Comments on: III’s CEO launches SkyRiver, competition to OCLC records

By: anonymous

anonymous — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 18:42:20 +0000

I’m suspicious of this. It sounds to me that the records they’re using are being pulled from the catalogs of libraries that use III as an ILS. I would assume that most of those records originated from the OCLC database. I don’t believe that they’re suggesting creating their own catalog records, and it did not sound to me like they’re using original cataloging just from SkyRiver customers only.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:48:40 +0000

Of course OCLC offers more than just bibliographic records. They offer many products. However, why can a library not obtain bibliographic records from another company, and then use those records along with other “purchased” OCLC products? There is no excuse anymore for OCLC not making their bibliographic records database open access. Proprietary records are a thing of the past. It’s just going to take a while for OCLC’s Board to realize that, I think. A day is soon coming, though, when OCLC will have to realize that the products they create are not meeting user needs (especially public, school, and small libraries), and that they either follow the open access and open source trends in our profession and the world at large, or they resign themselves to becoming an antiquated dinosaur of a “member-based” institution with no happy members left to speak of. I think they’ll make the right choice.

By: Diedre Conkling

Diedre Conkling — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 01:37:41 +0000

I know that we all want to cut costs wherever we can but this would have to be a resource that provided more than cataloging records for me to be interested.

OCLC does provide much more than cataloging records. The interlibrary loan capabilities are going to continue to be better than the possibilities with other services unless one of them suddenly becomes a real draw for the majority of libraries around the world.

There are many other services provided by OCLC, including digitalization resources, database subscriptions, Webcat, Webjunction and even WebDewey. Yes, some of these can be obtained from other companies but not another bibliographic utility company.

I also look to OCLC as the place that is able to do real research in our field. Not many other places have the money to do the research we need.

I think it is great that others are providing cataloging records but I don’t think OCLC should be very worried about it yet. They are going to be the giants in this area for some time to come.