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OCLC is a parasitic company masquerading as a "membership cooperative". Libraries (often publicly funded) produce all the work, OCLC claims ownership of the re
by IKantRead 3y ago
OCLC is a parasitic company masquerading as a "membership cooperative".
Libraries (often publicly funded) produce all the work, OCLC claims ownership of the results of that work, Libraries pay to get it back (but they do get a discount if they contribute).
The only reason OCLC continues to exist is because libraries don't have the support or resources to fight them. It's very similar to the Elsevier issue in academic publishing, but OCLC does a better job with PR.
- empthought 3y agoI mean you’ve clearly read Aaron Swartz’s diatribes, but you also clearly have no clue about OCLC’s business model. The catalog data is intellectually interesting, but the value is in the holdings data and more importantly the interlibrary loan service it enables. OCLC is exactly what happens when the libraries want to avoid another EBSCOhost or Proquest situation with ILL.
- dredmorbius 3y agoWhat were the EBSOhost / ProQuest situations, if you don't mind?