Editor's note: Michael Maben, Cataloging Librarian at Indiana University-Bloomington Law Library takes us inside the OCLC world. His OCLC/WLN column for this is an example of good reporting that gives us a look into the workings of one of the biggest players in the technical services world.

There have been several developments with OCLC that I would like to discuss in my column for the December issue of Technical Services Law Librarian, including a conversation I had with the executive vice president and chief operating office of OCLC.

OCLC and Oracle

On July 17th, OCLC issued a press release announcing their decision to adopt Oracle database technology as the new platform for WorldCat. Jay Jordan actually announced this decision at the President's luncheon at ALA in June, and he discussed the decision in his column in the OCLC Newsletter, July/August 2001. This is a significant decision for OCLC. They will be discontinuing their proprietary software that has powered the database since its inception, and replacing it with an "off-the-shelf" software.

On October 17th I had the opportunity to chat with Don Muccino of OCLC about this decision. Mr. Muccino is OCLC's executive vice president and chief operating officer. He is the individual in charge of the day-to-day operations at OCLC. He graciously took time out of his busy schedule to talk to me about the decision to adopt the Oracle database technology. He was clearly very excited about the change, and had many good things to tell me. I prefaced the conversation by telling him about the OCLC Committee and how the majority of us use OCLC for cataloging, acquisitions, and interlibrary loan, mostly in an academic setting. I told him that my main reason for wanting to talk to him was to address how this change was going to affect the way we do our work. After talking to Mr. Muccino, reading the various press releases and columns, and viewing the President's luncheon from ALA on videotape, it is apparent that OCLC's switch from proprietary software to Oracle is going to be eclipsed by much more dramatic changes. Mr. [...continued]