldcat/catalog/principles/default.htm

Guidelines for contribution: http://www.oclc.org/worldcat/catalog/guidelines/default.htm

Environmental scan of data sharing policies

Interview internal and external stakeholders

Draft new policy to replace Guidelines

Support widespread use of WorldCat records while assuring fair return to OCLC members and the cooperative

Community Norms and Best Practices: the Case of the Guidelines

Norms: “rules that are socially enforced”; “customary rules of behavior”

Norms are voluntary although social sanctions may be used to maintain them

Work together to build WorldCat

Contribute holdings promptly and fully

Help maintain the database

Promote responsible use of WorldCat records, systems, and services

Limit to authorized users; notify of unapproved uses

Disseminate information about principles of cooperation to others

“ Ensure the resources of the cooperative are used to the benefit of the cooperative”

OCLC’s uses of contributed data consistent with its chartered purposes

Open Data Commons Community Norms (Draft)

http://www.opendatacommons.org/odc-community-norms/

Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication and License

Voluntary – code of conduct

Share alike

Attribution – and let others know what you’ve done with their work

Give URL of source

Publicize ODC license

Use open formats and don’t use technical protection measures

What Other Norms, Best Practices, Terms, Conditions Exist for Data Sharing? The Record Use Study Group’s Environmental Scan

Data Sharing Environmental Scan by OCLC Record Use Study Group

Evaluated norms, policies and licenses related to use and re-use of metadata and content

Commercial and non-commercial data providers

Prevailing opinion in the blogosphere:

“Data should be free and open”

Reality:

Nearly everybody has terms and conditions that impose some degree of restriction on data re-use and transfer

Sample Terms and Conditions for Metadata/Content – Private Sector

Amazon – Amazon Associates Web Service

Purpose of data access is to drive traffic to Amazon; any user of data must link back to Amazon

ProQuest MARC Records

For use by purchasing institutions only; loading records into shared cataloging system not permitted

All Media Guide/AllMusic

For use online only and solely for personal, non-commercial use; all other use and transfer prohibited

Twitter

Twitter data can be shared on other Web sites; pages on other Websites that display Twitter data must link back to Twitter

Sample Terms and Conditions for Metadata/Content – Public or Social Sector

Wikipedia

GNU Free Documentation License makes documents free to copy, distribute, modify, for commercial or non-commercial use; requires attribution of original author’s/publisher’s work

OCLC

Free non-commercial use of WorldCat.org data (end user service); conditions for data re-use and transfer; non-library uses/transfers require agreements between OCLC and user/transferee(s)

Sherpa/RoMEO

Free to interested parties with conditions for re-use; re-use governed by Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License; RoMEO logo must appear on public pages

Perspective on “Open Data” Correlated With …

How financial viability is achieved

What is the degree of dependence on revenue from content, metadata, or content/metadata-based services?

Amazon – majority of revenue from online sales

Google – majority of revenue from ads

Wikipedia – almost all revenue from donations to Wikimedia Foundation

Sherpa/RoMEO – public and social sector funding

OCLC – a cooperative – relies on recovering costs of infrastructure and services based on member-contributed metadata

All Media Guide/AllMusic – revenue comes from licensing the content and metadata it creates to others

A Landscape Rich in “Lessons in Contradiction”

Other people’s data should be free

What Will Help Libraries?

Reduced operational costs for data creation and management, resource sharing, public services

Exposure of library data and collections in as many places as possible on the Web

More traffic to libraries from popular Web sites

To do these things, libraries need to collaborate more than ever, and …

They need shared data, shared infrastructure, shared services …

On the network

Partners not adversaries

La Grande bibliothèque nationale du Québec Attribution: Uploaded on May 8, 2005 by Master Long http://flickr.com/photos/long/12987307/

Examples of partnerships that provide a ‘fair return’ to OCLC Members

New or enhanced content for WorldCat – e.g., linking digitized books to WorldCat (Google Book Search agreement May 2008)

Support for making library workflows less costly – WorldCat Cataloging Partner agreements (e.g., Blackwell Book Services)

Traffic driven from popular Web sites to library collections via WorldCat.org (e.g., Yahoo! agreement)

Updating the Guidelines

Balancing act

Make WorldCat data as open as possible, but …

Assure use outside the cooperative provides a fair return to the OCLC members who contribute the data and …

Protect members’ investment in OCLC data, infrastructure, and services

By: Hello I am Bruce http://www.flickr.com/photos/bruce_mcadam/301067977/

Guidelines and the Revised Policy – What’s the Same

Both support

Noncommercial sharing of member data among libraries (revised policy adds archives and museums)

Consortial union catalogs and resource sharing systems

Exposure of members' data in ILSes and new discovery layers

End user data sharing from library catalogs

Both require

Separate agreements with organizations making commercial use of members' data

Separate agreements when libraries want to share members' data that doesn't reflect their own holdings

Guidelines and Revised Policy – Key Difference

The revised policy is framed as a legal document.

Why?

Overall intent to ensure use of records created by OCLC members

benefits the OCLC cooperative as a whole

offers a fair return to members by those who would use the records

from outside the cooperative

What Happened Next

An OCLC community norm we did not take seriously enough:

Participatory decision making

“ It would seem that this policy did not get as wide of a hearing as it deserved.” – Peter Murray, OHIOLINK

Source: Martin Mehl http://www.calpoly.edu/~mmehl/podcasts/podcasts.html Permission requested

Review Board on Principles of Shared Data Creation and Stewardship

Jointly established – Board of Trustees, Members Council

Chair, Jennifer Younger (University of Notre Dame)

Read and study reports and postings on revised policy

Organize information sharing and feedback sessions

Recommend principles of shared data creation/maintenance and changes to policy

Preliminary report from chair at February virtual meeting of Members Council

Implementation Delayed To Allow Time for Community Review

The WorldCat Record Use Policy was scheduled to be implemented in mid-February; now third quarter calendar 2009

OCLC paying close attention to all comments

Specific comments and questions are invited and welcome at [email_address]

Watch for announcements of information sharing and input sessions organized by Review Board

Awareness and support for norms of OCLC cooperative? Who owns the records?

“ I paid for the records and they are mine to do with as I please”

Whose Records Are They Anyway? – They Are A Shared Community Asset

Are WorldCat and the Shared Services Built Upon It Worth Having?

Share the costs of metadata creation and maintenance

Few records are the work of one cataloger, but the result of iterative work that WorldCat enables catalogers to record

OCLC staff make a massive investment in maintaining WorldCat and making members’ data work harder

Share a comprehensive international union catalog

Now at 125 million records; in 2008, almost 5 new holdings were added every second

Share resources with other libraries and make the ‘collective collections’ of libraries more visible on the Web

Some Fundamental Questions to Consider

Community norms – what are the appropriate principles and best practices for collaboratively creating and sharing data, infrastructure, and services, and for sharing the costs of such a system?

How should these norms be articulated?

Should these norms be voluntary, or should they be enforceable policy?

What principles should govern use of the data outside the community that bears the costs of creating and sharing the data, infrastructure, and services?