[Wactclc-alma] FW: Introducing MetaDoor -from Ex Libris/ProQuest

Fri Mar 11 13:02:43 PST 2022

I  was wondering about how SkyRiver might be playing into this myself, and whether ProQuest might be making any plans for Ex Libris to ingest SkyRiver bib records into the Alma Community Zone.

FWIW, SkyRiver was, in some ways, a vanity project (IMHO) of III founder and owner Jerry Kline.

I got the impression from discussions at annual III Users Group conferences during this time that Kline created SkyRiver specifically to have legal standing to sue OCLC, possibly because he saw OCLC's development of their own ILS platforms (WorldCat Local & WorldCat Navigator) as a threat to his III Millennium and INNReach products.

Back in 2008(?), OCLC issued some kind of policy placing use restrictions, not just on the WorldCat database as an entity, but on all the individual records within the database.  IIRC, this was in response to the development of tools using the ISO Z39.50 standard that allowed sharing and harvesting of bib records from individual library OPACs. OCLC executives saw this as a threat to the company.

The cataloging world immediately rose up en masse against this, with many pointing out that records created by the libraries of any federal agencies were automatically public domain works under federal copyright law and therefore OCLC couldn’t claim ownership and place use restrictions on those records. Other libraries pointed out that since they had created individual records, not OCLC staff, they owned any copyrights on the intellectual work and they had certainly never agreed to waive those rights with their OCLC membership.

The OCLC execs walked back the original policy in the face of the huge outcry. They still ended up with a policy that kept most of the records walled off from use by outside entities.  See this blog post from MARCEdit creator, Terry Reese:
https://blog.reeset.net/archives/827

It was around this time that SkyRiver filed their lawsuit against OCLC.

III owner Jerry Kline launched Skyriver in Oct. 2009 and filed the antitrust lawsuit against OCLC less than a year later. Three years later, the owner sold his interest in both companies to a private equity firm, at which point III absorbed Skyriver and dropped the lawsuit.

To me this lends credence to claims that SkyRiver was never truly intended as an alternative to OCLC's WorldCat database and was just a tool for trying to damage a competitor. There was also some evidence that SkyRiver had built up their database by harvesting records directly from different libraries with z39.50-compliant OPACs (without their knowledge or consent) and stripping out any OCLC control numbers.

That said, one of the things I've seen from Ex Libris since the beginning is an emphasis building systems that follow open data standards, and on making it possible to get data into and out of the system.  Ex Libris was one of the first vendors (if not the first) to publish online documentation on publicly-accessible websites instead of requiring password access for paid customers only.

Given some of the Open Data and Open Access standards work that Ex Libris participates in, I have every reason to believe that they genuinely do support Open Data sharing and see MetaDoor as a tool for that (with the added benefit for them of driving more customers to the Alma-Primo platform).

It will be ok!

Kirsti S. Thomas
Library Technical Services Manager
Seattle Colleges
kirsti.thomas at seattlecolleges.edu<mailto:kirsti.thomas at seattlecolleges.edu>

From: Wactclc-alma <wactclc-alma-bounces at lists.ctc.edu> On Behalf Of Guidry, Wade
Sent: Thursday, March 10, 2022 16:41
To: WACTCLC Alma Discussion <wactclc-alma at lists.ctc.edu>
Subject: Re: [Wactclc-alma] FW: Introducing MetaDoor -from Ex Libris/ProQuest

I guess ProQuest read my bullet point idea about an “OCLC-less library” 😊

Just to add, Innovative Interfaces (now a part of ProQuest, which is now owned by Clarivate) has had their own shared bibliographic repository for many years, currently called SkyRiver: Library Database Management | Library Metadata Management | iii.com<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.iii.com%2Fproducts%2Fskyriver%2F&data=04%7C01%7C%7C99958453ba4147d9fb8308da02f7d951%7C02d8ff38d7114e31a9156cb5cff788df%7C0%7C0%7C637825560914620468%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=OmFUTW3SI3eKRq5Na7EfWCMugc0qncnLLPbn6BJMidk%3D&reserved=0>

Metadoor could be a repackaging of SkyRiver for ProQuest customers, or is somehow related.

I believe SkyRiver is an separately licensed III offering. So Metadoor could be a gateway drug into additional pay-to-use metadata.

But all just a guess.

