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

Wed Mar 25 09:30:04 MDT 2015

Some more thoughts about this, perhaps not too consoling.

Wasn’t the whole point of web catalogs that people from all over the world could access everyone’s catalog? I have to admit that I never understood the IR system very well and have frequently used this website to access other librarys’ catalogs:

http://www.lib-web.org/

It’s not perfect (e.g., occasionally the web hosting for it has changed) but it helps.

I would think the ILL system can’t be expected to find all the detail scholars want. One of the major aims of scholarship is to know where in the world the detailed information is. For example, my library has several print catalogs of our special collections, which I have seen in other libraries. It is not really the job of librarians, I think, to give too much scholarly detail. That is the job of the students’ graduate advisors, who presumably know where some of the best collections on their subject area are.

This development reminds me of the writings of Thomas Mann, who tried hard to push for a rigorous standard of cataloging though he was an LC reference librarian. When online catalogs first appeared in the 80’s, he thought they were a great development. They increased various kinds of accessibility and consistency. But around 1990 an article called “Cataloging Must Change!” appeared which argued for spending less money on cataloging since computers are so magical. From that time on Mann fought that idea. But maybe the lesson is that we really must recognize the limits of what computerized catalogs can do. I personally think it was always a mistake for libraries with large special collections to consider World Cat Local.

Once something is automated, administrators want to reduce the price as much as possible.

Just some thoughts,
Ted Gemberling
UAB Lister Hill Library

From: dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu [mailto:dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu] On Behalf Of Noble, Richard
Sent: Wednesday, March 25, 2015 9:52 AM
To: DCRM Users' Group
Subject: Re: [DCRM-L] Discontinuation of OCLC's institutional records program

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<mailto:RICHARD_NOBLE at BROWN.EDU>own.edu<http://own.edu>>

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

Allison_Rich at brown.edu<mailto:Allison_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<tel:%28801%29422-5568>

"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> [mailto: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<http://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<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<mailto: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<tel:%2B1-614-764-6483> or 1-800-848-5878<tel:1-800-848-5878>
Fax -- +1-614-718-7292<tel:%2B1-614-718-7292>
Email -- whitehad at oclc.org<mailto: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 Island

Allison_Rich at brown.edu<mailto:Allison_Rich at brown.edu>

********************************

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