Kate drones on about cataloging

The nice people at LibraryThing (or maybe it’s just one nice person, I’m not sure) have a great post up on their blog about OCLC’s recent WorldCat Local announcement.

 

They’ll make one big silo and set the rules for access. The pattern is already clear. MIT thought that its bibliographic records were its own, but OCLC shut them down when they tried to act on that. The fact is, libraries with their data in OCLC are subject to OCLC rules. And since OCLC’s business model requires centralizing and restricting access to bibliographic data, the situation will not improve.

 

I really agree with this, and also with LT’s point that OCLC is full of good people doing really good work.  But it seems that OCLC has a business model which allows it to own the data that libraries create about their collections.  How much is this limiting access on the Web?  How much is it limiting access by small libraries who can’t afford OCLC membership?

Also, love the graphic.