Services

There are lots of types of requests which can be made to the WorldCat Search API which aren't always obvious. One of my favorities in the "Holding Location" request type. Most developers use this type of request to find out which libraries hold a particular book.

For example -

But it also works without the filter to a specific books. So you can do requests like

http://www.worldcat.org/webservices/catalog/content/libraries/15550774?location=maine&libtype=2&wskey=[key]

which will get you public libraries in the state of Maine:

VIAF, the Virtual International Authority File, keeps on improving. In fact, OCLC Research staff just installed an update to VIAF recently. On 18 Feb 2011, to be exact. As of that update, VIAF now contains:

18.4 million source records
14.5 million VIAF clusters
6.2 million links between source records
2.4 million VIAF clusters built from more than one source record

As part of this update, new data has been added from Spain, France, Germany, Canada, LC, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Swiss National Library and Sweden.

I was rereading a post by Jakob Voss got me revisiting an issue that I've thought about quite a bit since I started working with and building web services. What do we mean when we say format? For me format is a really thorny issue. Sometimes when we say format we mean a metadata format (or language for describing the thing that is being described) other times what we really mean is serialization. There is a pretty big differences between these two things.

With the number of mobile devices increasing, so has the interest in geolocation services and applications. One recent project of OCLC Research which looks at subject headings from a geographic point of view is called MapFAST. This project is a mashup prototype that uses a Google Maps interface to present FAST Geographic authority records. Users can select of a location and display of nearby geographic headings.

For those you who haven't seen Thom Hickey's blog post, VIAF not includes corporate names. Conference names, which strongly overlap corporate names, are included in VIAF's corporate names. The corporate matching is not as mature as personal names, and OCLC will be refining it over the coming months. We know there are errors and would appreciate it if you would report any errors you see to help us improve the matching.

All you Developer Network listserv watchers--which I assume is most of you--you will already have heard this news about the WorldCat Search API. But for the rest of us, just in case you missed it when it went out in September... For the record, the WorldCat Search API was enhanced to make a few updates and corrections. Here's the list: 1) The LCCN provided in the RSS and Atom formats now works correctly for all LCCNs including those with one or two character prefixes.

This past weekend several enhancements were made to the WorldCat Search API. This included:

Based on feedback from OCLC Developer Network members, OCLC is pleased to announce that basic limits on all xIdentifier Web services have been increased to 1,000 queries per day. This increase is intended to facilitate easier use of the JSON-P format now in place, and is effective immediately. OCLC member libraries who also maintain an OCLC cataloguing subscription still remain eligible for higher usage limits at no charge. All other libraries and/or commercial organizations can select the subscription option that best meets their needs.

In case you missed the couple of articles that have come out recently, wanted to call out your attention to a couple of them: OCLC Opens up WorldCat through APIs Marshall Breeding gives a good review of OCLC Web Services, including the WorldCat Search API. Of course, being a Developer Network member and blog reader, you probably know all of this. But if you were looking for an article to give to your manager/Director for WHY you should spend more time on investigating cool mashups and potential usages of OCLC's different APIs, this might be a good one to start with. (reposted from ALA TechSource, who reposted from the February 2010 issue of Smart Libraries Newsletter). Querying OCLC Web Services for Name, Subject, and ISBN A nice article from Ya'aqov Ziso, Ralph LeVan, and Eric Lease Morgan---you'll learn more about OCLC Terminology Services, WorldCat Identities and see a few quick implementations for the services, such as Send it to Me. Note that all three writers were attendees at the inaugural mashathon in New York in November 2008! (Of course, since Ralph is from OCLC, he's also attended most of the others, too...) (reposted from The Code4Lib Journal).

There was a small set of enhancements made to the WorldCat Search API last night. Nothing too earth-shattering, but a few nice little things to help your apps and mash-ups work smoother, faster, better: