At 3:01 PM -0400 5/9/07, Jonathan Rochkind wrote:

>> But our field is not a healthy field if all research is being done by
>> OCLC and other vendors. We need research from other places, we need
>> research that produces public domain results, not proprietary trade
>> secrets.

On May 9, 2007, at 3:27 PM, Eric Hellman wrote:

> OCLC member libraries contribute resources to do exactly what you
> suggest, and to do it in a way that is sustainable for the long term.
> Worldcat is created and maintained by libraries and by librarians.

(quoting reversed)

The thing that really bugs me here (enough that I fantasize about
alternatives) is that OCLC member libraries:

* Pay a (significant) membership fee

* Pay library staff to update catalog records

* Don't own the data in the catalog

This is sustainable for only as long a term as libraries find this to
be a good investment -- in other words, until someone comes along
with a more compelling product at a better price (Talis...
Librarything... I'm watching you).

If nothing else, the "Open" in OpenWorldcat seems a tad disingenuous :/

Seriously, though -- we could implement a good frbrization algorithm
in an open-source project (and, honestly, I can imagine myself paying
for a truly exemplar frbrization service) but the closed nature of
the data makes doing Interesting Things rather hard.

-Nate