[DCRM-L] OCLC cataloging subscription

[Ruth Ellen St. Onge]

Hello everyone,

Jennifer, I am very sorry to hear that your administration is thinking of
cutting the library's OCLC subscription and that you now find yourself in
the position of having to justify continuing to use a resource that is
fundamental to your work. My jaw dropped when I first read your email!

It is hard to imagine how things would function without it, considering the
size of your library and the significance of your special collections
holdings. I work at an institution that underwent drastic cuts to technical
services under a previous administration and we are still recovering. As
drastic as those cuts were, there was never a question of dropping our OCLC
subscription.

I agree with everyone else on the list who has pointed out that cutting
OCLC would lead to financial and workflow inefficiencies and increased
workloads and stress for staff members. I have been trying to find an
equivalent situation to express how ill-advised decision this would be. It
seems comparable to asking the university's finance department to operate
without any accounting software subscriptions, or asking the university's
fundraising team to drop their software subscriptions and to create their
own makeshift methods of tracking donor giving, or telling the
communications department that they can't use Adobe Creative Suite any more
-- from here on out they have to use MS Paint to create their graphics.

Finally, it is important to note that although OCLC is not perfect, by
using it catalogers are making their institution's holdings much more
discoverable; by creating original records for unique or variant special
collections items in OCLC, catalogers are constantly enhancing a resource
that is used across the globe, in a collaborative way that is just not
comparable to subscriptions to other resources (e.g. accounting software).

Those are my two cents! Good luck, and please let us know if there is
anything else we can do to help.

Ruth-Ellen

*Ruth-Ellen St. Onge*, MISt, PhD
(She/Her/They)

Distinctive Collections Cataloguing Librarian

Archives and Research Collections
McMaster University Library

[image: Map icon] location: Mills Library Lower Level
<https://www.mcmaster.ca/welcome/campusmap.cfm>
[image: Phone icon] phone: 905-525-9140 x ext. 22789
<+19055259140pext.%2022789>
[image: Envelope icon] email: stongr2 at mcmaster.ca

[image: McMaster University Brighter World logo]

*McMaster University recognizes and acknowledges that it is located on the
traditional territories of the Mississauga and Haudenosaunee nations, and
within the lands protected by the Dish With One Spoon wampum agreement.*


On Wed, 14 Feb 2024 at 17:16, Karen Attar via DCRM-L <dcrm-l at lib.byu.edu>
wrote:

