The International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC) has weighed in on OCLC’s proposed policy changes. Of note:
“The proposed policy appears to freeze OCLC’s role in the library community based on historical and current relationships. We share the concern, voiced by many, that the policy hinders rather than encourages innovation, and we urge the Review Board to carefully examine this issue. It is unclear that the policy has been constructed with a focus on an evolving role of OCLC in enhancing the missions of an international library community with diverse and complex interests.”
This may not seem like a strongly worded statement, but take a look at the list of consortia behind the statement (located at the bottom of the statement, linked above). Is your library, or geographic region, represented by one or more of these? Based on the consortia I recognize, this statement has thousands of libraries behind it.
“Speak softly and carry a big stick, you shall go far”, Theodore Roosevelt’s iconic statement, applies very well to this statement.
My own addition to the current state of events is that the broad-based library community needs to be strongly involved with the record use policy, especially now that OCLC has solidly entered the ILS arena with their new WorldCat functionality. If they are able to use access and use of the records as a way to encourage/coerce/retain customers, they likely someday will. It makes good business sense, even if it is lousy public relations.
Further reading:
