Re: [CODE4LIB] Z39.50 for III Database?
Nathan, It's totally do-able. We have a similar system in place for our subject portal (http://trilogy.brynmawr.edu/guides ). We're using the YAZ toolkit with PHP (as opposed to rails). But in the admin module, library staff search and WSYWIG edit the catalog for records to import, and they're updated daily). One thing you may need to do, however, is to have III modify your z39.50 profile to include the bibid (935) it'll make a big difference. - adam _ Tri-Colleges Systems Coordinator Bryn Mawr | Haverford | Swarthmore 610.526.5294 -Original Message- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Walker, David Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2007 11:32 AM To: CODE4LIB@listserv.nd.edu Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Z39.50 for III Database? Here is the class code for my screen scraper. Rather simple, but can be useful in certain cases. http://xerxes.calstate.edu/source/iii/InnopacWeb.zip --Dave --- David Walker Library Web Services Manager California State University http://xerxes.calstate.edu From: Code for Libraries on behalf of Godmar Back Sent: Tue 5/1/2007 3:32 PM To: CODE4LIB@listserv.nd.edu Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Z39.50 for III Database? If I may follow up on an earlier discussion [ relevant parts are included below ] regarding how to extract holdings information from III or other catalogs. I have one thing to offer and 1 thing to request. I'll start with the offering: MAJAX. MAJAX is a JavaScript library that screenscrapes III catalogs and can include the results so obtained into any document served from the same domain. URL of the current code is http://libx.org/majax/majax.html ; a demo is at http://libx.org/majax/majaxtest4.html ) After an initial, somewhat clumsy approach, we've now adopted an approach that's similar to COinS. For instance, to include holdings information for a book into a website, all you have to do is include a span class=majax-showholdings title=iX/span in your HTML, and include MAJAX via a single script element, which will result in that SPAN being replaced with the holdings of the book with ISBN XXX. Also support bibrecord number and title. It's so easy a cave librarian could do it. It can be done directly from the WebBridge management panel for those of you have are damned to use WebBridge. Of course, the underlying JavaScript API is still available for more advanced users. MAJAX has been released under the LGPL. Now for the thing to request. Are there any reusable, open source scripts out there that implements a REST interface that screenscrapes or otherwise efficiently accesses a III catalog? David and James have provided links, but no code. I would be grateful for anything I could reuse and don't have to reimplement. Here's what I envision: Interface: REST Input: search terms/type - maybe OpenURL v0.1-syntax, or another adopted standard, or something custom, but ideally simple. Output: XML - maybe Marc XML with 852 (or whatever the number is) holdings records - similar to what David's screen scrape test provides. Ideally XML that comes with a schema and validates against it. Maybe JSON like James's scripts (?) Implementation: Something that a cave librarian could deploy - good candidates are PhP and possibly Perl-based cgi, but one could conceive of others. Nothing that requires elaborate server setups or installing custom frameworks. Thank you for any pointers/suggestions you may have. - Godmar On 3/4/07, Birkin James Diana [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Mar 1, 2007, at 5:23 PM, Walker, David wrote: http://walkertr.csusm.edu/scrape/test.htm Very cool; works on our III catalog! Nathan Mealy -- I also used the screenscrape method to get info we needed for a couple of ISBN-based projects, not knowing at the time about the yaz-z39.50-OPAC option. By implementing this in the form of a web-service, I can switch the work-horse code without affecting other apps, and minimize session concerns. http://dl.lib.brown.edu/soa_services/josiah_status/examples.php http://dl.lib.brown.edu/soa_services/josiah_status/tests/ InfoHolderTest.php (The returned json info is more comprehensible via view-source.) --- Birkin James Diana Programmer, Web Services Brown University Library [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [CODE4LIB] Z39.50 for III Database?