> Going off on a bit of a tangent, as this is about Alma and not the OCLC
> subscription: can anybody persuade Alma to include a keyboard with
> diacritics and amend other deficiencies? If large American libraries can’t
> sway a large LMS provider, nobody can … you are the hope of the world!
>
>
>
> Karen
>
>
>
>
>
> [image: State Library of NSW] <https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/>
>
>
>
> *Dr Karen Attar* (she/her)
>
> Senior Librarian, Rare Books
>
> karen.attar at sl.nsw.gov.au
>
> +61 2 9273 1640
>
>
>
> 1 Shakespeare Place, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia
>
> www.sl.nsw.gov.au
>
>
>
> We acknowledge the Gadigal people, the First Peoples and custodians of the
> land on which the Library stands and whose skies and waters surround us. We
> offer our respects to Elders past and present.
>
>
>
> *This message is intended for the addressee named and may contain
> confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient, please
> delete it and notify the sender. Views expressed in this message are those
> of the individual sender, and are not necessarily the views of their
> organisation.*
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* DCRM-L <dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu> *On Behalf Of *Christine
> DeZelar-Tiedman via DCRM-L
> *Sent:* Wednesday, February 14, 2024 11:58 PM
> *To:* DCRM Users' Group <dcrm-l at lib.byu.edu>
> *Cc:* Christine DeZelar-Tiedman <dezel002 at umn.edu>
> *Subject:* Re: [DCRM-L] OCLC cataloging subscription
>
>
>
> I answered more generally on the Alma list, but in terms of special
> collections cataloging, I can't imagine trying to do that in Alma. In
> particular, searching for records with Alma's very limited external search
> options would be a nightmare. The availability of macros, and the
> methodology for entering special characters and diacritics, is also much
> more robust and efficient in OCLC Connexion.
>
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 13, 2024 at 10:07 AM MacDonald, Jennifer via DCRM-L <
> dcrm-l at lib.byu.edu> wrote:
>
> Dear colleagues,
>
>
>
> Like many institutions, we are going through budget cuts. My
> administration is considering cancelling our OCLC cataloging subscription.
> Is anyone at an institution that did this, or contemplated doing it? Was
> your subscription kept or not, and what was the reasoning behind the
> decision? What tools or platforms did you use, or consider using, instead
> of OCLC? Were the needs of special collections cataloging taken into
> account? If it was cancelled, what kind of fallout did your institution
> experience? I'm particularly interested in outcomes for special collections
> cataloging, but general cataloging would help as well.  On- or off-list
> responses are welcome.
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
>
>
> Jennifer
>
>
>
> [image: Image removed by sender. University of Delaware]
>
>
>
> *Jennifer MacDonald*
>
> (She/her)
>
> *Librarian and Head, Cataloging and Metadata Department*
>
> UD Library, Museums and Press
>
> 181 South College Avenue, Newark, DE 19717
>
> University of Delaware
>
> Room 113B  |  302-831-1512
>
> jsmacdon at udel.edu
>
>
>
> --------------------
> You have received this message because you are a subscriber to the DCRM-L
> discussion list.
>
> You can change the email associated with your subscription, the method
> that you receive DCRM-L posts, unsubscribe, and other settings by logging
> into your subscription at
> https://listserver.lib.byu.edu/mailman/listinfo/dcrm-l.
>
> Alternately, to unsubscribe from this list send a message to
> dcrm-l-leave at lib.byu.edu. You will receive an email requesting
> confirmation of your request.
>
>
>
>
> --
>
> --
>
> Christine DeZelar-Tiedman
>
> Cataloging Policies and Practices Librarian | Cataloging, Metadata, &
> Digitization Services | University of Minnesota Libraries
> 160 Wilson Library | 309 19th Ave. S. | Minneapolis, MN 55455
>
> dezel002 at umn.edu
>
> she, her, hers
>
>
>
>
>
> _
>
> [image: State Library of NSW] <https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/>
> *Karen Attar*
> Senior Librarian, Rare Books
> Karen.Attar at sl.nsw.gov.au
> +61 2 9273 1640
>
> 1 Shakespeare Place, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia
> www.sl.nsw.gov.au
>
> We acknowledge the Gadigal people, the First Peoples and custodians of the
> land on which the Library stands and whose skies and waters surround us. We
> offer our respects to Elders past and present.
>
> *This message is intended for the addressee named and may contain
> confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient, please
> delete it and notify the sender. Views expressed in this message are those
> of the individual sender, and are not necessarily the views of their
> organisation.*
>
>
> --------------------
> You have received this message because you are a subscriber to the DCRM-L
> discussion list.
>
> You can change the email associated with your subscription, the method
> that you receive DCRM-L posts, unsubscribe, and other settings by logging
> into your subscription at
> https://listserver.lib.byu.edu/mailman/listinfo/dcrm-l.
>
> Alternately, to unsubscribe from this list send a message to
> dcrm-l-leave at lib.byu.edu. You will receive an email requesting
> confirmation of your request.
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserver.lib.byu.edu/pipermail/dcrm-l/attachments/20240215/c9fa9a5d/attachment-0001.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: ~WRD0000.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 823 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://listserver.lib.byu.edu/pipermail/dcrm-l/attachments/20240215/c9fa9a5d/attachment-0001.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 6499 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://listserver.lib.byu.edu/pipermail/dcrm-l/attachments/20240215/c9fa9a5d/attachment-0004.gif>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 372 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://listserver.lib.byu.edu/pipermail/dcrm-l/attachments/20240215/c9fa9a5d/attachment-0005.gif>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 320 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://listserver.lib.byu.edu/pipermail/dcrm-l/attachments/20240215/c9fa9a5d/attachment-0006.gif>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 357 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://listserver.lib.byu.edu/pipermail/dcrm-l/attachments/20240215/c9fa9a5d/attachment-0007.gif>