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UW Libraries Open Metadata Guidelines

Open metadata guidelines for the University of Washington Libraries.

The University of Washington Libraries is committed to making the metadata it creates as open as possible to encourage discovery of materials, research, and a variety of current and future uses. The Libraries avoids placing additional restrictions on reuse, except in cases of ethical, contractual or legal obligations, e.g., metadata received on condition that we not share them further, or metadata for which sharing might compromise user privacy. This service is in line with UW’s broader support for open access, including the UW Faculty Senate Open Access Policy.

Any use of the Libraries’ metadata must conform to all applicable laws and regulations in a given jurisdiction and applicable contractual restrictions, including the WorldCat Rights and Responsibilities. The Libraries makes no representations or warranties of any kind concerning metadata it provides and offers the metadata as-is; users use the metadata at their own risk. Metadata obtained from the Libraries through this policy is not static and is subject to change; metadata may be updated at any time in accordance with the Libraries’ metadata maintenance policies and procedures.

The UW Libraries makes openly available the following metadata it has created under the following licenses:

Bibliographic metadata from the Libraries’ catalog under a CC-BY license:

Individual MARC records can be viewed from the catalog using the "Staff View" link under Links at the bottom of each record's display. For Ex Libris Central Discovery Index (CDI) records, no "Staff View" link is displayed.
Direct inquiries for groups of MARC records that the Libraries has created (MARC 040 $a WAU) to Erin Grant, Director of Cataloging and Metadata Services.
Public Z39.50 access to the catalog to harvest MARC records is not available due to the Libraries’ use of record sets that are contractually not shareable with other institutions and because of other metadata copyright concerns.

Object metadata from the Libraries’ institutional repository ResearchWorks under a CC0 1.0 Universal Deed via OAI-PMH.
Object metadata from the Libraries’ Digital Collections under a CC0 1.0 Universal Deed via OAI-PMH.
University of Washington Libraries Semantic Web Data under a CC0 1.0 Universal Deed.
Finding aids from the Libraries’ Special Collections under a CC0 1.0 Universal Deed. Contact Special Collections for more information.