OCLC Buys Openly Informatics

It’s buyin’ time again for OCLC: in the latest in a string of purchases, the cataloging Goliath has acquired the assets of Openly Informatics, a supplier of linking tools for the library market, for an undisclosed sum. This recent purchase, along with past buys of NetLibrary, OCLC PICA, its European operation, and Fretwell-Downing’s Informatics (InfoTech, LJ 12/05, p. 32), confirms OCLC’s aggressiveness in acquisitions and means that the nonprofit firm will be able to provide more digital products and services to its members.

Mike Teets, VP, OCLC Global Product Architecture, told LJ that the company wanted Openly Informatics because it had “developed a top market-tested database—or knowledge base—of electronic resources, which complements WorldCat well. OCLC provides structure and stability to help Openly grow and improve its services.”

Sales to vendors

Although it overlaps services like link resolvers and journal management, Openly Informatics, Teets said, is in a different position because it licenses metadata and software “to commercial vendors, which build services around these resources. Other companies in the knowledge base and/or resolution services space largely market directly to institutions.” OCLC contends that the integration of WorldCat and the Openly Informatics knowledge base provides its member libraries and their patrons with an integrated, authoritative, and comprehensive directory of their physical and digital collections.

“Libraries will be able to contribute their licensed electronic collections to WorldCat, which will increase the exposure and use of these collections to their patrons through their local OPAC, through services offered by OCLC’s partners, and, of course, through OCLC FirstSearch and Open WorldCat.” Teets further believes that the integration of the Openly Informatics knowledge base into WorldCat will improve library workflow by highlighting digital collections in WorldCat Resource Sharing and WorldCat Collection Analysis.

Openly operations

The new division will operate as OCLC Openly Informatics, with founder and president Eric Hellman serving as director. OCLC is incorporating Openly Informatics’ 1.2 million–record database of linking metadata for electronic resources into WorldCat, which will expand its incorporated services such as FirstSearch WorldCat, WorldCat Resource Sharing, WorldCat Collection Analysis, and Open WorldCat. OCLC also will pump up the Openly Informatics database by injecting it with metadata from ebooks, digital audiobooks, and digital theses and dissertations.

When asked about future acquisitions, Teets replied that although nothing is imminent, “OCLC is always looking for opportunities.” No doubt.