I hadn't heard much about this, myself, so I took the time to watch the
45-minute video of WorldCat Discovery Services, by John McCullough,
Project Manager for Discovery Services at OCLC. I agree that this is a
topic that should be aired by AJL librarians, especially RAS
librarians. In addition, I think that it would be good to take the
pulse of other groups serving constituencies that read and use foreign
languages and non-Roman scripts. If there are common interests, it
might be more effective for an informal alliance of library associations
to make its case to OCLC -- as opposed to just l'il ol' AJL. (Then
again, it might not!)
I heard nothing in McCullough's presentation that so much as
acknowledged the existence of the multilingual constituencies -- even as
OCLC continues to add members and users from across the globe.
McCullough focuses on the Google-like experience that the new platform
offers. There is an advanced-search option, but it was not shown in his
brief demo. The Beta version does include hyperlinks that enables users
to change the language of the interface. This was visible in
McCullough's slides, but not demonstrated. In the Q&A, none of the
questions reflected concerns that I am gleaning are shared by Michelle
and Uri in this string of e-mails.
Zachary
On 12/11/2014 4:42 PM, Michelle Chesner wrote:
Thanks. It has been recommended that a critical mass approach OCLC,
since they seem to think that only public libraries will use their
interface (since, granted, the vast majority of libraries that
subscribe are indeed public libraries), and that perhaps something
should be presented/discussed/etc. at ALA.
I was just wondering if other libraries were concerned about this,
since there hadn't been much buzz. But then again, I'm not on the
listserv that Rachel mentioned, so I'm not totally in the loop either.
It's just frustrating that they put out a product like this and expect
us all to jut roll over and accept it.
Michelle
On Thu, Dec 11, 2014 at 12:24 PM, Kolodney, Uri
<[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
UT Libraries will probably be moving to Discovery, but I don't
know when. Our bibliographic database management team is dealing
with it and it's on their radar. I had a conversation with OCLC a
couple of weeks ago regarding the 'limiting' functionality on
FirstSearch that sometimes works and sometimes it doesn't. They
said it's a 'glitch' in FirstSearch and since Discovery is coming
up soon, they are not going to fix it... great customer service ;-)
*From:*Hasafran [mailto:hasafran-bounces+kolodney
<mailto:hasafran-bounces%2Bkolodney>[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>] *On Behalf Of *Michelle
Chesner
*Sent:* Thursday, December 11, 2014 10:53 AM
*To:* [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
*Subject:* [ha-Safran] Worldcat Discovery Services replacing
Firstsearch - experience? reactions? (RAS)
Hi All,
It seems that OCLC will be discontinuing Firstsearch at the end of
2015, and in its place, has created Worldcat Discovery Services
(https://oclc.org/worldcat-discovery.en.html) - which is basically
a souped up version of worldcat.org <http://worldcat.org>. It
loses much of the functionality of Firstsearch, and any return to
functionality (at least those that they are willing to make), are
considered "enhancements" and will add to cost.
Has this come up at any other institutions? How are people
dealing with it? Perhaps this is something that should be
discussed at AJL?
Michelle
Michelle Chesner
Norman E. Alexander Librarian for Jewish Studies
Columbia University
309 International Affairs (420 W. 118th St.)
New York, NY 10027
212-854-8046 <tel:212-854-8046>
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/jewishstudiesatcul/
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and are not necessarily endorsed by the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL)
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Zachary M. Baker
Stanford University Libraries
Stanford, CA 94305-6004
E-mail [email protected]
http://library.stanford.edu/people/zbaker
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and are not necessarily endorsed by the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL)
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