

Rule #1 for Surviving Paradigm Shifts: Don’t S**t Where You Eat - Oompa
http://www.betaversion.org/~stefano/linotype/news/220/

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thwarted
Two things I noticed about this:

1) This sounds very similar to Gracenote and CDDB, but Gracenote wasn't non-
profit.

2) Why don't the publishers include this information as part of publishing the
book, so libraries don't need to dig around for the data or correct it?

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grouchyOldGuy
In regards to 2) above, many publishers do include this information. It's
called "CIP" (cataloging in publication, I believe). Many of the cataloggers
that I've known scoff at using this info though--it rarely meets their needs.
University libraries often adopt the Library of Congress classification while
public libraries commonly adopt Dewey Decimal classification. Even within each
classification there can be room for disagreement or "doing it differently"
for reasons that are relevant to your library, but not necessarily relevant to
another library.

Disclaimer: I am not a librarian, but I worked in library automation for 18
years. The libraries that I worked for were all OCLC members. I've never
catalogged, but I have loaded MARC tapes from OCLC and worked with cataloggers
over the years. A good catalogger is anal-retentive, detail-oriented and cares
very passionately about their work.

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wingo
I _love_ the existence of "alpha librarians".

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LogicHoleFlaw
Do _not_ mess with Conan the Librarian.

[http://blogs.sltrib.com/vault/uploaded_images/ConanTheLibrar...](http://blogs.sltrib.com/vault/uploaded_images/ConanTheLibrarian-796202.jpg)

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jfarmer
I'm surprised Umair Haque hasn't written about this yet -- it's right up his
alley.

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helveticaman
Is OCLC really non-profit?

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ggruschow
Yes. OCLC is a 501(c)(3) public charity. You can view their 990 returns in a
variety of places online like guidestar.org.

A "non-profit" mostly can't sell shares nor link pay to profits. Many can do a
lot of things that doesn't fit within the normal thinking about what a charity
should do though. OCLC looks like a sad demonstration of that.. buying up
competitors, screwing people on licensing, etc.

