Comments on: 1. ISBN 2. Web Service 3. ??? 4. Profit

Question: 1. ISBN 2. Web Service 3. ??? 4. Profit

basicchannel — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 13:50:32 -0800

I need to know which book-related web service/API is best (most complete archive, most up-to-date, most metadata) for looking up information about books given an ISBN-10 or ISBN-13.

I am writing a web-based application in which users (universities) enter the books in their collections into a database. To aid in data entry I am simply asking they input the ISBN-10 or ISBN-13 number and will use a web service/API to fill in the remaining details, if possible. So far I've investigated: Library of Congress, WorldCat, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Louis (APH), Google ISBN, facultycenter.net, Campusi, and Book Collector.

Which (of the listed or omitted), o' wise MeFites, in your experience is best for such a task?

By: Partial Law

Partial Law — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 14:30:54 -0800

Couldn't tell you which one is best, but you didn't mention ISBNdb.com, which has a solid collection of data and appears to have a fairly simple free API.

By: Siobhan

Siobhan — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 14:42:19 -0800

IANACataloger, but off the top of my head, I do not recommend relying on Amazon or other commercial sites for this. The information they have is provided by the publisher and is often incomplete or incorrect.

Depending upon how much (and what kind of) information you will be picking up, I'm inclined to say that you should go with WorldCat -- their records are up-to-date and very comprehensive, and are compiled by professional catalogers. LOC records will be equally comprehensive but probably a bit more limited in scope, since they reflect just the LOC's own materials.

By: goingonit

goingonit — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 14:45:19 -0800

As far as university libraries go, AFAIK the "standard" is WorldCat. I know my university's library catalogues their books using WorldCat---or adds them if they're not there. Then again, if you have access to WorldCat's full database, you'll also already have access to WorldCat's online cataloguing tools.

On a side note, I'm surprised that ISBN numbers suffice if we're talking about university libraries. The number of books from foreign countries or pre-ISBN days must be staggering--hell, even in my room, I have 5 or 10 books without ISBNs.

By: basicchannel

basicchannel — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 14:48:15 -0800

Thanks for the input so far. goingonit: This is for English-language texts for vision-impaired persons (we are first cataloging the normal texts and requesting accessible versions from the publisher), which is why ISBN will suffice (for now).

By: basicchannel

basicchannel — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 14:49:46 -0800

Also, we are providing a manual input form if the ISBN doesn't return a result or they don't have one. This is just to make things easier, where possible.

By: joeclark

joeclark — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 15:33:28 -0800

ISBN.nu?

By: cmiller

cmiller — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 16:19:46 -0800

Iirc, LibraryThing has an API that may be useful to add to your list.

By: basicchannel

basicchannel — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 17:58:31 -0800

goingonit: WorldCat was our first choice but they have a verrrry limited amount of data on titles. Their regular search returns a good amount of information, but they restrict what can be retrieved over the web service interface. :( :(

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 22:19:56 -0800

If this is a nonprofit project, you might want to get in touch with Tim Spalding from LibraryThing. If there is an answer to this question he will know it. He's traveling now -- I just saw him speak at Computers in Libraries -- but I bet he could help you with your general problem as well as your specific problem. He's at tim at librarything dot com, pretty sure.

By: owen

owen — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 04:40:18 -0800

You can pull out full MARC records from the Library of Congress by using the Z39.50 protocol.