Actually, it comes with the OPAC as far as I know. We don't have the XML server. - adam On Wed, May 02, 2007 at 02:51:04PM -0700, Bin Zhang wrote: -Original Message- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Adam Brin Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2007 2:29 PM To: CODE4LIB@listserv.nd.edu Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Z39.50 for III Database? BTW, one other solution comes to mind, III supports an XML format request from the OPAC (it has to be configured in the wwwoptions to enable, but you *should* be able to request bib's/items via: catalog_url/xrecord=b100200 catalog_url/xrecord=i102345 eg. http://tripod.brynmawr.edu/xrecord=b1005614 I believe it's III's xml (as opposed to marcXML, but it might be preferable (and easier). It's essentially a poor man's rest interface. - adam [BZ] You don't have it unless you have purchased the XML server product, right? Bin On Tue, May 01, 2007 at 06:32:02PM -0400, Godmar Back wrote: If I may follow up on an earlier discussion [ relevant parts are included below ] regarding how to extract holdings information from III or other catalogs. I have one thing to offer and 1 thing to request. I'll start with the offering: MAJAX. MAJAX is a JavaScript library that screenscrapes III catalogs and can include the results so obtained into any document served from the same domain. URL of the current code is http://libx.org/majax/majax.html ; a demo is at http://libx.org/majax/majaxtest4.html ) After an initial, somewhat clumsy approach, we've now adopted an approach that's similar to COinS. For instance, to include holdings information for a book into a website, all you have to do is include a span class=majax-showholdings title=iX/span in your HTML, and include MAJAX via a single script element, which will result in that SPAN being replaced with the holdings of the book with ISBN XXX. Also support bibrecord number and title. It's so easy a cave librarian could do it. It can be done directly from the WebBridge management panel for those of you have are damned to use WebBridge. Of course, the underlying JavaScript API is still available for more advanced users. MAJAX has been released under the LGPL. Now for the thing to request. Are there any reusable, open source scripts out there that implements a REST interface that screenscrapes or otherwise efficiently accesses a III catalog? David and James have provided links, but no code. I would be grateful for anything I could reuse and don't have to reimplement. Here's what I envision: Interface: REST Input: search terms/type - maybe OpenURL v0.1-syntax, or another adopted standard, or something custom, but ideally simple. Output: XML - maybe Marc XML with 852 (or whatever the number is) holdings records - similar to what David's screen scrape test provides. Ideally XML that comes with a schema and validates against it. Maybe JSON like James's scripts (?) Implementation: Something that a cave librarian could deploy - good candidates are PhP and possibly Perl-based cgi, but one could conceive of others. Nothing that requires elaborate server setups or installing custom frameworks. Thank you for any pointers/suggestions you may have. - Godmar On 3/4/07, Birkin James Diana [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Mar 1, 2007, at 5:23 PM, Walker, David wrote: http://walkertr.csusm.edu/scrape/test.htm Very cool; works on our III catalog! Nathan Mealy -- I also used the screenscrape method to get info we needed for a couple of ISBN-based projects, not knowing at the time about the yaz-z39.50-OPAC option. By implementing this in the form of a web-service, I can switch the work-horse code without affecting other apps, and minimize session concerns. http://dl.lib.brown.edu/soa_services/josiah_status/examples.php http://dl.lib.brown.edu/soa_services/josiah_status/tests/ InfoHolderTest.php (The returned json info is more comprehensible via view-source.) --- Birkin James Diana Programmer, Web Services Brown University Library [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [CODE4LIB] libxess
Hi Godmar, Just FYI, David's script doesn't work with all III catalogs. Z39.50 might be a slightly better option (our's, for example, seems to produce errors from his test page). I'd be willing to work with you on it, if you're up for trying to figure out why it doesn't work in our case. - adam On Tue, May 08, 2007 at 03:37:16PM -0400, Godmar Back wrote: Hi, following up on our discussion about how to extract holdings information from a III catalog, and following David's generous offer to share his code, I went ahead and started a sourceforge project: libxess. libxess is intended to bridge the gap between Library 2.0 services and legacy ILS such as III Millennium and others. See the picture at http://libxess.sourceforge.net/ It is intended to provide a simple, yet clean web interface to a set of proxy scripts which in turn handle the specific access to those legacy systems. We have an immediate if mundane use for libxess in LibX: we'd like to show people what their library holds. Although we could have included this functionality via screen-scraping into the client, we felt for various reasons that it may be better to keep this as an optional, server-side service. Our vision is that if a library installs libxess, then it can benefit from all services that are libxess-enabled. - LibX being just one of them. lnstalling libxess should be a low overhead operation, such as uploading a few php scripts to a server. Our target audience are not programmers, they're librarians who may have limited access to their ILS (*), but who usually have access to a web server and a place to run php scripts. I feel that many library-related projects, at least in as much as they interact with existing ILS, would benefit from such a facility, and, to my knowledge, there doesn't seem to be such a facility as of know. For this reason, I'd like to invite interested people to either contribute or give their input. You could contribute by, for instance, providing code for your catalog or whichever system you'd like to see supported. If so, give me your sourceforge account and I'll set you up with CVS access. Let me propose to use the sourceforge forum at http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?forum_id=693773 for discussions. A related question is what the exported interface for this service should be. Right now, there's none. David's script returns MARC-XML. I'm wondering if this may be an application for unapi (and for me finally reason to read through its spec ;-). I had also considered OpenURL v0.1, but as an outsider I really know too little about library APIs and formats, so I'd be grateful for input here. Simplicity is paramount. - Godmar (*) Keeping in mind that in some III-based libraries, you have to have reached a status that's comparable to OT4 just to gain the privilege to contact the vendor's helpdesk.
