On 5/11/2010 4:07 PM, George Oates wrote: > We looked into this, and discovered that it's possible to get Z39.50 access to > Open Library records via biblios.net: > > http://www.liblime.com/documentation/faq/faqsection_view?section=Cataloging > (scroll to the bottom)
Without having taken the time to fully explore the ‡biblios.net site, I read this FAQ as saying: 1. ‡biblios has a library catalog database. 2. The ‡biblios database is accessible via z39.50. 3. Some of the records in the ‡biblios database were derived from data obtained from OpenLibrary. I conclude that anyone interested in z39.50 access should go to ‡biblios.net directly, and completely forego trying harvest OpenLibrary data (this is consistent with OpenLibrary's stated goal of providing support for web users, not librarians). [snip] > > Which begs the question, what /is/ the mission and goal of the OL > project? > >> We are building an open, editable database of books. Actually, you're building an open, editable set of data records of metadata /about/ books. The books themselves, whether as physical artifacts or as electronic documents, are stored elsewhere; the OpenLibrary records sometimes contains a reference to that "elsewhere," but most of the time does not. Now you might think that this is a quibble, but when you're dealing with automated data processing, precision and clarity of language is an absolute requirement. No doubt you have seen more than one message asking, à la Clara Peller, "Where's the book?" These kind of questions are a direct result of using imprecise language. >> You've all read the tag lines like "A page on the web for every book," and "a >> Wikipedia for books" - these are other descriptors of the project. Indeed; and I'm no more enlightened about the mission and goals of the OpenLibrary project than I was before. > > So I ask again, who are the intended consumers of OpenLibrary catalog > > data?, what is the intended use for OpenLibrary catalog data?, and how > > well does the current interface address the documented intended use? > > Even back as far as November 2008, it was Aaron Swartz who said "Our primary > audience isn't librarians, it's web users and developers. We're not out to > replace OCLC. We decided that we should import the data that's most important > to > them and keep links back to the original MARC for the librarians." OK, question #1 is answered: "patrons" who want to consume the data via a web interface, are supported; "librarians," or "patrons" who want to consume the data other than via a web interface, are not supported. The "developer" category is ambiguous; I assume that developers supporting "patrons," and are willing to consume the data via a web (HTTP) API are supported, but developers supporting "librarians" are not. Have I mis-stated anything? Now, question #2: What is the intended or anticipated use for the OpenLibrary catalog data by the "web users?" Just curiosity (I wonder how many books Mark Twain actually wrote)? A method to find a book (where can I find a copy of _Huckleberry Finn_)? Academic research (what is the proper way to cite _Huckleberry Finn_ with all appropriate metadata)? Support for true online libraries (I have an archive of electronic documents, and rather than maintaining metadata for each of them I want to "outsource" that task to OpenLibrary)? Can you build (or have you built) one or more use cases illustrating how you anticipate OpenLibrary data being used? Finally, question #3: How well does the current web interface (including HTTP-based APIs) address the intended or anticipated uses that are the results of the answers to question #2? Of course, there's no way to answer that question without answering question #2 first, so let's focus on that for the time being; don't worry, I'll revive question #3 later, when it seem appropriate. So perhaps I ought to pose the question to the list at-large: If you are an end-user or a developer supporting end-users (librarians or developers supporting libraries need not reply), how do you use the web interfaces provided by OpenLibrary? _______________________________________________ Ol-tech mailing list [email protected] http://mail.archive.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ol-tech To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send email to [email protected]
