News

Roy, Bruce and Don have promised to blog their thoughts and post photos from the OCLC API Mashathon that happened today at VALA 2010, but the jet lag was likely catching up with them after a full day of mashing.

Here at the Developer Network, we were excited to learn yesterday about a mashup which features WorldCat and the New York Times APIs was highlighted on the First Look New York Times blog. The mashup--created Wade Guidry, the Library Technology Coordinator at the Collins Memorial Library at the University of Puget Sound, and a WorldCat Mashathon Seattle attendee --is done using Yahoo Pipes and draws data (ISBN) from the NYT best seller API to create links to each of the best-selling books in Worldcat.org. Because the New York Times has several Best Seller lists, Mr. Guidry has created several Pipes.

• hardcover fiction
• hardcover nonfiction
• paperback nonfiction

The library at University of Puget Sound is also incorporating the links to the best sellers lists into their library catalog. The project just goes to show what a little coding know-how can do to improve experiences for library users. One things I'd like to be able to do is to build on this idea and write a script that uses the WorldCat Search API to check and see if a library has holdings for a particular item. If so, then create a link to that library's particular catalog. If not, then create a link to WorldCat.org. Also covers would be a great addition and could be pulled from Open Library or the LibraryThing API. I've got the basic framework sketched out but we're still getting ready for the VALAtech Boot Camp OCLC API Mashathon next Monday. Keep checking back--I should a working version posted in the next couple of weeks.

Packed room for Developer Network luncheon. Great to see the male/female ratios are normalizing, too, for developer events. Looks like turkey sandwiches were more popular than chicken, and chicken was more popular than veggie, and veggie more popular than ham. Who knew? Don is walking everyone through the available Web Services, and giving a few examples of how people are using them. Also very fun to see a few Mashathon/Hackathon alumni--yeah! Almost all hands went up when Don asked about WorldCat.org usage, too. It's easier to wrap your head around what the WorldCat Search API can do when you're familiar with WorldCat.org. Cyril Oberlander from SUNY Genesco showing off the IDS Search Project, which uses the WorldCat Search API. Catalog is going to be beta-tested with 6 libraries starting on Monday. Cyril notes it will be out in the open for everyone to play with. Written in PHP--shows off the visual aspect with the Yahoo Spellcheker, GoogleBooks API, WorldCat Search API. Once you go into a detailed record, it can give you availability (through screen-scraping AND Z39.50). It also gives an estimated delivery date, depending on where the item is located (immediately, 3 days for consortia members, 7 days for worldwide). The consortial catalog benefits us as a group. Mike Curtis gets kudos. Other uses of WorldCat Search API: The Getting It Search (GIST) and a Gift/Weeding app. (I started taking video at that point). Michael Panzer from OCLC Dewey shows off the Dewey Linked Data set (Dewey.info). Lots of cool apps, and oohs and aaahs from a new Shelf Label API he's working on. (More coming about that, soon.) WorldCat Registry APIs and exposure through end-user interfaces...take home is: Check your Registry profile and make sur eit's up-to-date and correct, so end-users and other libraries find you correctly. Mashathons: if anyone wants to host the Autumn 2010 Mashathon, please let us know! Don introduces Karen Coombs as the Developer Network product manager. Hooray! Karen jumped up to show off some of the work from her ALA MW 2010 LITA preconference. Also, here are all the workshops slides, demo code, documentation and more from Karen. I'll post the videos soon and if you have questions, please comment here or let us know. Presentations are now available on the Developer Network wiki.

Welcome to one of the newest WorldCat partners, Occipital. They're the developers behind the latest mobile app to use WorldCat data, RedLaser.