Open sharing of data has often collided with issues of ownership and licensing. Nobody does more of a balancing act than librarians, who work to provide materials freely to patrons and other libraries while protecting owners’ rights. LibLime (www.liblime.com), an upstart company that has provided open source software solutions for libraries for several years (best known for its Koha ILS), has made its move to the next frontier of openness—providing open data and open library content. In 2008, LibLime introduced ‡biblios (http://biblios.org), an open source, web-based metadata tool for libraries, and it has just launched ‡biblios.net, a free, browser-based cataloging service with a data archive containing more than 30 million bibliographic and authority records. Records are licensed under the Open Data Commons (www.opendatacommons.com), making the service the world’s largest repository of freely licensed library records. Moves like this by LibLime and other open source and open data providers, such as U.K.-based Talis (www.talis.com), clearly have the potential to shake up some competitors, notably OCLC.
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