Could someone please explain........?
I had an e-mail this morning from the Bib Services Officer of a library authority that shall remain nameless. It ran along the lines of:
As we keep receiving requests from Talis Source for items from our catalogue, I request that XXXXXXXXX' data is removed asap. We will respond politely, declining to loan for the remainder of this month.
Question:
Why is this authority refusing to service requests from a large proportion of libraries just because of the system they are choosing to use? Is that really the point we have reached?
I can recall in the days of UnityWeb and V3, that some libraries used both systems and therefore contributed to both systems, and nobody called upon those libraries to nail their colours to the mast and come down on one side, but this is clearly what this library expects.
Let's not lose track of why Talis Source and other services are there, to enable libraries to satisfy the demands of their users, through a network of interlending that is self-sustaining. So, why try to scupper the efforts of some libraries by withdrawing your data, just because you don't like their preferred service provider? If we take that rationale to its natural conclusion we end up with one system and one supplier, which strikes me as a very difficult scenario for libraries to potentially find themselves in.
We take the opposite view, that actually you should be making your data accessible in numerous ways and in numerous places. Which is why your data is not being contributed to Talis Source, the application. Its being contributed to a Platform, which other ILL applications will be able to use. So, is that library really going to object to making their holdings accessible to an ILL application developed by their own LMS provider, for instance? We'll see.