It's hard to explain, but the Web-based mind of the Internet Archive
just can't seem to grasp the role of individual library catalogs in
helping people find books. The attitude seems to be: well, they should
just search OL. The project I mentioned is an IMLS experiment to test
ebook usage of these works through the addition of catalog records.
There are lots of reasons why this is a good idea (selection, service to
users...) but folks who don't use libraries don't and probably won't get it.
There is an on-again off-again Internet Archive project to fill in the
missing MARC records. I was told that if someone can create a file of
MARC records with links to IA books, that they could be loaded. If
anyone wants to work on this, I can put you in touch with the
appropriate person.
kc
On 8/18/14, 5:32 PM, Dana Pearson wrote:
Karen,
It seems to me that the Open Library would want to broaden use of this
great collection as much as possible. Yet, MARC records for the 1/3 or so
items in the collection cannot be downloaded so that they could be imported
into local library systems.
Lots of users searching local libraries who might well use google and Open
Library, Internet Archive for finding ebooks less frequently.
I'll look at Tom Morris's code to see if I might automate record selection
of Open Library records compared with element of MARCXML records of this
last group of Guterberg Project additions. Thanks for that information.
regards,
dana
On Mon, Aug 18, 2014 at 6:57 PM, Karen Coyle <[email protected]> wrote:
About 1/3 of the 1M ebooks on OpenLibrary.org have full MARC records, and
you can retrieve the record via the API. There is also a "secret" record
format that returns not the full MARC for the hard copy (which is what the
records represent because these are digitized books) but a record that has
been modified to represent the ebook.
The MARC records for the hard copy follow the pattern:
https://archive.org/download/[archive identifier]/[archive
identifier]_marc.[xml|mrc]
Download MARC XML https://archive.org/download/myantonia00cathrich/
myantonia00cathrich_marc.xml
Download MARC binary https://www.archive.org/download/myantonia00cathrich/
myantonia00cathrich_meta.mrc <https://archive.org/download/
myantonia00cathrich/myantonia00cathrich_meta.mrc>
To get the one that represents the ebook, do:
https://archive.org/download/[archive identifier]/[archive
identifier]_archive_marc.xml
https://archive.org/download/myantonia00cathrich/
myantonia00cathrich_archive_marc.xml
This one has an 007, the 245 $h, and a few other things.
Tom Morris did some code that helps you search for books by author and
title and retrieve a MARC record. I don't recall where his github archive
is, but I'll find out and post it here. The code is open source. We used it
for a project that added ebook records to a public library catalog.
You can also use the OPenLibrary API to select all open access ebooks.
What I'd like to see is a way to create a list or bibliography in OL that
then is imported into a program that will find MARC records for those
books. The list function is still under development, though.
kc
On 8/18/14, 3:04 PM, Stuart Yeates wrote:
There are a stack of great free ebook repositories available on the web,
things like https://unglue.it/ http://www.gutenberg.org/
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Main_Page http://www.gutenberg.net.au/
https://www.smashwords.com/books/category/1/newest/0/free/any etc, etc
What there doesn't appear to be, is high-quality AACR2 / RDA records
available for these. There are things like https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.
au/meta/pg/ which are elaborate dublin core to MARC converters, but
these lack standardisation of names, authority control (people, entities,
places, etc), interlinking, etc.
It seems to me that quality metadata would greatly increase the value /
findability / use of these projects and thus their visibility and available
sources.
Are there any projects working in this space already? Are there suitable
tools available?
cheers
stuart
--
Karen Coyle
[email protected] http://kcoyle.net
m: +1-510-435-8234
skype: kcoylenet/+1-510-984-3600
--
Karen Coyle
[email protected] http://kcoyle.net
m: +1-510-435-8234
skype: kcoylenet/+1-510-984-3600
