2009/3/4 Adrian Pohl <pohl_at_hbz-nrw.de>:
> B.Eversberg wrote:
>>WorldCat's results can
>> of course not be processed by software for any meaningful results.
>
> That might be right for requesting html-pages but isn't when you do a search via the WorldCat-Search-API, which - of course - is not open and delivers MARC XML, Dublin Core, RSS or Atom responses. See http://worldcat.org/devnet/wiki/SearchAPIDetails
>
> I'm very curious: Are there catalogs with similar APIs which are open to everyone?
Yes, indeed. Take a look at the Evergreen open source library system
(http://open-ils.org), which follows the unAPI specification
(http://unAPI.info) for offering alternative representations of the
underlying MARC21 records in MARC21XML, several flavours of Dublin
Core, MODS, HTML, RSS, and Atom.
Here's the unAPI list of supported formats for record # 198793:
http://demo.gapines.org/opac/extras/unapi?id=tag:demo.gapines.org,2009:biblio-record_entry/198793/PINES&format=
Pick a format and you'll get the record back in that format; let's say MODS 3.2:
http://demo.gapines.org/opac/extras/unapi?id=tag:demo.gapines.org,2009:biblio-record_entry/198793/PINES&format=mods32
Nice and open.
--
Dan Scott
Laurentian University
Received on Sat Mar 07 2009 - 14:38:58 EST