From: Daniel Michniewicz <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2014 14:18:31 +0000

Hello Andrew and Chuck.

In response to some of your points below:

First, nice little two-step to say, “All current FirstSearch
subscribers receive access to WorldCat Discovery as part of their
FirstSearch subscriptions at no additional charge”, but then
immediately after say, “There is a small number of libraries with
port-limited subscriptions to WorldCat on FirstSearch.  For these
libraries … a subscription increase.”  Are you willing to share with
the list what percentage of libraries are getting WorldCat Discovery
at no additional charge, and what percentage are facing a subscription
increase? We are one of the latter.  And the list price you’ve quoted
us, going from two users to now unlimited based on our FTE, is not a
minor increase.  Though thank you for the proposed discount.

Yes, your new service offers additional benefits, and we do find some
of them of interest, but your main thrust is the tacking on of your
discovery service and trying to get more libraries to become WorldCat
shops.  If there are “Libraries that do not yet have a discovery
service” who want to “adopt the full feature set of WorldCat Discovery
as their new discovery service”, hey, they should go for it.  This
might make the decision that much easier for them because they’ll be
getting it at, as you say, no additional charge.

However, my original post was not directed to them.  It was directed
at those libraries who already have, and pay for, and have to commit
back-end resources to maintaining, one of your competitors’ discovery
services.  What are we supposed to do?  Dump them and go with you?
Your follow-up statement, “Alternatively, some libraries may use
WorldCat Discovery along with an existing discovery service to provide
ongoing access to WorldCat for their users in a new, redesigned user
experience.” shows, I think, a complete misunderstanding of the
financial, staffing, and time resources your customers have.  Do you
really think we have the legroom to maintain two discovery services --
all of the back-end work to keep both up-to-date on top of existing
e-resource responsibilities and other duties (classes we have to
teach, Reference Desk duty, policeman/bouncer/babysitter duties,
etc.).  No discovery service -- not yours, not the one we ended up
going with -- is so maintenance-free that we, at the customer end,
don’t have to spend inordinate amounts of time trying to track down
the cause of dead Central Index links in these respective services.
That falls as much on our heads as yours.

But even if I put that aside, from the end-user perspective: two
discovery services?!  Really? “Hey student, search this one, but also
search this one, and also remember to search all of the databases that
aren’t covered by the first two.”  Kind of defeats the intent of
discovery services in the first place. We don’t have two ILS
systems/catalogues.  Why would we show two discovery services?

As for cost recovery vis-à-vis visibility on the web: Yes, these
things do cost money.  However, some vendors (Elsevier, EBSCO,
ProQuest) are already making the link from Google to our subscriptions
with them for us and our users.  And yes, they are getting a good
chunk of our budget too and they would probably say the same thing:
these things cost money, value-added glory, etc.  And yes,
collaboration between libraries is a beautiful thing, Kumbaya around
the campfire, let the tears flow, and so forth.  But I am not a
Romantic. I have my library co-workers and liberal arts faculty for
that.  Most of them don’t have to think about money or maintenance.
They just let me know when it’s all not working.  Where I’m at right
now is finding the money to pay for all of it, maintain all of it,
promote all of it to our end-users and administration to show our
worth, and in the end generally feel that I’m not just a big sucker.

Thoughts?

Dan

Dan Michniewicz
Digital Resources Librarian
Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology
[log in to unmask]
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

***************

From: Hamaker, Charles [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2014 8:31 AM
To: LibLicense-L Discussion Forum ([log in to unmask])
Cc: Daniel Michniewicz
Subject: WorldCat Discovery Services from OCLC?

Ann

This is a response from  Andrew Pace to the posting by Daniel
Michniewicz of the 8th of April.  I have requested and received
permission to forward it to Liblicense-l.

Chuck
________

Dan, et al,

As product portfolio owner for WorldCat Discovery Services at OCLC, I
hope you don't mind me jumping in to clarify some of the points in
your post. All current FirstSearch subscribers receive access to
WorldCat Discovery as part of their FirstSearch subscriptions at no
additional charge. If your library subscribes to WorldCat Local,
FirstSearch access is included in this subscription.

The release of WorldCat Discovery means that many libraries with
existing unlimited FirstSearch subscriptions may now benefit from a
discovery service without incurring costs beyond their current
subscriptions. There is a small number of libraries with port-limited
subscriptions to WorldCat on FirstSearch. For these libraries, the
transition to unlimited access to WorldCat Discovery, with access to
more content in the central index, holdings syndication and many other
features, will result in a subscription increase.

Libraries that do not yet have a discovery service may choose to adopt
the full feature set of WorldCat Discovery as their new discovery
service on their own timeline. Alternatively, some libraries may use
WorldCat Discovery along with an existing discovery service to provide
ongoing access to WorldCat for their users in a new, redesigned user
experience.

The release of WorldCat Discovery does not change the requirements for
a library's holdings to be visible in WorldCat.org and other OCLC
partner websites. Since WorldCat.org was released in 2006, a
FirstSearch subscription has been required to support this Web
visibility for OCLC cataloging members. This requirement continues
with WorldCat Discovery Services.

A cataloging subscription supports the cost of maintaining the
software and infrastructure for the WorldCat database.

A FirstSearch subscription (which will become a WorldCat Discovery
subscription in the future) covers the cost of making that data
accessible to information seekers and machines that integrate
information resources through interfaces and APIs. This subscription
gives the public access to a library's collections maintained in
WorldCat through WorldCat Discovery, WorldCat.org and websites of
partners such as Google Books, Goodreads, EasyBib, etc. You will find
more information about WorldCat Discovery at

http://www.oclc.org/worldcat-discovery.en.html

I hope this information helps clarify the improvement we are making to
our new interface to access WorldCat and so much more.

Thanks,

Andrew