[CODE4LIB] Position Announcement -- Web Developer / Application Support Specialist
-- Apologies for Cross Posting -- Web Developer / Application Support Specialist -- The Tri-College Library Consortium seeks a creative, collaborative, and forward-thinking individual to develop online services and support digital initiatives. Reporting to the Tri-Colleges Systems and Applications Coordinator, the incumbent will be integral in the creation and implementation of technologies to improve library services. Such technologies include federated searching, streaming media, digital repositories, the library catalog, and other projects. The Libraries of Bryn Mawr, Haverford, and Swarthmore Colleges are located within 10 miles of each other in the western suburbs of Philadelphia. The position is based at Swarthmore College, but the incumbent will spend time on each campus for meetings, project work, and collaboration with library staff. Review of resumes to begin August 1st. To apply or for more information: http://trilogy.swarthmore.edu/tricojob.html Please include a cover letter, desired salary and a copy of your resume. Please send any questions to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Swarthmore College is a highly selective, liberal arts college situated on a beautiful suburban Philadelphia campus. The College offers excellent health benefits, a retirement plan, generous vacation, tuition benefits for you and your family, an on- site fitness center and many other benefits. Swarthmore College has a strong institutional commitment to excellence through diversity in its educational program and employment. The College actively seeks and welcomes applications from candidates with diverse backgrounds including those who have intercultural experience and those with demonstrable commitments to an inclusive society and world. Adam Brin _ Tri-Colleges Systems Coordinator Bryn Mawr | Haverford | Swarthmore 610.526.5294
[CODE4LIB] [Position Announcement] Tri-Colleges Web Developer
The Tri-College Library Consortium of Bryn Mawr, Haverford, and Swarthmore Colleges seeks a talented web developer to help expand its digital initiatives. The ideal candidate has strong interpersonal skills, proficiency with the LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl/PHP), and a keen interest in working in a highly-collaborative academic environment. The successful candidate will play a central role in designing, integrating, and improving services in support of library users. The Consortium's digital initiatives include the library catalog, image databases, institutional repository software, blogs, wikis, and other applications. TO APPLY: http://trilogy.brynmawr.edu/tricojob.html Adam Brin _ Tri-Colleges Systems Coordinator Bryn Mawr | Haverford | Swarthmore 610.526.5294
[CODE4LIB] z39.50 usage questions
We're doing some internal research on how our z39.50 server is being used here at the CDL. I'm curious if anyone else is keeping stats on usage? Or, if you're using z39.50 what are you using it for? We're looking at: - average usage per month - client name (as they advertise themselves to the server -- eg refworks, or yaz or INNOPAC) - percentage of usage local vs. external - percentage of use by TLD Does anyone keep track of this sort of data locally? thanks, adam ___ Adam Brin ph: (510) 987.0636fx: (510) 287.6123 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [CODE4LIB] Curious about Cell Phone Barcode Scanning Apps
I've also been doing some research into this. There are a number of toolkits out there. zxing gets most of the way there and it has an iPhone package as well (an app called barcodes). Most of them are still in the early stages. I've also seen: - http://zebra.sourceforge.net/ - http://www.bruji.com/cocoa/barcode.html - http://code.google.com/p/jjil/ JJill seems to be in the backend of a bunch of them, but i've had a lot of trouble getting it setup. I've been taking a conceptually different approach from Jonathan, focusing my thought on one platform that can showcase the app as opposed to solving the problem for all phones. - adam On May 8, 2009, at 7:47 AM, Jonathan Rochkind wrote: I started to do a just bit of web research in this. Open source barcode photo recognition software looks like it's _just_ starting to become realistically available. This was the product that looked most promissing in my web research (not sure if it's what the Android app is using): http://code.google.com/p/zxing/ My Umlaut software would be an _ideal_ end-point of barcode recognition, is why I started to look into it. Umlaut is designed specifically to meet the goal of taking a known item citation (such as an ISBN, sure), and returning a range of library availability and services for that item. http://wiki.code4lib.org/index.php/Umlaut The next step, which I haven't figured out yet, is how to get your software to participate in MMS/SMS architecture -- in particular to receive MMS/SMS messages in a way that's affordable to you and convenient to your users. (It looks like some but not all cell phones can send MMS messages to email, but not necessarily as conveniently as sending MMS to a cell number; but I'm not sure if there's a cheap way to have software receive MMS messages at a cell number. The Android app of course performs all it's processing on the Android itself, which you can do on a device-by-device basis for devices powerful enough for that; but I too am attracted to the idea of an MMS solution that would work on any MMS capable device, with no need to customize per device). I also haven't actually looked at the zxing code yet. But I'd love to have Umlaut able to receive an MMS message, and give the user back a concise list of library services/links. So many interesting projects, not enough time. Jonathan Matt Amory wrote: I'm interested in some advice on building an app to pickup barcode data through a cell phone camera and return OPAC/Library Thing/WorldCat etc. results to a mobile interface. I know that Android has a UPC barcode reader linked to a shopping app, and I'm wondering if this can be used or repurposed, or if there's a better place to begin. Thanks! ___ Adam Brin ph: (510) 987.0636fx: (510) 287.6123 adam.b...@ucop.edu
[CODE4LIB] OCLC websites down -- power failure
FYI, All of OCLC's web presence has been down for a few hours now due to a major power failure. This includes OCLC's website, worldcat.org, and worldcat local. OCLC is not sure when these and other services will be back up. - adam
