From the Copyright Office newsletter:
The Copyright Office is conducting a survey to improve the process of searching the public records of the Copyright Office and making them more accessible to the public. The Office is studying the potential for converting the analog copyright records (1790 to 1977) to digital format and making these records accessible via the Web. Your input will help define the priorities and requirements needed to accomplish this goal. The survey is available on the Copyright Office website at http://www.copyright.gov. Click on "Please take our survey" under Hot Topics.
The survey takes just a few minutes. It has the normal survey glitches found in most surveys (they don't seem to realize, for example, that many of us use the CCE to look up catalog registrations; they provide really weird date ranges when they ask what records one searches). It would be a really neat thing, however, to have an authoritative online version of copyright records available. Anything we can do to push them in this direction should be encouraged.
Mary drew attention earlier to an unofficial online version of the CCE, but until we have some explanation of how it was created and what quality control checks it employed, I am going to hold out for an official version from the Copyright Office.
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