On 13/11/2012 16:39, Karen Coyle wrote:
<snip>
> On 11/13/12 1:44 AM, James Weinheimer wrote:
>>
>> Where I do not agree is your idea that all that is useful to people
>> today is our holdings information. While I agree that there is lots of
>> bibliographic information available now, I do not agree that all the
>> discovery tools needed by the public lie in the Amazons and similar
>> tools.
>
> Jim, I'm not not an absolutist. What I said was that the assumption
> that what the Web needs *most* is our bibliographic data is wrong --
> it needs some of our bibliographic data, but flooding the Web with
> tens of thousands of records for "50 shades of grey" is not going to
> solve any problems. What we *do* have today that no one else has is
> holdings information -- information about what materials are available
> to users in their local community -- and we should look to where we
> can make the most impact for users with the data we have. One possible
> way is to make a connection between bibliographic data on the Web and
> library holdings. That's not the only thing we should do, but I see
> that as "low hanging fruit" and "bang for the buck." In fact, take a
> look at the "use cases" page for the schema.org library data group and
> you will see this and other suggestions for data we can provide RIGHT
> NOW.
> http://www.w3.org/community/schemabibex/wiki/Use_Cases
>
> It's a start, and after that the field is wide open.
</snip>
Karen,
I agree that making holdings information should be done because it will
be something that libraries and the cataloging community will be able to
point to. *BUT* (there is always a "but") I don't know if people will
use it. There are several reasons but a very important one is that
Google Books already has something like that, where if you find a book
you are interested in, e.g. Tom Wolfe's "A man in full"
http://books.google.it/books?id=ZArnGe9CPHQC, in the left menu you can
click on "Find in a library" and from there it will take you to Worldcat
where you can find it in your library, if your library catalog is in
Worldcat. I have no idea at all if people use this option.
Google adds this kind of link because they are Google. They are not
selling this book, but they are selling *attention*, and they do this
because they know if they can get enough eyeballs, that is good enough
for them. Google is unique and other businesses are quite different.
Here is the book in Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/Man-Full-Tom-Wolfe/dp/0553381334 where you can buy
it for $11.48. Does anybody think Amazon will want to include a link to
a library catalog where the person considering buying this book can get
it *for free*? Or this from Random House
http://www.randomhouse.com/book/193149/a-man-in-full-by-tom-wolfe where
you can buy it through their partner for $17.00. I don't think anybody
would expect them to put in the link to the cheaper Amazon version. Will
they want to put in a link to a free library copy?
This reminds me of the Digital Book Index, where the final result can
border on the ridiculous. For example, here is the search for Herman
Melville
http://www.digitalbookindex.org/_search/search002a.asp?AUTHOR=Melville,%20Herm.
Scroll down to "Israel Potter". There are two options: one for free and
the other for $60.00. Whenever I have demonstrated this to people and
ask "Which one would you choose?" we all end up with a good laugh!
There is an article from the Guardian about a fight between the book
publishers and Amazon because the publishers said Amazon was guilty of
not charging enough, or "predatory pricing" for ebooks.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/23/amazon-ebooks-pricing-row-publishers
What will happen when there is a library option that is *free?*
So, while I agree that putting out holdings information is fine and it
should be done because it can be done quickly and cheaply, I am not sure
who will take advantage of it. Certainly no publishers will, nor will
anybody who wants to sell you a copy of a book. But I think there is a
lot more at stake and is one reason why, at a talk I gave in Oslo
http://blog.jweinheimer.net/2012/02/revolution-in-our-minds-seeing-world.html
I mentioned that it is vital for libraries to figure out what it is they
*really do* and went to some pains to say that right now we don't really
know.
Putting our holdings information out for others to take may be a step in
figuring out what libraries really do. It certainly can't hurt.
--
*James Weinheimer* weinheimer.jim.l_at_gmail.com
*First Thus* http://catalogingmatters.blogspot.com/
*Cooperative Cataloging Rules*
http://sites.google.com/site/opencatalogingrules/
*Cataloging Matters Podcasts*
http://blog.jweinheimer.net/p/cataloging-matters-podcasts.html
Received on Tue Nov 13 2012 - 13:25:31 EST