Wade Guidry
Library Consortium Services Manager, WACTCLC
wadeg at bigbend.edu<mailto:wadeg at bigbend.edu>
(509) 760-4474
http://www.wactclc.org<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wactclc.org%2F&data=04%7C01%7C%7C99958453ba4147d9fb8308da02f7d951%7C02d8ff38d7114e31a9156cb5cff788df%7C0%7C0%7C637825560914620468%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=qxJB7BlA0iadlKgrc245PDJvxCOL5R%2FM3L0zZoFumyg%3D&reserved=0>

From: Wactclc-alma <wactclc-alma-bounces at lists.ctc.edu<mailto:wactclc-alma-bounces at lists.ctc.edu>> On Behalf Of Thomas, Kirsti
Sent: Thursday, March 10, 2022 4:04 PM
To: WACTCLC Alma Discussion <wactclc-alma at lists.ctc.edu<mailto:wactclc-alma at lists.ctc.edu>>
Subject: Re: [Wactclc-alma] FW: Introducing MetaDoor -from Ex Libris/ProQuest

CAUTION: Originated outside our network. Do not click links or open attachments unless you validate the sender.

Amy,

I also get the impression from the flyer that the product is in competition with OCLC WorldCat.

Looking at the Consent form, it does operate on a slightly different model than WorldCat.

Instead of having a central database where records are stored, it functions more like the old Z39.50 tools where you could search for a record in another library's ILS and download a copy into your own system, and vice versa.

It looks like it only works for Alma customers at this point.  OCLC WorldCat is ILS-neutral.

There's also a potential catch for participating libraries who are also OCLC members-- while we have the right to do what we like with bibliographic records created by our own individual institutions (especially since the CTC libraries are all state agencies and the individual records we create probably count as public domain works), we may not have the right to share bibliographic records we got from WorldCat that were created by *other* libraries.

See WorldCat Rights and Responsibilities for the OCLC Cooperative policy:
https://www.oclc.org/en/worldcat/cooperative-quality/policy.html<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.oclc.org%2Fen%2Fworldcat%2Fcooperative-quality%2Fpolicy.html&data=04%7C01%7C%7C99958453ba4147d9fb8308da02f7d951%7C02d8ff38d7114e31a9156cb5cff788df%7C0%7C0%7C637825560914620468%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=5%2FZgr9eT5j4BL9m%2FFayFkScdUW4wkFQkdRMvYc9J678%3D&reserved=0>

Out of the roughly 5000 volumes we purchase every year, only 2-3 have original catalog records that we create ourselves.

Trying to identify which records in our Alma system are eligible for sharing sounds to me like a lot of work for not much direct benefit at this point it time.

It will be ok!

Kirsti S. Thomas
Library Technical Services Manager
Seattle Colleges
kirsti.thomas at seattlecolleges.edu<mailto:kirsti.thomas at seattlecolleges.edu>

From: Wactclc-alma <wactclc-alma-bounces at lists.ctc.edu<mailto:wactclc-alma-bounces at lists.ctc.edu>> On Behalf Of Herman, Amy
Sent: Thursday, March 10, 2022 12:40
To: WACTCLC Alma Discussion <wactclc-alma at lists.ctc.edu<mailto:wactclc-alma at lists.ctc.edu>>
Subject: [Wactclc-alma] FW: Introducing MetaDoor -from Ex Libris/ProQuest

Direct from our ProQuest rep… I assume others also got this email but in case you didn’t.  This is the first I’ve heard of it. Is this a run at competing with OCLC??

Amy Herman
Library Faculty | Olympic College
1600 Chester Avenue | Bremerton, WA 98337
aherman at olympic.edu<mailto:aherman at olympic.edu> | 360-475-7256

From: Dana Ouellette <Dana.Ouellette at proquest.com<mailto:Dana.Ouellette at proquest.com>>
Sent: Thursday, March 10, 2022 11:14 AM
To: Herman, Amy <aherman at olympic.edu<mailto:aherman at olympic.edu>>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] - Introducing MetaDoor -from Ex Libris/ProQuest

CAUTION: This email came from a non-OC system or external source. Beware of phishing and social engineering!

Hello Amy,
As an Alma customer, you may be interested in knowing about MetaDoor! MetaDoor is Ex Libris' new open metadata platform which is designed to streamline and simplify library metadata workflows. MetaDoor will enable shared metadata for catalogers around the world and ultimately move us to the Linked Data future that you expect. Learn more from the attached PDF. If you would be willing to share your bibliographic records, then review the attached Word doc. If you have questions or for more information, contact MetaDoor_info at exlibrisgroup.com<mailto:MetaDoor_info at exlibrisgroup.com>.
+++

Feel free to use if you don’t want to recreate the wheel.

Have a great day!

Best,

Dana

Dana Ouellette
Account Manager, Community Colleges & Special Markets

T (734) 997-6850
E: dana.ouellette at proquest.com<mailto:dana.ouellette at proquest.com>

proquest.com<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fabout.proquest.com%2Fen%2F&data=04%7C01%7C%7C99958453ba4147d9fb8308da02f7d951%7C02d8ff38d7114e31a9156cb5cff788df%7C0%7C0%7C637825560914620468%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=RAL2acj%2FbClQsRmouvm0R7q%2BVIyyH0MqforY0Uxedik%3D&reserved=0>
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