JEFFREY BEALL: OCLC: A Review p. 85-93

From the opening paragraph: “…I aspire to the high road: objective analysis, keeping in mind that the word radical is in this book’s title.” (p. 85). While I’m not a huge fan of OCLC myself these days, this chapter offers very little by way of objective analysis. It is more of a curmudgeonly rant. Offering little or no compelling evidence, Beall alleges that:

1. OCLC is more interested in hiring MBAs that MLSs
2. OCLC’s primary mission is to “separate libraries from their money” (p. 87)
3. The launch of the Connexion Client software was a complete fiasco that lasted several years
4. OCLC does not provide sufficient incentive (or support) for libraries to upgrade records in WorldCat, leading to a serious degradation of quality in the database
5. OCLC Research is little more than a propaganda machine.

The only one of his allegations that I tend to agree with is 4. The lack of credible evidence and the overall belligerent tone of this essay makes any criticisms Beall levels, regardless of their validity, excessively easy to dismiss. How does this help solve the very real problems that catalogers face today?

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