[DCRM-L] Discontinuation of OCLC's institutional records program

[Noble, Richard]

One gathers that IRs--which were pretty much a concession to RLIN
emigrants--were never of much interest to OCLC, which was, after all, a
purveyor of master records, succeeding the LC card program, not a research
database. IRs never fit that model, and were and are presumably of little
interest to the vast majority of libraries that never catalog at anything
like our level of detail--that is, at our level of analysis of the identity
and distinction of manifestations--in "general" information. It simply
doesn't fit the OCLC business model as it developed in the 70s and 80s, to
which RLIN was the economically non-viable alternative.

I feel safe in saying that he LBD option is about as far as OCLC is willing
to go, beyond mere maintenance of IRs, and it conforms to the limits of
model of WorldCat Local as marketed to libraries with special collections
concerns--"We know you have all sorts of special local information, and as
long as it you tag it that way, it will actually appear in your own
WorldCat Local displays." From their point of view I'm sure that this is
sufficient.

IRs are a distraction as OCLC moves into position as an ILS vendor, in the
evolution from WorldCat Local, a catalog resource, to WorldCat Discovery
Services, an integrated search resource, with limited local customization
of records for one's own materials to replace the institutional opac.

http://www.oclc.org/worldcat-local.en.html

Of course, for us the loss involves the always basic difference between
"regular" and "rare book" cataloging: the one looks for similarities, the
other for differences. OCLC is willing to accommodate item-level
differences, but still has an overwhelming bias in favor of minimizing
differences at the manifestation level, even to the point of indifference
regarding manifestation so long as the right expression is presented. (It
can be hard to persuade an ILL staffer that one wants a particular *edition*,
let alone copy of a work--and ILL was, after all, what the Ohio College
Library Consortium was all about.)

I don't think the IR stakeholders have a lot of weight here, which is why
it could be presented as a *fait accompli*. If you listen very closely you
might hear a squeak or two in the underbrush (Hello!)--and that can include
a library's internal underbrush. Administrators like to hear such things as

"WorldCat Local is a webscale discovery solution that delivers
single-search-box access to more than 1.8 billion items from your library
and the world's library collections."

All that, and a huge reduction in maintenance costs, at the local level.
It's a Cloud service, and given the size of the thing they want to keep it
as simple as it can be and still be represented to customers as adequate
for their purposes.

Our one backstop is the fencing off, so far, of DCRM(X) records from the
dreaded 019. For the last several years I've been enhancing records to that
level, knowing that it was a last--and perhaps ultimately futile--effort to
preserve the kind of work I've been doing for the last 32 years. I think of
Harvard's remarkable wealth of scholarly cataloging that was lost to the
world in the recon for Hollis, which simply accepted OCLC records as they
stood, essentially erasing decades of skilled work. (I don't actually know
whether their "Bridge Catalog"--the deep freeze for the card catalog--is
still extant. It was *that*, by the way, that Nicholson Baker was deploring
in his 1991 article, beyond any sentimentality about the card sensorium.)

This may be unduly pessimistic (there are those who would read it
otherwise). It ought not to be beyond the ability of a brilliant IT company
to accommodate a wide range of customers, but the choice between LBD and
outright deletion of IRs is not encouraging.

RICHARD NOBLE :: RARE MATERIALS CATALOGUER :: JOHN HAY LIBRARY
BROWN UNIVERSITY  ::  PROVIDENCE, R.I. 02912  ::  401-863-1187
<Richard_Noble at Br <RICHARD_NOBLE at BROWN.EDU>own.edu>

On Wed, Mar 25, 2015 at 8:45 AM, Allison Rich <allison_rich at brown.edu>
wrote:

>  Hello list:
>
> This is not welcome news for us either.
> We have been using IRs from the very beginning after RLIN died.
> I always saw IR's as a concession to RLIN libraries and the "cluster
> system".
>
> I printed out the LBD information to look at later when I, like Robert,
> can read it more carefully.
> If there is a group letter or form of protest going around to OCLC, then
> the JCB would very much like to be part of that.
> People who use special collections are very interested in seeing other
> data from local collections at other institutions.
> This strikes me as very short sighted and a load of other words I really
> should not add here.
>
> I would also like to know when and how this was decided without getting
> input from institutions which use the IRs.
> It seems like this was a backroom decision.
> Not good at all.
>
> ~Allison
>
> --
>
> ********************************
> "Outside of a dog,
> a book is probably man's best friend,
> and inside of a dog,
> it's too dark to read.
> - Groucho Marx"
>
> Allison Rich
> Rare Materials Cataloguer
> ESTC and NACO Coordinator
>
> John Carter Brown Library
> Providence, Rhode IslandAllison_Rich at brown.edu
>
> ********************************
>
>
>
>   We would be very badly affected by this apparently unilateral action.
> All of our holdings are on IRs. I haven’t read the explanation about “local
> bibliographic data” carefully yet, but one thing that strikes me right off
> the bat is the statement “Using local bibliographic data (LBD), you can
> add local information to a bibliographic record that is specific to your
> institution’s title; however, *other institutions will not be able to see
> that information* in the WorldCat master record and your users will only
> see your institution’s LBD.” This strikes me as very bad, especially for
> special collections. As we all know, users of special collections depend on
> the ability to see other institutions’ local information for their
> research—e.g., to find out who has books signed by Abraham Lincoln, or
> whose copy has a particular woodcut that only some copies have.
>
>
>
> I am also surprised, if this was discussed at Big Heads, that not a peep
> about this has surfaced until now. At least I certainly hadn’t heard
> anything about it before reading the message you forwarded, Oksana. Maybe I
> haven’t been paying attention.
>
>
>
> Bob
>
>
>
> Robert L. Maxwell
> Ancient Languages and Special Collections Cataloger
> 6728 Harold B. Lee Library
> Brigham Young University
> Provo, UT 84602
> (801)422-5568
>
> "We should set an example for all the world, rather than confine ourselves
> to the course which has been heretofore pursued"--Eliza R. Snow, 1842.
>
>
>
> *From:* dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu [mailto:dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu
> <dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu>] *On Behalf Of *Oksana Linda
> *Sent:* Monday, March 23, 2015 2:58 PM
> *To:* DCRM Revision Group List
> *Subject:* [DCRM-L] Discontinuation of OCLC's institutional records
> program
>
>
>
> Hello:
>
> I was very disappointed to learn about the discontinuation of OCLC's
> institutional records program.
>
> Clements Library uses IRs heavily, so I'm curious how many peer
> institutions will be affected by this action.
>
> I would like to ask: how other rare material libraries maintain and
> preserve local data?
>
>
>
> Thank you,
>
> Oksana.
>
>
>
>
>
> --------------------
> Oksana K. Linda
> William L. Clements Library
> University of Michigan
> 909 South University
> Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1190
>
> www.clements.umich.edu
>
>
>
> Temporary address:
>
> 1580 E. Ellsworth Road
>
> Ann Arbor, MI  48108-2417
>
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>
> *From:* Whitehair,David [mailto:whitehad at oclc.org]
> *Sent:* Monday, March 16, 2015 5:49 PM
> *To:* Marill, Jennifer (NIH/NLM) [E]
> *Subject:* OCLC Institution Records update for Big Heads
>
>
>
> Hi Jennifer,
>
>
>
> Could you please distribute this information to the Big Heads group?  I
> wanted to share an update to our discussion in Chicago.
>
>
>
> OCLC will begin the announcements about Institution Records this week.
> There has been one change from what we discussed at ALA.  We will now
> change to a two phased approach.  Batchloading new IRs will be discontinued
> in December 2015, and creation/display of IRs in Connexion will be
> discontinued in June 2016.
>
>
>
> We will take a mixed approach of calling some libraries and emailing
> some.
>
>
>
> Announcements will include the following information:
>
>
>
> The alternative to IRs is Local Bibliographic Data
> <http://www.oclc.org/content/dam/support/documentation/cataloging/Working_with_LBDs.pdf>
> (LBD), which enables master record data to be cooperatively managed by
> thousands of experts and OCLC staff while providing library-specific
> information for discovery applications. Also, LBDs support future linked
> data initiatives and entities-based cataloging workflows.
>
>
>
> The ability to create IRs via batchload will conclude in December 2015.
> Connexion will support creation of IRs until June 2016, when support for
> IRs will end. We will offer institutions two options:
>
> 1.     Delete existing IRs
>
> 2.     Create LBDs from existing IRs or from local system records
>
> An FAQ is available on the OCLC web site and will be shared with
> libraries:  http://www.oclc.org/connexion/resources.en.html#questions.
>
>
>
> I will be presenting at the upcoming OCLC CJK Users Group meeting in
> Chicago next week on March 24, and I will include information about this in
> my presentation.
>
>
>
> If anyone from the Big Heads group have any questions, feel free to
> contact Sandi Jones (joness at oclc.org) who is overseeing this effort, or
> me.
>
>
>
> Thanks much,
>
> David
>
>
>
>
>
> David Whitehair
>
> Director, Metadata Management
>
> OCLC
>
> 6565 Kilgour Place
>
> Dublin, OH 43017-3395 USA
>
> Voice -- +1-614-764-6483 or 1-800-848-5878
>
> Fax -- +1-614-718-7292
>
> Email -- whitehad at oclc.org
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
>
> ********************************
> "Outside of a dog,
> a book is probably man's best friend,
> and inside of a dog,
> it's too dark to read.
> - Groucho Marx"
>
> Allison Rich
> Rare Materials Cataloguer
> ESTC and NACO Coordinator
>
> John Carter Brown Library
> Providence, Rhode IslandAllison_Rich at brown.edu
>
> ********************************
>
>
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