I use web scraping sometimes to extract data from systems that lack APIs.
I'm doing this to get current library job openings from our University jobs
application, for instance. I use the structure of their website in a way
similar to an API query, scrape the results, and extract only what I need.
I jokingly call it a FIFIO API (Fine, I'll Figure It Out). Obviously, such
a tool is inherently unstable, and has to be closely managed. When used
with things like the jobs application, which maintain a relatively stable
uri structure over time, however, it can be a pretty good tool when you
have nothing else. I also used screen scraping as part of a tool I built
years ago to allow authorized staff to create announcements within a
special libguide that they then pushed to the EZ Proxy login page. I wrote
a book chapter on that one: "Leveraging LibGuides as an EZProxy
Notifications Interface." Innovative Libguides Applications: Real World
Examples. New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016
Best regards,
*Jason Bengtson*
*http://www.jasonbengtson.com/ <http://www.jasonbengtson.com/>*
On Tue, Nov 28, 2017 at 12:24 PM, Brad Coffield <bcoffield.library_at_gmail.com
> wrote:
> I think there's likely a lot of possibilities out there and was hoping to
> hear examples of web scraping for libraries. Your example might just
> inspire me or another reader to do something similar. At the very least,
> the ideas will be interesting!
>
> Brad
>
>
> --
> Brad Coffield, MLIS
> Assistant Information and Web Services Librarian
> Saint Francis University
> 814-472-3315
> bcoffield_at_francis.edu
>
Received on Tue Nov 28 2017 - 14:00:46 EST