Karlsruhe virtual catalog

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The Karlsruhe Virtual Catalog ( KVK ) is a free and freely accessible meta catalog . As a meta search engine , the KVK enables 80 bibliographic databases to be queried at the same time (as of January 2020). It was developed in 1996 at the KIT library , from which it is also operated.

The databases queried include all German-language and numerous international library catalogs as well as cross-library databases (e.g. the journal database ) and search engines (e.g. the Bielefeld Academic Search Engine ). Databases of freely accessible full texts (e.g. the Internet Archive ) and book trade catalogs are also searched.

The KVK was developed between 1995 and 1996 at the University of Karlsruhe by employees of the University Library and the Faculty of Computer Science and was released to the public on July 26, 1996 .

Further meta-catalogs are based on the KVK technology, including the Virtual German State Bibliography for the identification of regional literature in state and regional bibliographies in Germany.

technology

The architecture of the KVK

Only shortly before the development of the KVK was the electronic library catalogs equipped with WWW interfaces in Germany. These OPACs were now accessible via the WWW: Users could enter their search terms in HTML forms provided on the websites of the libraries and associations and received a hit list in HTML format. Between the entry and the hit list, a CGI program formulated a database query from the entries and prepared the hit list in a user-friendly manner. In order to be able to search through all of these catalogs at the same time, the KVK team has created a CGI program that first reformulates the terms entered in the KVK search form for each of the target catalogs according to its requirements. The program then sends the request to all the desired target catalogs in parallel, then collects and analyzes the individual hit lists and finally creates an overall hit list in a uniform format. As soon as one of the individual hit lists is completely available to the program, it is formatted and displayed in the continuously growing total hit list. The CGI program communicates directly with the WWW servers of the individual target catalogs. The KVK was implemented with the script language Tcl .

A structure description file is kept for each WWW search interface of the target catalogs, which enables the CGI program to make entries. The structure description file describes the structure of the respective search form and the structure of the resulting hit lists. Important information about the search form is the names of the WWW server, the search fields and the CGI program of the target catalog that is performing the search. The KVK's CGI program then transfers the search queries in the KVK to the correct fields in the target catalog in the correct syntax. Important elements of the hit list are the short title of the hits found and the URL links for displaying the full title of each hit.

In a comparison with common standard interfaces such as Z39.50 and SR, the developers pointed out after the start of the project that a virtual catalog can also access systems that do not have a standard interface. Furthermore, when searching in the KVK it is possible to switch from the short title display in the KVK to the full title display in the original catalog with a single click. They saw the maintenance of the structure description files as a disadvantage. This is necessary because the websites of the target catalogs can change.

history

After the Second World War , regional central catalogs were created in Germany, from which today's union catalogs developed. The various associations have been cataloging in their own database since the 1980s . For a Germany-wide research it was still necessary during the 1990s to individually call up all the union catalogs that had only recently been made accessible on the WWW. For example, the database of the largest union catalog in 1996 contained 8.0 million bibliographic records, but that of the four largest associations together contained 25.6 million. With the development of the KVK, the aim was to enable the user to search through any catalogs at the same time and to obtain an overall result. Since its actual existence, the KVK has been a replacement for a German general catalog.

The KVK was developed by the KIT library in cooperation with the Faculty of Computer Science. The project was carried out as part of the study work of the computer science student Roland Sand at the University Library. The KVK was released on July 26th, 1996. As part of the study thesis, three union catalogs had already been integrated, two weeks after the start the UB had added two further union catalogs, two book trade catalogs and the OLIX catalogs of Stuttgart and Karlsruhe. The inquiries rose from initially around 600 per day to 3500 in 1997. As a result, a second web server had to be put into operation as early as 1997, which was used to process the KVK research coming from outside the Karlsruhe University Library. The proportion of external inquiries in 1997 was 90 percent.

As early as 1996, it was possible to use the KVK University Library's homepage to direct search queries to the union catalogs of the SWB, BVB, GBV, HBZ and Karlsruhe OLIX-OPAC. The catalogs mentioned had a database of around 20 million titles. In addition, a sorted list containing the alphabetically sorted short titles could be generated. A year later there were 31 million titles, the British Union Catalog (COPAC), the journal database and the directory of available books were added to the database .

Until 1997, the Karlsruhe University Library built regional mixed catalogs based on KVK technology. The EUCOR-OPAC identified the titles of nine important scientific libraries in the Upper Rhine region (such as the Bibliothèque nationale et universitaire de Strasbourg , the Université Louis Pasteur , the Freiburg University Library , the Badische Landesbibliothek and the Karlsruhe University Library ). The KA-OPAC all of the seven relevant WWW catalogs of the Karlsruhe region and the ZID-OPAC made it possible to conduct cross-year research on all the journal contents of the Karlsruhe University Library.

