Correction Added to Guardian Story on OCLC Record Use Policy

Last week, The Guardian newspaper in the U.K. published a story on the proposed OCLC record use policy and the controversy surrounding the proposal. As the first story on the controversy to reach the mainstream press, it spawned a flurry of discussion in the blogosphere.

Yesterday The Guardian posted an amendment to the article:

In the report below we misrepresented a new record use policy being promulgated by the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC), which aggregates library records and makes them searchable online through its WorldCat database. The policy does not, as we said, restrict libraries' ability to make their own collections and records available for public search and indexing by search engines; the policy applies to WorldCat records. The article also said the OCLC shares only 3 million of its 125 million records with Google Books. In fact, the OCLC shares its full database with Google, including Google Books. The Google search algorithm determines whether or not a WorldCat record appears in a set of search results. The article quoted a claim that OCLC has tried to obstruct the growth of the website OpenLibrary.org. OCLC was not given the opportunity to respond to the claim and denies it. OCLC said they remain optimistic that the two organisations can work together.

Hat tip to juglicerr. Karen Calhoun of OCLC also comments on the correction.