more on oclc and google
Here's an article in Information Today on the OCLC/Google agreement.
This focuses more on the addition of Google Book links into existing WorldCat records, and the creation of new records for volumes not currently in WorldCat. I wonder if this means adding 856 field links to digital surrogates, or creating separate digital resource records? All OCLC member institutions will be able to add records into their catalogs.
This article doesn't mention one aspect of the agreement -- that the agreement now allows Google Book partners to share records from their catalogs that have an OCLC provenance with Google (or let OCLC do it for them). There has always been a lot of discussion about what rights member institutions had vis-a-vis sharing OCLC-sourced records that represent their holdings, and not everyone agrees with OCLC's assertions of its rights. Given Google's need to know something about the volumes that it's digitizing to provide access, it seems unavoidable that sharing of some OCLC-sourced metadata between Google Book participants and Google has already happened. Now it's a recognized need and activity.
1 comment:
I really don't like that OCLC has privileged Google as an institution I have "permission" to share records with, over other competitors (both for- and non-profit). I'm not sure I needed OCLC's permission in the first place (I wish my administrators agreed). Granted, OCLC got access to something very useful in return for trading this permission that I'm not sure was theirs to give in the first place. That is, got access for OCLC and OCLC member institutions who pay OCLC for that access--to something I would like to be freely available too. So we have OCLC trading something they are staking exclusive claim to that I don't think they should have, in return for getting control over something I don't think they should have either.
Sigh.
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