Re: Comment on Feist, re library catalogs

> > On another listserv, there has been some discussion of whether library
> > cataloging records can be freely downloaded from online library catalogs
> > and used by other libraries without copyright infringement.
>
> As call numbers are a reflection of the subject matter
> covered by a book, it may be possible to claim a copyright in that
> designation, too (assuming that the library creates their own call
> numbers and doesn't get them from OCLC).

      Since the majority of U.S. cataloging (though certainly not all) is derived from Library of Congress created cataloging copy available through sources like OCLC, the LoC itself, or in catatloging in publication records on the verso of the title pages of trade books, the majority of records in most library catalogs will be in the public domain. Since the number of non alphabetic arrangements in use is also severly limited, should one wish to copyright a classified catalog, the vast majority being UDC, Dewey or Library of Congress, I would think a new and unique subject classification scheme would be required to copyright the whole catalog. There might be a case for those individual records not in the public domain based on unique local subject analysis, but surely not on descriptive cataloging elements. The only thing that makes the average library catalog unique is the unique collection of materials in that collection and thus cataloged. What is in the collection is factual.

      This, of course, is just my uneducated opinion.

Bert R. Boyce, Professor & Dean
School of Library & Information Science
Louisiana State University
267 Coates Hall
Baton Rouge, LA 70803

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LSBOYC[_at_]LSUVM.sncc.lsu.edu Received on Mon Feb 24 1997 - 20:05:48 GMT