d. scharf wrote:
>
> I'm just wondering
> where the leadership is going to come from to make the next big leap, which
> we all agree is sorely needed.
> ... To effect change you have to also figure out HOW it can happen.
>
One clue to a new business model might well be "decoupling the OPAC".
But it should by now be feasible, in large parts of the world, to not
just decouple but *outsource* it.
On a small scale - but not smaller than the initial OCLC - that's what
Tim Spalding is doing: people are running their private OPACs in his
box. [Gee, why haven't they bought him yet?]
What if OCLC threw their gates wide open to admit the general public to
add location symbols as well as tags, and add in some or all of
LT's functionality? And then open that functionality to libraries as
well, adding a protocol that extracts local data, as needed, from
library ILSs to display along with OPAC data. Library patrons, and in
fact everybody, would search a much much larger database that does
double duty as their (local or personal) library's inventory.
This is the scale that requires leadership, but huge sums of money too.
Well, alternatively, OCLC might keep the cataloging business but sell
their data to the biggest bidder, or join forces with whoever would
be able to run the OPAC provider business. There are not too many
companies with the resources to do so... Outside the US? Hm.
But they *are* in business with G. already, are they not? Those
timid steps might be followed by a much bigger leap.
B. Eversberg
Received on Thu Jun 22 2006 - 07:52:09 EDT