Call to Action!

The free flow of information is again being threatened by capitalism. As if librarians don't have enough to worry about from copyright and its ever-expanding legislature, the OCLC (the Online Computer Library Center) is adding to the fire. The OCLC started out as a way for librarians to share information and to ease cataloging woes. Founded by librarians but recently turned over to entrepreneurs, the OCLC is taking advantage of being one of the few companies to provide these services. It boasts a very impressive catalog and has worked to make itself indespensible to libraries all over the country. Now, however, its policy changes are hurting libraries through its ridiculously high search fees and by pressuring libraries into using its services completely. Read more about this at Aaron Swartz' blog at http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/oclcscam and sign the petition if you feel this is wrong. Libraries already work so hard on ever-tightening bugdets to try to provide American citizens the access they deserve to information they need.