[Wactclc-primo] Quick Friday afternoon survey

[Thomas, Kirsti]

We dropped our FirstSearch subscription in 2017.

FWIW, you’ll want to find out if your library has its FirstSearch subscription through the “Washington OCLC Group Services” contract brokered by the Washington State Library.  If so, you may not be able to cancel your FirstSearch subscription without impacting your other OCLC service subscriptions.

We’re looking into ILL software and I contacted Will Stuivenga at the WSL this past May with some related questions about the Washington OCLC Group Services deal. Will provided some background:

We set up Washington OCLC Group Services quite a few years ago (2008, originally) as part of a project to create a statewide catalog, which was called “Wayfinder.” OCLC categorized that service as a “group catalog” and at the time anyway, they would only sell a group catalog to a group of libraries, so we created Washington Group Services for that purpose. Many libraries including 23 of the CTCs, joined the group at the time. To be a member of the group, a library needed to buy 3 services from OCLC through the group:

  *   Unlimited Cataloging
  *   Unlimited ILL
  *   A WorldCat subscription, currently called WorldCat Discovery.

For whatever reason, the Seattle Colleges didn’t choose to join the group, I’m assuming because they didn’t see the need to purchase those additional services at that time.

One thing worth mentioning: OCLC did NOT consider the group purchase of Cataloging and ILL to be a discount program, but rather, aimed for a “break even” approach to costs for those services through the group. However, they did provide what they called “economies of scale” for the WorldCat subscription piece. So there were some savings there.

Historically, we had hoped that the statewide catalog might lead to further developments, such as a statewide library card, but I’m sure you recall what else happened in 2008. The launch of Wayfinder, the Catalog of Washington Libraries, coincided almost exactly with the big recession that swept the country at that time, and so there was no possibility of obtaining additional funding to take the project to the next level. 5 years later, the use of the statewide catalog did not justify the cost, which was being paid with federal LSTA funds, and we canceled that service. However, OCLC has left the public version of the catalog, available online at https://wayfinder.worldcat.org/<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwayfinder.worldcat.org%2F&data=02%7C01%7C%7C58105e0c6bc9433ee39008d6dd485c22%7C02d8ff38d7114e31a9156cb5cff788df%7C0%7C0%7C636939700192704869&sdata=CZ5vHJ%2FOO4mzQvhgsXYPtoADmecRPfxsp0hQKDd4RGQ%3D&reserved=0>, up and running for whatever reasons, just without the Wayfinder and State Library branding.

Nevertheless, Washington Group Services has continued to function without the statewide catalog, and when we recently assessed the service, meeting with our OCLC representative, and looking into the possibility of dissolving the group, it turned out that at least some libraries WERE saving considerable amounts through their participation in the group, and that dissolving the group would be counter-productive. So we are maintaining the group for now. And in some cases, we have found that libraries get better pricing through the group than they do working with OCLC on a standalone basis.



Kirsti S. Thomas
Library Technical Services Manager
Seattle Colleges
kirsti.thomas at seattlecolleges.edu



From: Wactclc-primo <wactclc-primo-bounces at lists.ctc.edu> On Behalf Of Lesley Caldwell
Sent: Friday, October 4, 2019 14:43
To: WACTCLC Primo discussions <wactclc-primo at lists.ctc.edu>
Subject: [Wactclc-primo] Quick Friday afternoon survey

Does your institution subscribe to OCLC FirstSearch?

Pierce discontinued our subscription in 2015/2016 (mostly likely in association with moving to Alma) and now we are reconsidering.

Thanks!
Lesley

Lesley Caldwell
Systems and Instruction Librarian
Pierce College
p:
253-840-8420
a:
1601 39th Ave SE, Puyallup, WA 98374
w:
www.pierce.ctc.edu<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pierce.ctc.edu&data=02%7C01%7C%7Ce907e41ab71245e17b4808d74913dc36%7C02d8ff38d7114e31a9156cb5cff788df%7C0%7C0%7C637058221959322975&sdata=xEbfRlHEx0Gog%2BL%2BEoEg4MguTA460arTuC6dL18pk6k%3D&reserved=0> e: LCaldwell at pierce.ctc.edu<mailto:LCaldwell at pierce.ctc.edu>
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TOP 5 Community College in the Nation
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