Re: Authority maintenance (was Subject costs)

Karen wrote:

>I suspect that for a reasonably large computer center the incremental
>costs of cpu/storage/bandwidth would be minimal. The cost of management
>may be significant, but a 'management board' might be able to handle
it.
>That is, you get a small committee that makes the necessary decisions
>that arise.

I would suggest that this is a beefed-up SACO or a mini-OCLC.  Either
way I think that we are being overly optimistic about the cost of
decentralization and the willingness of contributors.  The example of
Getty and AAT is probably the most apt analogy.  I'm also suspicious of
"seed money".  It's always popular to seed, but somebody has to water
and hoe if we're going to reap!  That's why wikis work (or don't work).

Someone also referred to OCLC as "staff heavy".  Without sounding like a
total shill for OCLC, I'd like to point out that they might be
"right-staffed".  Not that they don't make a few blunders like the
software conflict with Microsoft that goofed up Connexion Client for a
number of weeks, but on the whole where do you ever get to deal with a
corporation as dependable and professional as OCLC?  With OCLC it's the
exception when the software doesn't work.  How many nice looking
programs did we all buy over the years that 1) just didn't work
(probably for anybody) 2) did something but not really what was
advertised 3) were written by a programmer who didn't really understand
the subtleties of the task, and hence the program was too clumsy to use
4) wouldn't work on whatever system we had (it must be your ...
[hardware, operating system, software, etc.]?  For all their faults OCLC
still delivers a good service to a whole lot of customers. They are
innovators (Dublin core) without falling for every new fad.  They have
people at the Help Desk who are both willing and able to help!  They've
done this by retaining the talents of some very bright people over many
years.  (Maybe I can get a job in their PR dept.)  It's a model we might
consider imitating in libraries, but cheap and easy it's not.

JJ



**Views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent those of
the Queens Library.**

Jane Jacobs
Asst. Coord., Catalog Division
Queens Borough Public Library
89-11 Merrick Blvd.
Jamaica, NY 11432
tel.: (718) 990-0804
e-mail: Jane.W.Jacobs_at_queenslibrary.org
FAX. (718) 990-8566



The information contained in this message may be privileged and confidential and protected from disclosure. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or an employee or agent responsible for delivering this message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by replying to the message and deleting it from your computer.-----Original Message-----
From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
[mailto:NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Karen Coyle
Sent: Thursday, May 24, 2007 1:33 PM
To: NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu
Subject: Re: Authority maintenance (was Subject costs)