The press release also says:
"To that end, OCLC commits 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."
Apparently either OCLC's commitment was very short-lived, or "freely discoverable" doesn't mean the same thing to OCLC that it does in plain language.
That press release seemed to make it quite clear that OCLC was planning on maintiaining non-pay access to the OAISter index. The more recent OCLC message forwarded by Thomas Krichel seems to make it quite clear that OCLC has no such plans.
Jonathan
________________________________________
From: Jonathan Rochkind
Sent: Saturday, September 19, 2009 3:24 PM
To: Next generation catalogs for libraries
Subject: RE: [NGC4LIB] Special OAIster Announcement from OCLC
In that case, I think it's even sadder that umich didn't even get anything out of it.
I can understand umich not being able to afford to maintain it for free on their own; if it wasn't sustainable, then someone had to figure out a way to make it sustainable.
I think it's a shame that give it to OCLC to put it behind a toll gate was what they came up with, without community discussion to figure out if there was a better way.
The OAISter/OCLC Press release (http://www.oclc.org/us/en/news/releases/20096.htm) says:
"Starting in late January 2009, while OAIster continues to be freely available at the www.oaister.org Web site, OCLC will host a version of OAIster on OCLC's FirstSearch platform and make it available through subscriptions to the FirstSearch Base Package at no additional charge."
This is contradicted by the recent OCLC message. OAISter will apparently not continue to be freely available, although it's unclear when it will go away. This is all very un-transparent and confusing, but distressing.
Jonathan
________________________________________
From: Next generation catalogs for libraries [NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Perry Willett [pwillett01_at_GMAIL.COM]
Sent: Saturday, September 19, 2009 3:15 PM
To: NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] Special OAIster Announcement from OCLC
The allegations that Michigan got paid for this are spurious and untrue.
OAIster is a service that Michigan ran for *years* on their own dime, and
decided that they couldn't carry it any more. I don't have any comment on
the OCLC's service, but just wanted to correct this meme of Michigan
benefiting financially from this.
Perry Willett
California Digital Library
On Sat, Sep 19, 2009 at 11:58 AM, Jonathan Rochkind <rochkind_at_jhu.edu>wrote:
> i re-read the annoucnement again, more carefully. You're right, they're
> taking away free OAISter access. That's messed up.
>
> Okay, who wants to start a new project to do what OAISter did, but better
> and still free? Maybe Mellon Foundation would fund it, are they still
> funding such things?
>
> I hope umich realized what they were selling out, and got paid well for it.
>
> Jonathan
> ________________________________________
> From: Next generation catalogs for libraries [NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On
> Behalf Of Thomas Krichel [krichel_at_OPENLIB.ORG]
> Sent: Friday, September 18, 2009 10:10 PM
> To: NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
> Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] Special OAIster Announcement from OCLC
>
> Jonathan Rochkind writes
>
> > I read this as saying that
>
> Why do we have to do OCLC astrology? Why can't they say clearly
> what they want to do?
>
> > If OCLC stopped providing the free access points to OAISter that we
> > are used, that would be a problem. Doesn't sound like this is
> > happening.
>
>
> http://visit.oclc.org/t?ctl=26B403F:09562C313F0DE2FB62E0BBD7DFD73DADF544A2D6437664E7&
>
> asks me to nominate an IP address to receive free access to
> OAIster from. Meaning that the IP addresses will no have free access.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Thomas Krichel http://openlib.org/home/krichel
> RePEc:per:1965-06-05:thomas_krichel
> skype: thomaskrichel
>
Received on Sat Sep 19 2009 - 15:32:44 EDT