Harper,Michelle writes
> OCLC was chosen by the University of Michigan to partner with them to
> ensure continued public access to open archive collections through the
> OAIster database and to expand the visibility of those collections to
> millions of information seekers through OCLC services.
>
> OAIster has been available via OCLC's First Search base package since
> January 2009 at no additional charge to customers of the base package.
> This allowed existing base package subscribers to search OAIster alone
> or cross search it with other databases on the FirstSearch service.
> We're pleased to say that this effort has increased discoverability
What is "discoverability"?
> of OAIster resources by an estimated 30%.
With respect to which baseline?
> In October we are also adding OAIster records to WC.org so they may be
> freely discoverable and be cross searched with other resources on
> WorldCat.org such as GPO Monthly Catalog, ArticleFirst, MEDLINE, ERIC,
> the British Library and Elsevier.
>
> Again, we are not charging for access to these records and it is our
> hope that we can continue to increase discoverability of the valuable
> resources within OAIster.
>
> OCLC remains committed to building on the success of OAIster by
> identifying open archive collections of interest to libraries and
> researchers, and ensuring that open archive collections will be freely
> discoverable and accessible to information seekers worldwide.
But FirstSearch is a toll-gated product, and OAIster will be a
toll-gated product (?). Is there a way for repository managers to
require a limit so that they would only consent to their data in
free-access aggregates? My community, RePEc, is one of the largest
contributors. We are in principle opposed to inclusion in toll-gated
aggregates, and I can imagine that other repository managers may be
unhappy too. You are requesting a right to sell our records, with no
prospect of revenue sharing. I don't think it's fair. Maybe I am
the only one.
Cheers,
Thomas Krichel http://openlib.org/home/krichel
RePEc:per:1965-06-05:thomas_krichel
skype: thomaskrichel
Received on Sat Sep 19 2009 - 11:40:52 EDT