Re: RE: searching the nlm catalog

Am 20.03.2006 06:47:42 schrieb(en) John Vu:
> Bernhard Kleine wrote:
> >I wonder whether other public libraries will also be
> >searchable by pybliographer, e.g. the nlm catalogue of books
> >which would make addition of books to bibtex file  
> much >sweeter
> 
> Bernhard, years ago I did try to get pybliographer to import
> MARC data  from Z3950 connections to public libraries using  
> this:  http://zoom.z3950.org/misc/zoo.html#4

I regret that it takes so long -- I remember your work well and  
since then Z39.50 support is on my agenda, and my interest is  
greater than ever as my local library, quite uncommon in  
Germany, provides for Z39.50 access.; but surely I am the  
slowest programmer of the world.

I wish to add some clarifications.

(i) ZOOM, the Z39.50 library of choice, which you, John,  
discovered, covers mostly the request side, but there remain  
still some crucial additions to perform:
  * configuring the connection
  * interfacing the query dialogue
  * reading the results

(ii) For a connection we have to know host, port, databse,  
password etc. as well as the list of fields that are searchable.

(iiI) Supposedly, one would wish tu hide some of the low-level  
details from the user, but I have no idea how to organise this  
interface between the generic and the database specific code.

(iv) With regard to the parsing (reading) of the results, the  
problem is one of embarrassment of the riches. MARC data are so  
rich and of so good quality that one would like to exploit them  
more thorougly than by  taking but author and title.

But I repeat, it is a pity that we did not more in this  
direction; ashes on my head.

On the other hand there seems to be a growing inteerst in  
pybliographer, and that will certainly strengthen our efforts.

One final point.  Contrary to what you seem to believe, MARC  
data are standardised to a very high degree, much more so than  
any other class of data. That is one of the reasons why it is  
such a pleasure to have them.  The files you mention contain (at  
least for the z39.50 connections) only connection data, in  
marked contrast to the data needed to describe most other data  
sources.

Regards,

	Peter



-------------------------------------------------------
This SF.Net email is sponsored by xPML, a groundbreaking scripting language
that extends applications into web and mobile media. Attend the live webcast
and join the prime developer group breaking into this new coding territory!
http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnk&kid0944&bid$1720&dat1642