On Thu, Mar 4, 2010 at 7:13 PM, Thomas Krichel <krichel_at_openlib.org> wrote:
> I understand this probably incredibly naive, but why don't libraries
> just dump their records on MARCXML on OAI-PMH servers? Surely, this
> is a once and for all cost to develop the gateway and a small price
> to pay for the server? It could by paid for by dropping a single
> journal subscription...
I'm not quite sure what OAI-PMH would offer in this situation. The
value-add of OCLC's shared cataloging is that it provides a searchable
aggregated index of bibliographic records that, in turn, feeds an ILL
service based on holdings (based on who has particular records).
Certainly, somebody else could provide a similar service to OCLC's
(and they exist: SkyRiver, LibLime's Biblios, Talis Base, etc.) and
this could be facilitated by harvesting from OAI-PMH providers, but
OAI-PMH itself wouldn't help alleviate the problem we're seeing here.
Besides, there are LOTS of ILSes that have no way to dump their
bibliographic records, or the vendor charges an extra fee for it.
Also, re: Z39.50 on the Open Library - I think this is a profoundly
bad idea. We would be talking about an entirely new
service/ecosystem, why build it on top of a protocol that 99% of the
world knows nothing about and cares to know nothing about? Libraries
need to think more about how to integrate better with the rest of the
world: Z39.50 isn't exactly going to get us there.
OpenSearch would be a much more positive step (imo) and more likely
from the OL, anyway, probably.
-Ross.
Received on Fri Mar 05 2010 - 13:52:43 EST