The Associated Press says The Library Hotel said Monday that it has not infringed on the rights of a nonprofit library cooperative that owns the Dewey Decimal system.
Craig Spitzer, general manager of the Library Hotel, said the theme was the idea of its owner, Henry Kallan, and is based on the hotel’s proximity to the famous library on Fifth Avenue.
“We do not believe that our guests or other consumers are confused into thinking that the Library Hotel’s hospitality services and the OCLC’s information services come from the same source,” Spitzer said.
The NYTimes Has A New Story as well.
So-called license fee
By the way, I asked a friend at OCLC if there was any such thing as a “$500+ annual fee” for libraries to use Dewey. No such thing. Unless you include DDC cataloging books and software….
OCLC victimized by its legal department
I can’t believe OCLC doesn’t have something better to do with its legal resources than harass a hotel that is only vaguely using the Dewey system. The room numbers begin in the 300s and go up to the 1200s. It’s been a few years since I graduated from library school and began work in a college library that uses LC classification, but I do recall that Dewey numbers don’t go above the 900s.
It made the Bob Edwards funny
The story was one of those humorous bits Bob Edwards does on NPR’s “Morning Edition” on the half-hour.