The University of Michigan approached OCLC about managing future operations for OAIster, which has grown to over 19 million records contributed by over 1,000 institutions and organizations worldwide since the service launched in 2002. OCLC welcomed the proposal because OAIster complements the types of resources already cataloged in WorldCat, broadens the scope of collections to include open archives, and reaches millions of information seekers every month through OCLC services including WorldCat.org and FirstSearch.
"The OLE and Ex Libris URM projects continue to sustain the vendor and content neutrality that has been a hallmark of traditional library software, updated to use newer technology. It will be fascinating to see what values libraries choose to prioritize. Will it be perceived low cost and convenience or will it be content and vendor neutrality, i.e. the ability to negotiate low prices coupled with the traditional need to protect privileged data that will continue to weigh heavily into their future decisions? It's an important decision."
A. Pohl. Bibliotheksdienst, 43 (3):
274--290(March 2009)The article gives an overview over the background, genesis, content and critic of OCLC's proposed metadata policy for WorldCat records. In the end it poses questions for an approach on licensing bibliographic data in germany..