UDC Consortium, PO Box 90407, 2509 LK
The Hague, The Netherlands
Tel.: (+31) 70 314 0509 Fax: (+31) 70 314 0450 attn UDC
E-mail: mail[@t]udcc.orgClick on the link but please remove the
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UDC Licences
The content of the Universal Decimal Classification is the copyright of the UDC Consortium (UDCC) and formal permission (a licence) of the UDCC is needed to reproduce and/or distribute i.e. to publish any parts of the UDC. The formal permission includes the provision of the complete UDC database file, called the UDC Master Reference File (UDC MRF).
Users other than UDC publishers can also obtain and have access to the complete UDC MRF. Because of the fact that this file represents the full content of the UDC and may have many different applications, the use of this file itself is also licensed.
Following a licence application, licences can be purchased according to the license pricing scheme, negotiated or, in exceptional cases, granted for free.
You DO NOT need a licence to use UDC if:
- you apply UDC schedule content for information and knowledge organization from a copy of a publication (printed or CD-ROM) or by accessing an authorised UDC online service
- you manually apply the UDC (i.e. there is no use of the UDC MRF) for
organizing and indexing of resources for the purpose of document/shelf
arrangement, organization of information gateways and library catalogue and in
information retrieval where UDC numbers may appear as a part of your document labels or resource description.
You DO need a licence to:
-
1) Publish the UDC system, either complete or any selections or parts of it, in any language, media, territory and period of time. The concept of publication, also referred to as ‘edition’, applies to any form of reproduction and distribution of UDC schedules, either for free or on a commercial basis, suitable for end-users, either professionals or open public. [terms | price | application]
- pre-publication work, that is, for all the work needed to prepare an UDC edition, before actual publishing, e.g., executing the translation. [terms | price | application]
- internal reference purposes on a local system for use internally within the organization, or for loading classification data in a given information system. [terms | price | application]
- institutional research projects of any kind, notably to explore the potential of UDC in particular uses, new services, etc. [terms | price | application]
- educational purposes, i.e. in library schools and other similar organizations. [terms | price | application]
- personal use, e.g., individual study and research on UDC.
[terms | price | application]
2) Use the UDC Master Reference File (MRF) data for:
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