Open Worldcat once again

Wed Dec 8 12:38:52 EST 2004

Laura Cohen wrote:

>Chip,
>
>Thanks for your message. I find it interesting on several levels.
>
>- You state that you've made "a subset of records available to selected
>partners." Your original message stated that you "posted the entire Worldcat
>collection of 57 million records for harvesting by the search engines."
>Whould you please clarify this apparent discrepancy?
>
>  
>
     snip

Just to add my two cents here, last week I was in London at the Online 
Information meeting
and talked to the people at OCLC. They said that they are working at 
getting the whole of
WorldCat into Google and Yahoo, and plan to finish before summer 2005.

Even

>Date: Mon, 6 Dec 2004 08:05:16 -0500
>From: "Nilges,Chip" <nilgesc at oclc.org>
>To: "Multiple recipients of list" <web4lib at webjunction.org>
>Subject: RE: Open WorldCat Pilot: A User's Perspective
>Message-ID:
><A26406E8DCF51B4F8B1DDA74E9F7F7A61B4935 at OAEXCH1SERVER.oa.oclc.org>
>
>Laura,
>
>Thanks for your post about Open WorldCat.  In response to your 2 questions
>from late last week . . .
>
>Question 1:  Now that you've begun the process of handing over WorldCat to
>successful businesses that will provide free access to its contents, when
>will OCLC stop charging libraries (who of course provide this
>content) for access to WorldCat through FirstSearch? 
>
>First, let me be very clear on one point:  we did not "hand" WorldCat over
>to anyone!  (We take our job as stewards of the membership's assets very
>seriously.)  We've made a subset of records available to selected partners,
>and we have released only a small portion of each record to the partner --
>only as much metadata as is needed to support effective discovery of library
>materials within the partner's sites. Moreover, our contracts with partners
>protect the rights of OCLC and its membership to this content.  It's also
>important to understand that none of the holdings data is being supplied to
>partners. Users who encounter WorldCat metadata on a partner site and opt to
>click on the link come to an OCLC server for access to holdings information
>and links to local library services. 
>
>The second half of the question, regarding funding models, is interesting.
>Currently, WorldCat is a "paid search" service.  Libraries purchase
>subscriptions, which entitle them to provide access to staff and patrons
>affiliated with their institution.  Open WorldCat extends this model by
>placing pointers to library collections in open Web sites and directing
>users who encounter those pointers back to the library for service.  In
>other words, Open WorldCat is a directory service: libraries can use it to
>make their collections known and available to patrons from popular search
>engines and Web sites, where patrons often begin their search for
>information.  We view the two services -- WorldCat on FirstSearch and Open
>WorldCat -- as two sides of the same "discovery" coin.  WorldCat on
>FirstSearch is a "private" service that is highly configurable and supports
>very sophisticated searching, alone and in combination with other databases.
>Open WorldCat is an outreach program, which alerts the Web surfer to the
>availability of library materials and connects them to the library for local
>service.  The Web demands both approaches:  a vertical search site
>(WorldCat), tailored to the discovery needs of the community; and a
>syndication program (Open
>WorldCat) that seeks to integrate library collections at the point of need
>in other services.  Because of this necessary symbiosis between WorldCat as
>a library search tool and WorldCat as a library "syndication" cooperative,
>we are including participation in Open WorldCat as part of a library's
>subscription to WorldCat on FirstSearch.
>
>
>Question 2:  What, if any, financial gain is OCLC receiving from its
>partnership with Google, Yahoo and other partners? This would be of interest
>to those of us following open access scholarship.
>
>To date, the project has been a learning experience for all involved. We've
>devoted resources to this project, and so have our partners.  This doesn't
>rule out the possibility that we will consider employing what have become
>traditional models for generating revenue on the Open Web, if these
>approaches create value for the community we serve.  An increasing number of
>libraries are partnering with best-in-class commercial entities, in an
>effort to improve patron service and fund their activities.  If the
>integration of WorldCat with the open Web creates opportunities to provide
>the membership opportunities to deliver improved service through a
>commercial partnership, we'll consider them.
>
>
>I hope this helps, Laura.  I would be very interested to hear ideas anyone
>on the list may have on either or both of theses questions.  
>
>Chip
>
>Chip Nilges
>OCLC 
