A Draft Letter to the New Librarian of Congress about Freeing Bibliographic Metadata the Library Collects and Charges for – Medium
lkfitz's bookmarks 2016-09-25
Summary:
"The following is a draft letter to the new Library of Congress, who was sworn in today. Her predecessor was not, shall we say, known for his technical acumen; Dr. Hayden was hired in part because of it. The LOC runs a department that charges substantial fees to deliver (via FTP!) bibliographic metadata—the list of authors, page counts, formats, and numerous other items—that already belongs to the public, because it’s created by government employees.
I believe these fees remain in place for historical reasons, not to serve any current purpose of the library, although there may be objections from data providers who resell or incorporate the information."