On 2/25/2013 7:02 PM, David Cuenca wrote: > Hi Apostolis, Almira and others, > > The idea would be to have a software (or a bot) that would scan often > Wikisource for books and finished transcriptions (we would set up an easy > system for that) and the software would place links in the OpenLibrary > pages automatically. > > Do you think it is technically feasible?
Yes, but ... (the devil is in the details). If you have a library (Open Library is /not/ a library, it is only an online catalog) how do you relate an item in your library with a catalog entry in OL? Probably what you would want is not a 'bot that places links in OL, but a 'bot that actually creates entire new catalog entries in OL, and which references the edition your organization has created. I don't know how you would link the new edition record to an existing work record, but I presume there is some sort of automated process that does this. OL has a feature where, when doing a search, you can "show only eBooks." The last time I looked this option did not mean "show only eBooks," it meant "show only eBooks which are hosted in a particular section of Internet Archive." (Even though most Project Gutenberg e-texts are hosted at Internet Archive they still do not appear when you select "show only eBooks.") So, adding entries (or links) to OL is only the first step in the process. What you need is to extend the OL schema so that it can record an entry as being related to an eBook /outside of the Internet Archive/ and then to modify the internal search logic to include those records when "show only eBooks" is selected. I seem to recall hearing an argument that allowing links to resources outside of IA would allow people to build links to pirated works on the web, which is obviously objectionable, but given OL's other practices it seems that this is straining at gnats while swallowing camels. Given the fact that OL is not a community project, and OL has been pretty much stripped of its engineering resources of late, I don't see any way you're going to get anything more than just the ability to add records with non-actionable links to your site somewhere in the record (be sure to identify your organization as the publisher, or no one will be able to find your record). An alternative would be to grab the OL software from Github and fire up a working copy of OL on your own hardware, and then populate the database with your own data. You could then modify the code to do what /you/ want it to do and then offer that modified code back to OL. Not the most efficient way to accomplish your goals, but perhaps the most practical. _______________________________________________ Ol-discuss mailing list Ol-discuss@archive.org http://mail.archive.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ol-discuss To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send email to ol-discuss-unsubscr...@archive.org
