Over the past few days, I have been gathering my thoughts together in order to post an essay-style overview of the issues surrounding the OCLC records policy changes. As of now, I am going to put those thoughts aside, as Stefano Mazzocchi has posted an excellently rational and well thought-out essay on the topic.
I feel glad that I have injected some of the points he mentions into my own posts. OCLC is a tiger (my own reference) defending its territory; this means they feel threatened. Stefano described how OCLC can become the lady, opening up their process and becoming a hero to librarians, bibliophiles, and geeks worldwide.
Can they take a cue from the Open Source movement and adjust their business model to better fit their actual position in the biblioverse? Stefano is hesitant about their chances; I have a lot of respect for many of the people and projects at OCLC, and feel that they can achieve nearly anything the set their collective minds towards (except to maintain a monopoly on the course they seem to have chosen).
found via Librarian.net
