We haven't created feeds for newly acquired materials, but we do
something similar for reserves materials within Aleph. We query our
catalog directly via the Aleph X-Server, which is an API that returns
XML results. These results are then parsed and bundled into
course-specific feeds for use within our courseware system.

This is a relatively new project for us, so we're still working out some
kinks, but thus far we're producing feeds for about 200 courses and
folks seem to really like the convenience of viewing reserves materials
within course sites.

Ryan Max Steinberg
Library Information Technology
University of Michigan Libraries

Troy Davis wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Is anyone using ExLibris' Aleph to create RSS feeds of new acquistions
> (note, i'm not a systems librarian, I'm just curious)
>
> Troy
>
> Ed Summers wrote:
>
>> On Thu, Feb 10, 2005 at 02:00:05PM -0600, Edward Iglesias wrote:
>>
>>> SIRSI is indeed working on the issue but what I was hoping for was a
>>> relatively simple solution.  Every month we send out lists of newly
>>> cataloged books to our "Academic Liaisons".  I already have the list in
>>> plain text.  I was simply looking for a quick and dirty way to turn it
>>> into an RSS feed.
>>
>>
>>
>> If your data is in plain text you'll probably have to write your own
>> custom
>> text reader to generate the RSS.
>>
>> If you can get your data out in a structured format, like MARC lets say
>> you can write a program like this:
>>
>>     #!/usr/bin/env python
>>
>>     import sys
>>     import PyRSS2Gen
>>     import pymarc
>>
>>     input = sys.argv[1]
>>     output = input + ".xml"
>>
>>     title = "New Books"
>>     url = "http://new-books-list.edu"
>>     desc = "This is a list of new books, Enjoy!"
>>
>>     rss = PyRSS2Gen.RSS2( title, url, desc )
>>     batch = pymarc.MARCReader( input )
>>
>>     for record in batch:
>>         isbn = record.isbn()
>>         rss.items.append( PyRSS2Gen.RSSItem( \
>>             title = record.title(),
>>             link = "http://link-to-opac.edu?isbn=%s" % isbn ) )
>>
>>     rss.write_xml( file(output, "w") )
>>
>> There are lots of ways to skin this cat (chisel this wheel?), but I'd
>> try to
>> work with structured data (MARC, XML, tab delmited, whatever) rather than
>> vanilla plain text if you can.
>>
>> //Ed
>
>
> --
> M. Troy Davis
> Media Services Librarian
> University of Tennessee Libraries :: The Studio
> 245 John C. Hodges Library
> Knoxville, TN 37996
> (865)974-4726
> [log in to unmask]
> http://www.lib.utk.edu/mediacenter/studio
>
>