@mike the best part is that OCLC replies, and that reply is dripping with honey-coated spin/lies. I went with Brewster to OCLC when he went to negotiate for their bib data. On arrival I was shunted off to another room until the day was over. They didn’t want me letting him know how badly they were lying. It was astonishing!

@kcoyle Ugh. Part of the problem is emotional inertia. Long-time librarians remember when OCLC provided a service instead of a protection racket, and can't find it in themselves to quite believe they have gone SO off the rails. Even new librarians are fundamentally nice people and like to think the best of others. But they all need to take the blinkers off.

@mike I think most librarians understand the OCLC problem. But there is indeed a need for a shared database of library holdings to function for inter-library loan, and to make certain purchasing decisions. Had OCLC not purchased every other service (WLN, RLG...) libraries would have options. It's a monopoly even more than Google is. Anyone who tries to compete is sued (III, Alma).