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: web4lib at webjunction.org [mailto:web4lib at webjunction.org]
>On Behalf Of Laura Cohen
>Sent: Friday, December 03, 2004 10:34 AM
>To: Multiple recipients of list
>Subject: [WEB4LIB] RE: Open WorldCat Pilot: A User's Perspective
>
>
>Chip and Mike:
>
>Interesting posting. This leads me to a couple of questions about the
>financial side of things.
>
>1. Now that you've begun the process of handing over WorldCat to successful
>businesses that will provide free access to its contents, when will OCLC
>stop charging libraries (who of course provide this
>content) for access to WorldCat through FirstSearch? 
>
>2. What, if any, financial gain is OCLC receiving from its partnership with
>Google, Yahoo and other partners? This would be of interest to those of us
>following open access scholarship.
>
>------------------------------------------
>Laura B. Cohen
>Library Web Administrator
>LI-140 University at Albany
>Albany, NY 12222
>Tel:  (518) 442-3492  Fax: (518) 442-3567
>
>
>
>Date: Thu, 2 Dec 2004 13:23:49 -0500
>From: "Teets,Mike" <teetsm at oclc.org>
>To: "Multiple recipients of list" <web4lib at webjunction.org>
>Subject: RE: Open WorldCat Pilot: A User's Perspective
>Message-ID:
><35A72025A61EE3488E4CF824C717F70EA607FB at OAEXCH1SERVER.oa.oclc.org>
>
>Open WorldCat is a work in progress.  We launched the project almost one
>year ago with a simple goal -- to help libraries make their collections
>visible and available at the point of need on the open Web.  Since that
>time, we've made a number of enhancements, some planned and others in
>response to requests from the membership/library community.   
>
>Some recent developments:
>
>-  A few weeks ago, we posted the entire Worldcat collection of 57 million
>records for harvesting by the search engines. (Before then, only 2 million
>records were available for harvest.) Additional records will begin appearing
>as the search engines incorporate them into their
>systems.   
>
>-  Earlier in November, we added hot linked subject headings that users can
>follow to view a list of all items with the same subject heading in Open
>WorldCat, in order to facilitate subject access to WorldCat.  
>
>-  In December and January we will begin adding features to address the
>issue addressed in the post below regarding grouping holdings for multiple
>iterations/versions of an item.  These features will include the ability to
>retrieve and see holdings for other items with the same author & title and,
>possibly, hot-linked author and titles.  We are also thinking about
>applications of XISBN, which returns a list of associated ISBNs for a given
>ISBN, and the FRBR algorithm for reducing duplicate records.  
>
>- In the next few weeks, we will be providing a section of the Open Worldcat
>informational page featuring user contributed "cool tools" based on Open
>Worldcat.  It will be at the same location
>http://www.oclc.org/worldcat/open/default.htm
>
>-  On an ongoing basis, we are talking regularly with potential new partners
>for Open WorldCat and are actively building our directories of OPAC and
>OpenURL links, in an effort to improve the likelihood that user who
>encounters Open WorldCat will be able to get to a local libraries catalog or
>OpenURL resolver for service. (Any OCLC member library can update their
>links at https://www3.oclc.org/app/openwc/ )  We are also doing some manual
>creation of these links as time allows.
>
>This has been a very interesting project for us at OCLC.  We hope that it is
>providing the community with a valuable service, and that it is also serving
>as a catalyst for further exploration of the huge potential for
>collaboration that we believe exists between libraries and open Web
>information sites.  We are very happy to see the interest the project has
>generated, through discussion like this one, comments from users, and the
>rapid growth in activity we've seen over the past few months. Libraries
>obviously have a central role to play in public access to information, and
>it is our job to help in any way that we can.  
>
>Chip Nilges, nilgesc at oclc.org
>Executive Director, WorldCat Content & Global Access
>
>Mike Teets, teetsm at oclc.org
>Executive Director, Product Architecture and Development
>
>------------------------------------------
>Laura B. Cohen
>Library Web Administrator
>LI-140 University at Albany
>Albany, NY 12222
>Tel:  (518) 442-3492  Fax: (518) 442-3567
>
>
>
>
>------------------------------
>
>End of WEB4LIB Digest 3568
>**************************
>
>
>  
>

-- 
Even Flood,  Senior Academic Librarian
Ilevollen 3e
N 7018 Trondheim, Norway.
Phone: +47 73 52 53 53/ +47 95 11 58 14
evflood at broadpark.no
http://home.broadpark.no/~evflood/
"Come, and take choice of all my library, and so  beguile thy sorrow."
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