http://liber.library.uu.nl/publish/issues/2010-3_4/index.html?000512Free Library Data?
Raymond Bérard, Director, Agence bibliographique de l’enseignement
supérieur (ABES), 227 avenue Professeur Jean-Louis-Viala, 34193
Montpellier cedex 5, France,
[hidden email]
Abstract
As library materials are catalogued by public organisations and
librarians are active promoters of the principles of open access, one
would expect library data to be freely available to all. Yet this is
not the case. Why then do so few libraries make their data available
free of charge? This article reviews the diverging, often restrictive
policies and the interests (commercial and strategic) at stake. It
presents a panorama of the current situation, the actors and interests
involved. It addresses the legal aspects and the obstacles and it
shows how data produced by libraries can be made freely available to
other knowledge organisations while retaining and developing the
collective organisations and services built by library networks over
the years.
The aim of the ‘free the data movement’ is to share and reuse
bibliographic data in a new ecosystem where all the actors are
involved, both users and providers, not just librarians.
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