[13839] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
Re: Important Survey on the Future of E-Reference
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Haverly, Thomas)
Fri Mar 30 20:14:26 2001
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Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2001 09:21:29 -0500
From: "Haverly, Thomas" <thaverly@CRDS.EDU>
To: PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU
Reply-to: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU>
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Thank you, Millard Johnson, for "speaking up for OCLC". Clearly cooperative
ventures are important for all libraries, large and small, and I am
constantly amazed at the degree to which they happen. I for one find OCLC
and its regional affiliates to be at or near the core of this cooperative
spirit, and also consider their costs to be moderate (at least)- especially
by comparison to other information resource vendors.
On the other hand, I'd like to speak up for small academic libraries, who
feel the pinch of an ever increasing volume of electronic resources
alongside continuing growth in print and audio-visual materials. In many
instances the costs of the electronic resources are such as to preclude our
affording access (I think of Oxford University Press's electronic edition of
the OED, for instance). Flat fees for access discriminate against us;
costs based on student enrollment (FTE) are more likely to allow us to
participate- and reflect the likely degree of usage of the resource.
Similar fee structures have been devised for proportionate pricing to public
library systems, I believe.
In our case, for example, a library in a theological seminary with a small
enrollment, even our own professional library association, the American
Theological Library Association, has come out with an online, full-text
database whose flat-fee pricing structure makes it difficult for many
smaller member libraries to afford access. I reckon other types of
libraries- academic, corporate, public, and school- face the same sets of
issues.
So- the specter of this virtual reference service being fee-based does
indeed raise fears in many of us responding to the survey. Please do not
take it as an attack on OCLC as such. In my response to the survey I made
several comments about my concerns over the price and price-structure of yet
another online service. I hope others will do the same.
Tom Haverly
Associate Librarian
Ambrose Swasey Library
Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School/Bexley Hall Seminary/Saint
Bernard's Institute
Rochester, New York
Phone: 716-271-1320 Fax: 716-271-2166 Email: thaverly@crds.edu
-----Original Message-----
From: Millard Johnson [mailto:zendog@INCOLSA.NET]
Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2001 4:08 PM
To: PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU
Subject: Re: Important Survey on the Future of E-Reference
I hope you wont mind someone speaking up for OCLC in this matter.
I have been director of INCOLSA (the OCLC regional network for Indiana) for
about 5 years. INCOLSA has 800 member libraries, only 200 of which are OCLC
members. When I first came to this job, I had the same opinion of OCLC that
is reflected below - OCLC is an expensive profit-oriented company that can
be justified only by large wealthy libraries. And that, I believe, was an
accurate reflection of the situation at OCLC at that time. I meet with
other network directors at OCLC three times a year and I never fail to
hammer home the point that: A) OCLC had no reasonably cost-effective,
easy-to-use service for three quarters of the libraries in my state, and B)
the world is changing - low-cost internet, self-instructional internet-based
tools.
When I first met Jay Jordan, OCLC's new director, I "lectured" him for an
hour that OCLC MUST return to its roots as a cooperative of libraries and
act less like a vendor. If you have been aware of OCLC's newest services
like CatExpress, WebExpress, and CORC you will see that these tools are
simple to use and within cost ranges of smaller libraries. I think you will
find the innovations that OCLC will be introducing in the next year or two
are even more usable and affordable by libraries that have never been OCLC
members before. They are calling these innovations (Extended WorldCat -
extending the cooperative) or some such wording. You are certainly well
advised to be skeptical, but if you are objective, I think and hope you will
be very pleasantly surprised. I am hoping a lot of my members will find the
same inclusive cooperative in OCLC that we try to provide in INCOLSA.
Believe me, I would never have been able to give this kind of reference to
OCLC 5 years ago.
Is virtual reference going to be free? Probably not. Even if small school
and public libraries could talk the large public and academic libraries into
doing all of their reference work for free, there are still system
maintenance and overhead costs that must be paid. But libraries have saved
millions of dollars by sharing the professional expertise of our catalogers.
(Can you imagine how much it would cost us if we all still did all of our
original cataloging as we did in the 70's?) We stand to save something like
the same money by sharing our professional reference expertise.
MJ
***************************************************************
Millard F. Johnson zendog@incolsa.net
INCOLSA (317) 298-6570
"I would rather risk failure than achieve it without risk."
***************************************************************
-----Original Message-----
From: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum [mailto:PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU]
On Behalf Of Jennifer Heise
Sent: Tuesday, March 27, 2001 8:55 AM
To: PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU
Subject: Re: Important Survey on the Future of E-Reference
> I don't recall in the information I read about this that there would be a
> charge for service. This seems to be implied below in the requirements to
> participants. Is this going to be another "non profit" service like OCLC
> only through LC?
It's now a joint project between OCLC and LC. *sigh* Which means that it
will probably be out of the financial reach of those who really need it,
because their libraries won't subscribe.
--
/ Jennifer Heise, Helpdesk/Librarian, Lehigh Univ. Information
Resources
\ \ Fairchild-Martindale Library, 8A Packer Ave, Bethlehem PA 18015
/ Phone (610) 758-3072 Email: jahb@lehigh.edu
"Comment is free, but facts are on expenses." -- Tom Stoppard
