The nice thing about OCLC's xISBN is that they have the ability to
produce a URL that does a direct search for the entire set of ISBNs
against a catalog - or, if the catalog doesn't support that -
constructs a frame that lists the ISBNs sorted by decreasing frequency
and allows the users to click and find a successful ISBN.

In addition, OCLC keeps a database that maps a URN for a library to
its catalog url/type and version to ensure that the correct multi-ISBN
search URL/frame is produced. It isn't widely used, but the libraries
that do use it can be sure that xISBN will work even as catalogs
change location and/or version.

These two features, especially the first, are crucial for integrating
xISBN in tools such as LibX. LibX could use the XML interface as well,
but I don't see us doing anything more than what OCLC already gives
us, so why bother.

Does thingISBN provide these additional services as well?

 - Godmar

On 6/14/06, Tim Spalding <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I'm sure many of you are already familiar with OCLC's xISBN service.
> Today I released "thingISBN," LibraryThing's "answer" to xISBN. Where
> xISBN uses OCLC's FRBRized data, thingISBN uses LibraryThing's
> "everyone a librarian" wiki-like cataloging. The results are pretty
> interesting, I think. xISBN has better coverage and I suspect makes
> fewer mistakes, but thingISBN is  strong on paperbacks and non-US
> editions. There's a way of asking it to compare the two, so you can
> evaluate it yourself.
>
> Like xISBN, it's free for non-commercial use. It follows the xISBN XML
> format, so it can be plugged into existing code quite easily. I'm
> interested to see if anyone does anything interesting with it.
>
> I blog about the service here
> http://www.librarything.com/thingology/2006/06/introducing-thingisbn_14.php
>
> Comments, of course, appreciated. And for what it's worth I'm still
> looking for a crackerjack library programmer...
>
> Tim
> LibraryThing.com
>