[Koha] [Koha-devel] The Potential Death of Koha in Pennsylvania Libraries

[MJ Ray]

Weinheimer Jim wrote:
> In this vein, you may be interested in a new OCLC report: "Research
> Libraries, Risk and Systemic Change"
> http://www.oclc.org/research/news/2010-03-25.htm which is not just
> about research libraries.
[...]
> Their solution of a shared infrastructure would seem to mirror your
> case in Pennsylvania. While I understand such a conclusion, the
> upshot of if seems to be "we sink or swim together." I think that
> instead of having everyone crowd into the same lifeboat, it would be
> just as logical to foster individual initiatives, while making sure
> everyone shared their work.

Not only would it be logical, it would be a very cooperative-minded
approach!  I cannot believe that our fellow cooperative OCLC would
mean to promote a shared infrastructure that did not also allow for
autonomy and independence of libraries (cooperative principle 4).

That's not to say that a state government wouldn't interpret it in a
way that denied library autonomy, though, so that probably doesn't do
us any good.  If anyone finds out for sure OCLC's thinking is
informing them, maybe OCLC would comment in favour of autonomy if
asked.

By the way, are there any OCLC members on the list who could ask them
what a worker co-op has to do to get an answer from their membership
enquiries department?  We last asked about two months ago.

Good luck,
-- 
MJ Ray (slef)  Webmaster and LMS developer at     | software
www.software.coop http://mjr.towers.org.uk        |  .... co
IMO only: see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html |  .... op