*OCLC has a license around their MARC records, and around Dewey. The
OCLC business model requires this. Not surprisingly, WorldCat
explictly forbids "cataloging" use of the site. It probably forbids
API access too, althoguh I haven't looked. LibraryThing wants to give
the records out for various purposes, including cataloging.
*Classification has no API and requires that all users be *in the same
physical location*. If you're a person at a terminal in a library,
that's great. If you're 75,000 people distributed around the
world—LibraryThing—not.
If nobody will lend us their CDs, we'll probalby just buy the CDs, and
give the data out for free.
I imagine there are other such data available from other national libraries.
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