ThingISBN

ThingISBN is a free service for non-commercial purposes as part of the LibraryThing web application , which, when it was launched in June 2006, was LibraryThing's first offering of a programming interface , also known as an API ( application programming interface ).

method

ThingISBN can be described as a mashup , as the content access to various databases , the collections of which are mainly composed of books , is done via API. The service enables the assignment of an ISBN to a work and its various editions . All work editions belonging to an ISBN are linked together in LibraryThing. There are precise guidelines for which issues are included in the same work and which are not. Editions from different countries, in different languages and with different features ( paperback or luxury edition) as well as a possible (unabridged) audio book version are considered to be one and the same work. Shortened versions or the filming of a novel, on the other hand, are different works. In ThingISBN, databases of commercial booksellers , such as Amazon , or library catalogs, such as the holdings of the Library of Congress or the Common Library Network (GBV), etc., are examined to search for related documents . The format corresponds to the XISBN offer from OCLC . ThingISBN and xISBN thus implement part of the FRBR that has been discussed in library circles for years . Both web services achieve good results and complement each other.

Functions

There are two ways to use ThingISBN:

by means of a so-called REST -based API: By entering an ISBN (with or without "-" hyphens) after the prefabricated URL , the user can, if successful, within seconds receive a list of related ISBNs based on an XML data structure with, for example, different editions or translations of a book receive. A limit was set to a maximum of 1,000 requests per day, which can, however, be expanded upon request.
as a complete feed of a simple list.

Possible applications

In the book industry - especially in bookshops and libraries - ThingISBN helps you search for scans of book covers within the LibraryThing collection free of charge . Library users and owners ( private library ) are particularly interested in the social tagging , recommendation services and user ratings that ThingISBN offers. Various libraries use the LibraryThing offers to upgrade their catalogs ( catalog enrichment ). For libraries, ThingISBN can play an important role, particularly in the search for manifestations of various works in the FRBR sense.

literature

Silvia Czerwinski, Jakob Voß: LibraryThing, the collaborative library 2.0. In: Julia Bergmann, Patrick Danowski (Ed.): Handbuch Bibliothek 2.0. De Gruyter Saur, Berlin / New York 2010, ISBN 978-3-11-023209-7 , pp. 333-351.
Robert Hastings: The LibraryThing API and Libraries. In: Nicolas C. Engard (Ed.): Library mashups: exploring new ways to deliver library data. Information Today, Medford NJ 2009, ISBN 978-1-57387-372-7 , pp. 243-252.
Manfred Nowak, Lambert Heller, Sascha Korzen: Mashups and Libraries. In: Julia Bergmann, Patrick Danowski (Ed.): Handbuch Bibliothek 2.0. De Gruyter Saur, Berlin / New York 2010, ISBN 978-3-11-023209-7 , pp. 143-159.
Oliver Flimm: Enrichments, mashups and cross-linking of titles in a heterogeneous catalog network using the example of the Cologne university catalog KUG. In: Julia Bergmann, Patrick Danowski (Ed.): Handbuch Bibliothek 2.0. De Gruyter Saur, Berlin / New York 2010, ISBN 978-3-11-023209-7 , pp. 293-316, eprints.rclis.org (PDF).

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ Due to their uniqueness, ISBNs are the best basis for this.

↑ librarything.com

↑ worldcat.org

^ William Denton: Comparing xISBN and thingISBN. ( Memento of the original from April 15, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. March 23, 2007. @1@ 2