[open-bibliography] Library support and REST

Tue Oct 26 09:54:51 UTC 2010

On Tue, Oct 26, 2010 at 9:34 AM, C.J. Carty <cjc45 at cam.ac.uk> wrote:

> On Oct 26 2010, Peter Murray-Rust wrote:
>
>  It's clrear from these and other discussions that libraries and librarians
>> don't care about freedom of books, etc. and
>>
>
> [snip]
>
>  I had hoped to find some feeling among libraraians that they cared about
>> this but I haven't seen any - I've blogged, tweeted, etc. and I know these
>> get around.
>>
>
> I feel as a librarian that I have to reply to this discussion. However, I
> follow this list as an extremely interested observer and cannot claim to
> fully understand everything that is discussed here.
>

Thanks Celine - I appreciate your contribution. :-)

>
> There *is* interest within the library community (as recent releases of
> data have demonstrated I think) but there is perhaps a lack of
> understanding. I believe that librarians do care enormously about freedom of
> information, freedom of books, that is my experience across the range of
> libraries and professional activity.

So do I believe that. BUT they have to speak. This is an opportunity.

> So perhaps what it needs is a clear, basic (really basic) explanation of
> what is being asked and how librarians can get involved (in a blog post
> somewhere perhaps?) which I would then be more than happy to promote,
> re-tweet and talk about to the many librarians I know. I don't feel in a
> knowledgable enough position just now to do this myself. I'm already
> awaiting more details of the open bibliography community involvement project
> that Peter has already talked about and which, again, I'd be happy to
> promote (just wanted to see what it would involve before doing so).
>

I have been involved in work with the library community and - despite my
somewhat abrasive approach - get asked to speak to library meetings from
time to time.

What is at issue is who is in charge of making content available - the
community (in which I see librarians playing an important role) or the
vendors. I won't name the vendors as they'll probably try to sue me.  But
vendors who supply content, who supply catalogues, library management
systems, ebooks, etc.). Here are some of the freedoms we have lost:
* freedom from DRMs (the BL DRMs all its interlibrary loans)
* freedom from renting. The libraries rent scholarly articles rather than
owning them
* freedom for fair use. We are besotted with copyright fud.
* freedom to use bibliography without infringing someone's claimed rights

We've lost our fundamental freedoms. Every time someone brings out a new
ebook we lose more freedoms.

> I will return to interested lurking...
>
> I am conscious that this is a sensitive area. I am happy to be the one
spearheading the revolution. But someone has to show some interest and so
far you are the only one.

I'm presenting a session to RLUK next month about "Democratization of
Knowledge" . I wanted this to be an interactive session based on the fact
that 3 million records from the BL are now Open. I think this is a wonderful
step forward. When I blog this, tweet it, etc I get silence. When I mention
this to librarians they think I'm wierd - why would anyone want open
bibliography. Why would anyone want the catalogue of the national library.

I am now unclear what I should say in this session. I'd like positive help.

One idea is that you and your colleagues meet with us physically and we
address the issues. If you can find 4 or 5 other like-minded souls we'll
meet in a pub and thrash the issues out. But I'd like the world to know what
our views are...

> Celine
>
> --
> Céline Carty
> English Cataloguing
> Cambridge University Library
> Cambridge CB3 9DR
>
>
>
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-- 
Peter Murray-Rust
Reader in Molecular Informatics
Unilever Centre, Dep. Of Chemistry
University of Cambridge
CB2 1EW, UK
+44-1223-763069
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