Comments for Free Range Librarian

Comment on OCLC’s Crisis Moment by Jonathan Rochkind

Jonathan Rochkind — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 18:57:33 +0000

I don’t trust SkyRiver/III one bit, and I don’t wish OCLC to die.

But I DO think we all benefit (we OCLC members too) if OCLC has some competition. OCLC didn’t _used_ to be a monopoly, that’s only a decade or two old — and how has cooperative cataloging and metadata management done in the past decade or two? Not that it would have done better without a monopoly, there are lots of factors involved, but I don’t think the monopoly is helping us.

And I am highly annoyed (to put it lightly) at OCLC’s anti-competetive practices. If those practices are actually illegal or not, well the judge will decide. I am not at all unhappy to have OCLC’s bluff called here.

Comment on OCLC’s Crisis Moment by Edward M. Corrado

Edward M. Corrado — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 16:30:23 +0000

@KGS: Maybe I wasn’t clear, I wasn’t asking Steve if OCLC is getting in the ILS business, but what he thinks their reasons for doing so were.

Comment on OCLC’s Crisis Moment by K.G. Schneider

K.G. Schneider — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 14:53:01 +0000

Ed, OCLC is definitely getting into the ILS business; see their recent conversations about WMS. I think for smaller libraries WMS will be a very viable alternative to the silo-ILS sooner than later.

Comment on OCLC’s Crisis Moment by K.G. Schneider

K.G. Schneider — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 14:51:49 +0000

Much as I love me some Twitter, I wouldn’t go by that channel as the decisive be-all on attitudes toward OCLC. The Twittering Classes are their own phenom.

I am aware of OCLC’s missteps… but libraries are feudal enough; we should be on common ground. The real key is to change OCLC’s governance. We have the power to do that, if we believe it’s important.

Comment on OCLC’s Crisis Moment by Colleen

Colleen — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 14:40:32 +0000

@kgs – VERY nicely written, and oh-so-true. Yes, we might grumble about OCLC and its issues, but at least they ask us to partner in their development, have a decent development cycle, and are actually innovating. The file, as I read it, clearly states multiple times that WorldCat itself keeps III & other companies from innovating – erm. We have been begging them to innovate and been giving them recommendations since time immemorial and they’ve done nothing to help themselves. Sounds like a lot of post-hoc whinging for not thinking of interoperable systems first.

Comment on OCLC’s Crisis Moment by Edward M. Corrado

Edward M. Corrado — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 14:06:13 +0000

Stevenb: Why do you think OCLC is getting into the ILS business? You seem to imply it is obvious but I’m not sure it is.

Karen: I’ve seen people questioning OCLC’s tax statements for a long time before SkyRiver, so I’m not sure I’d agree that this lawsuit should lead towards any conclusions in that area.

Comment on OCLC’s Crisis Moment by Dale A

Dale A — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 13:44:24 +0000

Your distrust of SkyRiver’s motives strikes me as reasonable, but I am less charitable towards OCLC, as are many others. From my point of view, there is a palpable and sizable groundswell of negative OCLC-vibe in libraryland, evidenced by some of the Twitter traffic on this topic and by a lot of backchannel chatter on this and other topics in recent years. They do do many things for the benefit of the community, such as the xISBN server which makes one of the better functions of LibX really sing. On the other hand, though, they do exercise a virtual monopoly and are moving to become a major player not just in the anglo-american world, but globally. Whether we like SkyRiver/III and trust its motives is immaterial in the end, and I am curious to see if the courts rule that there is unfair business practice occurring.

Comment on OCLC’s Crisis Moment by stevenb

stevenb — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 13:32:08 +0000

The situation could perhaps be likened to what happened to the US Steel Industry. A new (foreign) competitor introduces a similar product at a bargain basement price. The obvious goal is to capture all the business by lowballing the competition. Once the new competitor captures the business, the old competitors (this US Steel, Bethlehem Steel, etc) go out of business. Now the new competitor has no competition and can raise the prices to whatever they like. It’s not a perfect analogy, but you get the picture.

I think you make the obvious point – why did III get into bib record supply business in the first place? I think we know the answer to that one. I think I know why OCLC is getting into the ILS business – and it’s not the same answer to the first question.

Comment on OCLC’s Crisis Moment by K.G. Schneider

K.G. Schneider — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:23:22 +0000

Ranti, I wouldn’t take SkyRiver’s words at face value. Speaking of which, I guess this now answers the question of who (or should I say what) has been behind the whisper campaign about OCLC’s tax statements.

Comment on OCLC’s Crisis Moment by ranti

ranti — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 11:37:46 +0000

It’s purely business, the way I take it. Market share.

Anyway, looks like your questions can be answered if you contact SkyRiver folks and/or the institutions who adopted it.

http://theskyriver.com/

ranti.