[Libs-Or] Book Collection Home Page

[Kyle Banerjee]

>Very possible bib records are protected, either by contract or by 
>copyright. Although, I do wonder whether a bib record is considered a "work."
>
>In any case, LC records are not protected, and are free for the 
>downloading. At least they were last time I asked LC Card Office, maybe 
>1994 or so. Amazon records, who knows?

         A couple things come to mind. Why the heck would a library go to 
the expense and trouble to set up and maintain a z39.50 server with 
anonymous access and then be unhappy that records were being downloaded? If 
downloading records is undesirable, the server shouldn't have been set up 
in the first place.

         Union catalogs like Summit routinely transfer millions of records 
from databases scattered all over creation to physically separate machines 
that provide a specialized function -- all without any royalty payments for 
records. If it's wrong to transfer a couple dozen records into some tiny 
local library system without payment, it should also be wrong when the 
number of records transferred is increased by several orders of magnitude 
and the organizations doing it are large state and educational institutions.

         It's a good idea to check agreements before redistributing work 
done by others (or even by yourself if the works in question are primarily 
distributed by a third party). OCLC's basic rules can be found at 
http://www.oclc.org/support/documentation/worldcat/records/guidelines/default.htm
To summarize the rule that applies here, you can distribute records for 
anything you have holdings on to other libraries, member networks, and 
noncommercial firms.  In other words, there is no issue serving OCLC 
records to a local library or a union catalog if you have holdings.

         As far as LC records go, they also can be downloaded with very few 
restrictions -- that's why they set the server up. Many foreign and local 
libraries use LC as a source of records for English language cataloging 
copy. LC knows libraries do this and does not object -- you can pull down 
up to 500 records at a time (or at least you could when I last talked to 
them). I suspect that if LC changes its mind, they will cut off access to 
the server or change the way it is accessed.

kyle