Some interesting statistics about how MARC usage has changed in recent OCLC cataloging--perhaps due to the influx of non-US cataloging

SkyRiver -- a new competitor for OCLC cataloging services -- with ties to Innovative Interfaces

OCLC has appointed a new council to develop a new records use policy--hopefully this will be an open process unlike the last go-round. 

Streamlining Book Metadata Workflow
by Judy Luther (Informed Strategies)

Abstract: The white paper was commissioned by NISO and OCLC as a follow-up to the Symposium for Publishers and Librarians held by OCLC on March 18-19, 2009 to discuss book metadata. This paper analyzes the current state of metadata creation, exchange, and use throughout the book supply chain. With the number of book formats multiplying and the amount of digital content growing rapidly, the metadata required to support the discovery, sale, and use of content by a global audience is increasing exponentially. At the same time economic pressures on all stakeholders in the supply chain from publishers, wholesalers, booksellers, metadata vendors, and librarians present greater challenges to providing quality and comprehensive metadata at every point in the cycle. Through interviews with over 30 industry representatives, Luther has created a book metadata exchange map illustrating the process and has identified opportunities for eliminating redundancies and making the entire process more efficient.

The Review Board on the proposed OCLC Record Use Policy made an interim report to the Members' Council on Monday May 18, 2009.

Jennifer Younger, the Chair of the Board, gave our report and it has been recorded. The podcast and the accompanying PowerPoint slides are on the Review Board's web page: http://www.oclc.org/us/en/worldcat/catalog/policy/board/default.htm

"In response to requests from the cataloging community, OCLC is introducing the Expert Community Experiment, which enables cataloging members to make more changes to WorldCat records. During the Experiment, members with full-level cataloging authorizations have the ability to improve and upgrade WorldCat master records. The Experiment begins in February 2009 and lasts six months."

This is OCLC's response to the question 'what if WorldCat were more like Wikipedia'--I wonder how succesful this will be, considering the questions asked during the webinar.  It was clear that many of the participants hadn't been making upgrades and doing enrichment as previously possible with the same authorization level.   So, will this change people's behavior???

"In response to requests from the cataloging community, OCLC is introducing the Expert Community Experiment which enables cataloging members to make more changes to WorldCat records. During the Experiment, members with full level cataloging authorizations have the ability to improve and upgrade WorldCat master records. The Experiment begins in February 2009, and lasts six months."

The OCLC GovDoc service, available to regional and selective depository libraries, provides up-to-date, MARC-format cataloging records for U.S. government documents. As a GovDoc subscriber, your library regularly receives bibliographic records for only the government documents it holds. GovDoc is available to all federal depository libraries-institutional OCLC membership is not required to use the service.

More on the OCLC record-use policy

A 3-part blog on the OCLC record-use policy and what steps we could take

KAren Calhoun's blog on the new OCLC policy

More on the new OCLC policy restricting reuse of records.

Problem statement: Cultural heritage, bibliographic and archival communities use different controlled vocabularies for the resources that they manage. These controlled vocabularies may not be recognized by very diverse user communities, and ignored by large commercial information hubs and Internet search engines. Metadata needs to flow among diverse environments and reach users wherever they are. The semantic, hierarchical, and granular relationships in controlled vocabularies are often lost when retrieved outside the environment in which they were created.

Problem statement: Creating metadata that suits local needs, readily aggregates across communities, and is easily exposed to Internet search engines remains a costly enterprise. Metadata created by libraries, archives and museums is generally not available to the user communities that look first to Internet search engines. Although mapping data structures has become a commonplace solution to integrate descriptions, real interoperability across the libraries, archives and museums communities cannot be achieved without addressing differences of description at the data-content level.

Objective: Engage the RLG partnership in adapting descriptive practice to economic realities, user expectations, and the requirements of network-level services. Set new expectations for investing in metadata creation and maintenance, model attendant workflows, and facilitate the discovery of research institutions' resources by users wherever they are.

"OCLC has launched a pilot project to explore upstream metadata capture and enhancement using publisher and vendor ONIX metadata. Pilot partners from the publishing, vendor and library communities are assisting us in this effort. We hope the pilotwill result in ongoing processes for the early addition of new title metadata to WorldCat and enhanced quality and consistency in upstream title metadata used by multiple channels."

Formerly Promptcat

"A reference card (4 pp.) listing (1) cataloging activities authorized for each OCLC authorization level, including Search, Limited, Full, and higher, and (2) types of master record updates authorized for Full and higher authorizations. Covers both the Connexion browser and client."

Especially note the last page which notes types of record updates possible (Minimal level upgrade, database enrichment, and enhance)