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Ramblings about library technology, open source software, and other adventures!

 

Worldcat record use policy causes National Library of Sweden to end negotiatons with OCLC 2011 December 22

Filed under: libraries,technology — ecorrado @ 19:12:42

The National Library of Sweden has decided to end negotiations with OCLC about uploading their union catalog, Libris, into WorldCat as well as using WorldCat as a source of records in Libris. According to the announcement, Libris is and needs to remain an open database and OCLC’s WorldCat Rights and Responsibilities for the OCLC Cooperative does not make that possible. The National Library also believes that the record use terms would make it impossible to contribute biographical data to Europeana and the European Library. As Karen Coyle mentions in her blog post about this decision, open data (or the lack of it) is not just an idealogical stance: it “has real practical applications.” Whatever good the WorldCat record use policy has had, this is a real-world example of how it can (and in this case, has) also harm libraries – including OCLC member libraries who will not be able to access Libris records via WorldCat.

Library Journal contacted OCLC about the announcement, but they did not immediately respond to LJ’s request for comment.

 
 

MITx 2011 December 20

Filed under: general,technology — ecorrado @ 17:12:03

Some of you probably have seen MIT’s announcement of MITx on December 19. Basically, “MITx will offer a portfolio of MIT courses through an online interactive learning platform.” It will “operate on an open-source, scalable software infrastructure” and offer many features that current learning Management Systems offer as well as some other unique features. While the technology sounds interesting, I am most interested in the program itself, in particular the credentialing. MIT has been a leader in the open education with its OpenCourseWare project, but adding a level of credentialing is a huge step. There isn’t a lot of information available yet, but basically if you want to learn, you can do that for fee. If you want some form of credential, there will be a fee for that. The credential will be a certificate of completion that will be offered buy a not-for-profit body within the Institute created to do such a thing. The body offering the credentials will be distinctly named to avoid confusion that MIT “proper” awarded the credential and costs are yet to be determined.

MITx has yet to announce what classes will be available but they plan to start offering classes in Spring 2012. More information can be found on the MITx announcement FAQ. If they have something I am interested in and it fits my schedule, I may try to take a class and, if I do, I’ll probably pay for the credential.