[WEB4LIB] RILM et.al., the changes in searching

[Dan Lester]

Friday, November 30, 2001, 2:50:48 PM, you wrote:

MJ> Not so fast. Though it may have been RILM that ultimately made the
MJ> decision to drop per-search availability through FirstSearch, it was
MJ> OCLC's intransigence on the question of setting per search rates that
MJ> forced RILM's hand.

I can understand the point, but one of the features that librarians
have liked best is that there is one standard price for searching and
NOT a whole host of rates where you have to worry about each different
one.  Remember, though OCLC is a corporation with lots of employees to
pay, it is still driven in great part by the demands of the libraries
who are members.  This is naturally done by any business, and I can
bet that the change to "RILM searches will each click three searches
off of your account" would have produced an even greater protest than
the current one.

MJ> Even relying heavily on volunteer abstractors, RILM is an expensive
MJ> database to produce, much moreso than a scanning/typing product like
MJ> ContentsFirst. Yet OCLC insists on a one-price-fits-all approach to
MJ> per-search pricing. So what's a producer to do? Dumb down the product?

As is the case in all of this, companies make business decisions that
they think are best for them in the long run.  OCLC and RILM may have both
done what is best for their businesses, or they may not have.  Only time
will tell on that one.

MJ> Fortunately, if any outfit can survive, it's RILM. Because it's not one
MJ> product in a corporation's stable. It's dedicated scholars and a network
MJ> of supporting volunteers, dedicated to providing information truly
MJ> needed by our discipline.

I understand and appreciate that.  Perhaps RILM can survive by going
to an "Open Software" type of model.  My son ran a music-related
database system on that model for several years before finally selling out
because it didn't produce enough income for the time he had to put in
on it.

Happy holidays

dan






-- 
Dan Lester, Data Wrangler  dan at RiverOfData.com 208-283-7711
3577 East Pecan, Boise, Idaho  83716-7115 USA
www.riverofdata.com  www.gailndan.com  Stop Global Whining!