[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Covers and ISBNs

[Ian Bays]

Hi Ben, Brian et al,

We came across this when trying to show images from Amazon.  We know 
from experience that Amazon mostly only responds to 10-digit ISBNs as 
the Amazon ID matched the 10-digit ISBN.  Amazon's line has always been 
that they provide images keyed on their Amazon ID.

When loading data there are 10-digit and 13-digit ISBNs often in no 
particular order.  So we found the script in Evergreen that forms the 
URL for the image from Amazon and test if the ISBN is 13-digits, and if 
so convert it using Business::ISBN perl module to be a 10-digit ISBN.  
So no messing with the data in bib at all.  Seems to work well.

On our system the script to change is:
/openils/lib/perl5/OpenILS/WWW/AddedContent/Amazon.pm

We're happy to share - it's just a few lines.  Maybe this should be on 
the DEV list?

Also we noticed that if your ISBNs have hyphens in them then the ISBN 
only comes through as the digits up to the first hyphen (in our case 
usually "0").  We do get lots of cataloguers who believe ISBNs should 
have hyphens.  So we are weighing up removing hyphens in data conversion 
versus finding the code that writes the ISBN field and getting it to 
skip/ignore hyphens.  Should make it look real pretty!

All the best.

Ian

On 06/10/2011 18:56, Ben Shum wrote:
> Hi Brian,
>
> As far as I know, the first ISBN entry of a record will always be used 
> to retrieve added content images.  I'm not familiar with any 
> workarounds other than editing the records to order the information in 
> them accordingly, but maybe someone is working on this?  Otherwise, I 
> think that'd be a useful feature to have in the future.
>
> -- Ben
>
> On 10/6/2011 1:17 PM, Brian Greene wrote:
>> In many cases covers won't display in our OPAC if the 13-digit ISBN 
>> is above the 10-digit ISBN in the bib record. If I switch the order 
>> of the ISBNs so that the 10-digit one is first then the cover 
>> displays. This is the case most of the time, although I have come 
>> across instances where the 13-digit ISBN displays the cover properly. 
>> Does anyone know of a fix for this? Is there a setting we can 
>> change to use a second ISBN if the first one doesn't retrieve a 
>> cover? We're running 2.1.
>> Thanks,
>> Brian Greene, Library Director
>> Columbia Gorge Community College
>> The Dalles, Oregon 97058
>> (541) 506-6080 | www.cgcc.cc.or.us <http://www.cgcc.cc.or.us/>
>
> -- 
> Benjamin Shum
> Open Source Software Coordinator
> Bibliomation, Inc.
> 32 Crest Road
> Middlebury, CT 06762
> 203-577-4070, ext. 113

-- 
Ian Bays
Director of Projects
PTFS Europe
mobile: +44 (0) 7774995297
phone: +44 (0) 800 756 6803
skype: ian.bays
email: ian.bays at ptfs-europe.com

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