B.G. Sloan wrote:
>
> I think it's naive to think that another vendor can "compete" with OCLC...even a vendor with pockets as deep as Jerry Kline's.
>
That's got to depend on how you define OCLC -- OCLC is a huge
organization with fingers in many pies, including ebooks, ILSs, metadata
creation for repositories, ILL, and cataloging. Cataloging is the
majority of OCLC's revenue, but I believe that libraries use OCLC for
the services that are provided around the vast holdings data that OCLC
has -- in particular, ILL and the user services of WorldCat for locating
copies.
If all a library wants is cataloging copy, that exists in abundance in
catalogs all around the world. If you want a cataloging service, one
that gathers the records you will need and gives you good editing
capabilities, especially for current materials, then biblios or SkyRiver
might be fine for some libraries -- especially for those libraries that
for whatever reason are not now members of OCLC. If you want to be part
of a global network of libraries, then at the moment I don't know of
anything but OCLC that can fit that bill.
I think there is room for more than one "OCLC" because we have lots of
different libraries with different needs. We also have non-libraries
that need to create records for libraries (all of the publishers and
book jobbers who provide MARC records). I don't know if anyone has
surveyed the bibliographic metadata market, but my gut feeling is that
there are unmet needs out there. Rather than competing with OCLC,
perhaps we should see these services as responding to those needs.
>
> I think the real "competition" needs to come from within...librarians involved with OCLC on various levels need to lobby for change at the corporate level.
>
>
>
That assumes that there is a significant number of OCLC members that is
unhappy with OCLC's services and policies. We heard from the unhappy
members during the policy mess -- but we don't know how they stack up
against those that are happy with the service they are getting.
kc
--
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Karen Coyle / Digital Library Consultant
kcoyle@kcoyle.net http://www.kcoyle.net
ph.: 510-540-7596 skype: kcoylenet
fx.: 510-848-3913
mo.: 510-435-8234
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Received on Fri Oct 09 2009 - 11:56:01 EDT