Open Source vs OCLC

For my Cataloging course (I refer to it as advanced cataloging, as it is beyond the basic metadata class) I am required to examine a “special issue in cataloging.” For my topic, I selected the rise of open-source alternatives to OCLC. It’s not done yet, but to whet your appetite, here is the introduction. Let me know what you think!

Founded in 1967 as the Ohio College Library Center, OCLC was the world’s first highly successful version of a computerized network to share bibliographic data between libraries. Today, OCLC stands for Online Computer Library Center, reflecting its global reach and mission. The databases of OCLC hold “173 million bibliographic records that represent more than 1 billion individual items held by participating institutions.” These records are shared by the approximately 72,000 member libraries of OCLC, spread throughout the world. Why then would a library not want to be a member of this bibliographic juggernaut? This paper provides a broad survey of the positive and negative implications of using OCLC for bibliographic data sharing, as well as examining alternatives to OCLC, and their strengths and weaknesses.