Linux Journal is one of the few magazine subscriptions I’ve kept. However, there’s also a lot of free content on the site. So I was pleased to see a recent blog post on LinuxJournal.com about open source and libraries.
The post is based on Aaron Swartz’s rant against OCLC and WorldCat. It is, however, a valid rant. Libraries have tolerated OCLC’s “less than open” practices because there wasn’t much alternative. Now that open alternatives such as Open Library and ‡biblios.net are growing, it will be interesting to see what happens. With the growing popularity of open source in libraries, having open records and open cataloging will be very important.
