I have tried to talk about this in my neighbourhood, and have waited to see if local or national corps and orgs would tackle this in an effective way. They did not, yet.
So I support the following call to sign a Petition of protest. Please read it and if you agree with the stated issues, join me in signing too.
Dear Friend,
I hope you'll join me in signing the petition "Stop the OCLC powergrab!". You can do so right now at:
http://watchdog.net/c/stop-oclc
OCLC, the not-for-profit that provides library services around the world, has gone too far. Originally, it was a library collaborative -- one library could catalog a book, upload it to OCLC, and then other libraries could save time by reusing the catalog information.
But as the price of such technology has fallen, its prices have risen. It charges membership fees, record retrieval fees, user support fees, and fees for all sorts of additional services. But now it's gone a step too far -- it wants to set the terms of use for every library record ever retrieved through OCLC, so that it can maintain its monopoly in the field.
In a very real sense, they're trying to steal our libraries. We have to make them stop -- sign this petition.
For more information, see this wiki page: OCLC Policy Change.
------------------------------------------ Dear OCLC:
We the undersigned ask that you repeal your recent changes to the "Policy for Use and Transfer of WorldCat Records" and once again allow any nonprofit or library to have unrestricted access to all WorldCat records. These records are not yours, they are the collected work product of thousands of libraries, summarizing the accumulated knowledge of all of humanity. They shouldn't be in the exclusive control of one organization.
http://watchdog.net/c/stop-oclc
Libraries unite! This is OUR content we created. And if they have it their way, we have to pay to re-use it?? Thanks!
So I support the following call to sign a Petition of protest. Please read it and if you agree with the stated issues, join me in signing too.
Dear Friend,
I hope you'll join me in signing the petition "Stop the OCLC powergrab!". You can do so right now at:
http://watchdog.net/c/stop-oclc
OCLC, the not-for-profit that provides library services around the world, has gone too far. Originally, it was a library collaborative -- one library could catalog a book, upload it to OCLC, and then other libraries could save time by reusing the catalog information.
But as the price of such technology has fallen, its prices have risen. It charges membership fees, record retrieval fees, user support fees, and fees for all sorts of additional services. But now it's gone a step too far -- it wants to set the terms of use for every library record ever retrieved through OCLC, so that it can maintain its monopoly in the field.
In a very real sense, they're trying to steal our libraries. We have to make them stop -- sign this petition.
For more information, see this wiki page: OCLC Policy Change.
------------------------------------------ Dear OCLC:
We the undersigned ask that you repeal your recent changes to the "Policy for Use and Transfer of WorldCat Records" and once again allow any nonprofit or library to have unrestricted access to all WorldCat records. These records are not yours, they are the collected work product of thousands of libraries, summarizing the accumulated knowledge of all of humanity. They shouldn't be in the exclusive control of one organization.
http://watchdog.net/c/stop-oclc
Libraries unite! This is OUR content we created. And if they have it their way, we have to pay to re-use it?? Thanks!
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Comments
If you add information to a database, and will not be able to re-use it, they should have stated that would be the case, up front.
If they haven't, can you consider this stealing?