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