[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Bar Code Readers, ISBN, and Amazon

[Hardy, Elaine]

Ted,

The Z39.50 gateway is a client–server protocol for searching and
retrieving information (http://www.loc.gov/z3950/gateway.html#about) and,
as Ben says, generally involves MARC (Machine Readable Cataloging)
formatted records entered according to cataloging standards
(Anglo-American Cataloging Rules, 2nd ed or AACR2). More information on
the MARC format can be found at http://www.loc.gov/marc/ . You can also
find a discussion of MARCXML and other standards on the Library of
Congress (LC) website -- http://www.loc.gov/standards/

Amazon probably stores their data in ONIX, which is a publishing protocol
for bibliographic data. While there are crosswalks between the two,
differences make it a little difficult to do a complete machine-based
transition. Another issue is the crosswalk between the ONIX data and
AACR2. My understanding is this will be a little easier once we implement
our new standard RDA (Resource Description and Access). My understand also
is that ONIX is much more flexible in transcription of bibliographic data
than is AACR2.

In general, we use the Z39.50 gateway to connect to either other libraries
(such as LC) or paid bibliographic utilities (such as OCLC or SkyRiver) to
retrieve bibliographic records in MARC format so that we do not have to
create the record ourselves. This is called copy cataloging and it saves
and enormous amount of time and money.

Since the Library of Congress is in the process of developing a
replacement  format for MARC, Evergreen will have to support at least one
other carrier format.

Hope this helps

Elaine
 

J. Elaine Hardy
PINES Bibliographic Projects and Metadata Manager
Georgia Public Library Service,
A Unit of the University System of Georgia
1800 Century Place, Suite 150
Atlanta, Ga. 30345-4304
404.235-7128
404.235-7201, fax

ehardy at georgialibraries.org
www.georgialibraries.org
http://www.georgialibraries.org/pines/

-----Original Message-----
From: open-ils-general-bounces at list.georgialibraries.org
[mailto:open-ils-general-bounces at list.georgialibraries.org] On Behalf Of
Ben Shum
Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2012 7:50 PM
To: Evergreen Discussion Group
Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Bar Code Readers, ISBN, and Amazon

Hi Ted,

I think I've played with the program you've described, it ran on my
Macbook, but cost money so I didn't get as far as I would have liked.
It probably stores basic item information (simple stuff like title,
author, etc.) in a non-MARC format of some kind if it's generating data
from outside sources like Amazon.

With a full featured ILS like Evergreen (or Koha), information is usually
stored in a library format called MARC or some variant, like marcxml in
Evergreen's case.  While it would be interesting to build something like a
scanner to read ISBN of an item and then pre-populate the data into
Evergreen from third-party sources like Amazon, I'm not sure how it'd have
to be done in practice as far as linking that data back up with internal
MARC records.  There's certain cataloging rules, etc. that librarians
might be able to comment further on (read: I am not a cataloger).  There
has been talk in the past about projects to give Evergreen more
flexibility to support other data formats and not only MARC, but those are
just talk right now.

As with any open source project though, there's always potential growth
for the future, and I'd be curious to see if any others in the community
(developers and librarians alike) may think of a feature like the one
you've described.

Regards,

-- Ben

On 3/13/2012 3:02 PM, G. T. Stresen-Reuter wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Sorry if this has been addressed elsewhere but I can't find what I'm
looking for (read the FAQs, searched the list) and hope someone can help.
Part of the problem is I'm not sure what to search for...
>
> I'm the IT guy at a small school in the Canary Islands. I'm trying to
find a new ILS for our tiny library and looking at Evergreen.
>
> Personally I own a book cataloging system (Delicious Library 2) that can
read the ISBN number via my built-in laptop camera, look up the book on
Amazon.com, and fill in the database automagically. It's a wonderful
system and I'm wondering if anything like that exist for Evergreen (even
if it means buying an external bar code reader).
>
> I've seen references to Z39.50 but it's my impression that that's not
exactly the same thing.
>
> Any pointers?
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Ted Stresen-Reuter
> http://tedmasterweb.com
>
>

--
Benjamin Shum
Open Source Software Coordinator
Bibliomation, Inc.
32 Crest Road
Middlebury, CT 06762
203-577-4070, ext. 113