On 6/16/06, Tim Spalding <tim_at_librarything.com> wrote:
> Hi I have a naive question a propos mashups. LibraryThing is starting
> to look at "hooking up" to libraries, for example providing its
> recommendations to libraries that want to show them.
>
> So, I'm talking to the tech guy at a library, and I want to get a
> complete list of all their ISBNs. And he tells me that their current
> OPAC doesn't really GIVE them access to that sort of data. With their
> "old" OPAC they could issue a standard SQL command. But now the system
> is locked up, and getting that data requires "buying an XML server."
> To get what I wanted--a list of all their ISBNs--I had to essentially
> *spider* their site.
>
> How common is this scenario?
>
> I'm guessing any discussion of "next generation" OPACs must include an
> open database engine. Am I crazy?
>
> Tim Spalding
> LibraryThing.com
>
That sounds like an Innovative Interfaces system. I'm responsible for
one of those at my library and there isn't a whole lot you can do with
it without that very expensive XML server. With it, I could completely
redesign the interface to the catalog (see the Ann Arbor Public
library's site for an example of that - http://www.aadl.org/catalog)
Without it I can pull no more than one record per request from the
database. That's stopping a lot of the ideas that I have for the
catalog. I'm taking a look at AJAX and the Amazon.com book reviews for
our full record displays, but I'm not sure it's going to work. The
server is completely locked down - no PHP/Java/ASP/etc. scripting
languages are available. It would be a real help to have access to
some sort of scripting engine to make changes and add some of the
amazing services that are available to our catalog...
--
Robin Hastings
robin.hastings_at_gmail.com
http://www.rhastings.net
Received on Sun Jun 18 2006 - 18:05:11 EDT