It seems to me that OCLC really doesn't need to claim copyright on the
records. Looking purely at the services provided through Connexion
(and even a limited selection of those services that I'm familiar
with) it seems that OCLC is in a reasonable position to charge for:
A well designed, easy to use cataloging client. I like theirs better
than my ILS's.
A powerful search interface for copy cataloging.
Integration of the Connexion client with their database of MARC
records: I'd much rather derive directly from OCLC than try to
download a record from somewhere else to derive a new record from it.
I'd much rather do my original cataloging in OCLC in order to search
their authority files directly, in the normal course of cataloging
rather than after it. We don't do much authority work here in-house,
but I'll take the extra ten seconds to check a name against OCLC's
files because it's painless.
OCLC doesn't need to sell me the records when it can sell me the
products they've built on, around, and for those records.
--
Mark Sandford
Special Formats Cataloger
William Paterson University
(973)270-2437
sandfordm1_at_wpunj.edu
Received on Mon Apr 30 2007 - 10:00:23 EDT