From OCLC Research Labs

FRBR Bookmarklets: A way to weave your library's collection into Web bookstores

OCLC Research is integrating a technology called “bookmarklets” with its FRBR algorithm to create an experimental service that lets Web surfers instantly search a local library catalog while browsing an online bookseller. FRBR Bookmarklets expands on work originally done by Jon Udell at InfoWorld and makes a library's holdings more visible and accessible on the Internet.
Here's how it works.

Written in JavaScript code, FRBR Bookmarklets captures the ISBN displayed in the URL on the bookseller’s page or from the page itself, combines it with associated ISBNs for the same work, and sends the search to the library’s online public access catalog. If the library owns the book, or any associated edition, a record or list of records appears on the screen complete with shelf status information.

In addition to Web booksellers, the bookmarklets also work from other sources of bibliographic information containing ISBNs, such as the OCLC FirstSearch service.

FRBR Bookmarklets uses WorldCat as its source for ISBNs. The FRBR Algorithm, which OCLC Research developed to convert library catalogs to the FRBR model, was used to build tables of ISBNs for all intellectual works represented in WorldCat. FRBR Bookmarklets queries the tables and receives a string of all ISBNs for the work, and then sends the string in a Boolean OR search to the library catalog.

To date, there are 20 online public access catalogs profiled for the experimental service. To activate any one of them as a FRBR Bookmarklet, users need to drag the OPAC bookmark to their browser's links bar. Then, when viewing detailed book information at a Web bookseller or another source, users click on the bookmark in their links bar to see if their local library holds it.

Chief Scientist Thom Hickey, along with Software Architects Jeffrey A. Young and Jennifer Toves and Consulting Product Support Specialist Eric Childress, developed the experimental service and believe they can enhance it using library holdings information in WorldCat. “We want to take advantage of the fact that WorldCat knows which edition of a work a library holds and place that edition at the top of the results set,” says Mr. Young.

New libraries can be added to the profile list by filling out a request form on the FRBR Bookmarklets Web site. To learn more about FRBR Bookmarklets, visit the OCLC Research Web site.

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