In 2001, 60 million bibliographic records were searchable, the union catalogs of Austria and Switzerland as well as the OPACs of the British Library , the Library of Congress , the National Library of Scotland , the Royal Library of Stockholm , the Nasjonalbiblioteket , the Danish one could also be found as target catalogs Royal Library , the ARIADNA catalog of the Spanish National Library , the Italian “OPAC dell'Indice SBN” of the Istituto centrale per il catalogo unico delle biblioteche italiane e per le informazioni bibliografiche , the “Catalog BN-OPALE-PLUS” of the Bibliothèque nationale de France as well as three book trade directories. By 2001, new functions had also been programmed. The KVK , which has meanwhile been funded by the DFG , now had session management, an English translation of the search terms, database access via Z39.50 and a separate area for the limited search for titles in the electronic full text . There were also KVK versions for users behind a firewall , one without JavaScript and one without a table for old browsers. With the help of cookies , it was already possible to retain your own selection of target catalogs. Catalogers and system librarians were given a choice to receive the hits in MAB format. Due to the inquiries, additional web servers had to be put into operation.

literature

  • Uwe Dierolf, Michael Mönnich : Karlsruhe Virtual Catalog (KVK). New service in the World Wide Web . In: Library Service , Volume 20, Issue 8/9, 1996, pp. 1395–1401 ( online , also published in: Press releases from the University of Karlsruhe , University magazine Unikath and RZ News )
  • Uwe Dierolf, Michael Mönnich : EUCOR-OPAC based on the Karlsruhe virtual catalog . In: EUCOR Library Information , Volume 10, 1997 ( online )
  • Uwe Dierolf, Michael Mönnich: KVK. Karlsruhe Virtual Catalog Two years virtual . In: bitonline , Heft 3, 1998, pp. 159-168
  • Michael Mönnich: Karlsruhe. From the virtual catalog to the virtual library . In: State Department for Public Libraries Freiburg (Ed.): Die Bibliothek ins Zentrum , Freiburg University Library, Freiburg im Breisgau 1999, ISBN 3-928969-10-2 (= publications of the Freiburg im Breisgau University Library , Volume 23), p. 103-108
  • Michael Mönnich: KVK. A Meta Catalog of Libraries . In: High Energy Physics Libraries Webzine , Volume 2, 2000, ISSN  1424-2729 ( online , published slightly modified in: Liber Quarterly , Volume 11, Issue 2, 2001, pp. 121–127, online )
  • Uwe Dierolf, Michael Mönnich: Value-added services through virtual catalogs. 5 years Karlsruhe Virtual Catalog . In: bitonline , issue 3, 2001 ( online )
  • Uwe Dierolf: KVK goes Salt Lake City . In: bitonline , issue 4, 2002 ( online )
  • Uwe Dierolf, Michael Mönnich: Virtual catalogs, open access and library portals . In: bitonline , issue 1, 2004 ( online )
  • Roland Sand: Development of a meta search interface for WWW library catalogs , Karlsruhe 1996, OCLC 314290226 (student thesis , University of Karlsruhe, Faculty of Computer Science, Institute for Logic, Complexity and Deduction Systems, October 1996, 26 pages).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Uwe Dierolf, Michael Mönnich : Karlsruhe Virtual Catalog (KVK). New service in the World Wide Web . In: Library Service , Volume 20, Issue 8/9, 1996, pp. 1395–1401, here: p. 1400.
  2. ↑ Engelbert Plassmann u. a .: Libraries and the information society in Germany. An introduction , 2nd revised and expanded edition, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2011, ISBN 978-3-447-06474-3 , p. 45.
  3. ^ Uwe Dierolf, Michael Mönnich : Karlsruhe Virtual Catalog (KVK). New service in the World Wide Web . In: Library Service , Volume 20, Issue 8/9, 1996, pp. 1395–1401, here: pp. 1395–1396.
  4. ↑ Engelbert Plassmann u. a .: Libraries and the information society in Germany. An introduction , 2nd revised and expanded edition, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2011, ISBN 978-3-447-06474-3 , p. 45; Michael Mönnich: KVK. A Meta Catalog of Libraries . In: Liber Quarterly , Volume 11, Issue 2, 2001, pp. 121–127, here: p. 124.
  5. ↑ Roland Sand: Development of a meta search interface for WWW library catalogs , student thesis, University of Karlsruhe, Faculty of Computer Science, Institute for Logic, Complexity and Inference Systems, October 1996.
  6. ↑ Michael Mönnich : KVK. A Meta Catalog of Libraries . In: Liber Quarterly , Volume 11, Issue 2, 2001, pp. 121–127, here: pp. 123–125.