originally: http://www.oclc.org/programs/ourwork/infrastructures/newservice/missingmaterials.htm
Missing Materials Beta Procedure ProjectProblem statement: The loss of materials held in libraries and archives worldwide is a concern not only for owning institutions, but also for the international antiquarian book trade and global law enforcement. Centralized, highly visible exposure of "missing materials" is needed to help identify stolen materials and to deter future crimes. The existence of several online lists demonstrates need and interest, but each has its limitations. Background: In order to deter thieves, prevent inadvertent purchases and recover valuable stolen cultural materials, OCLC Research, the RLG Partnership and the RBMS Security Committee convened members of the cultural heritage collecting community to explore strategies for sharing reliable information about missing rare books and other materials. The goal was to surface current policies and procedures and discuss what's lacking in current practice for dissemination of information about missing materials. The WorldCat bibliographic database is one possible platform for collecting and broadcasting this information. The group quickly agreed that widespread support and community participation will be essential to the success of such a program. We explored the following questions as a first step toward defining functional components for attaching information about missing materials to WorldCat records:
Impact: The Missing Materials project has evolved to develop a 'beta' procedure for cultural heritage institutions to demonstrate their commitment to transparency about stolen and missing materials. Project: The working group will develop 'proof-of-concept' policies and procedures to experiment using network effects of WorldCat.org to broadcast centralized information about missing and stolen unique and rare materials. The test blog is available now at missingmaterials.org. Beta Group Members:
Jennifer Schaffner and Eric Childress, OCLC Research |
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