On 19 April 2007, Richard Wallis wrote:

> Without reading any of that you can see the results of the query for
> your ISBN here:
> http://api.talis.com/bf/stores/ukbib/items?query=isbn%3A0195024028&max=1
> 0&offset=0&xsl=&content-type=

Thanks, Richard.  Stripped of all the wrapping, that looks like so, with
ns.0 as the Dublin Core namespace:

<title>The timeless way of building</title>
<ns.0:subject>DDC: 720/.1</ns.0:subject>
<ns.0:creator>Alexander, Christopher.</ns.0:creator>
<ns.0:title>The timeless way of building</ns.0:title>
<ns.0:identifier>008274360</ns.0:identifier>
<ns.0:subject>Architecture.</ns.0:subject>
<ns.0:subject>Pattern perception.</ns.0:subject>
<ns.0:date>1979</ns.0:date>
<ns.0:type>text</ns.0:type>
<ns.0:publisher>New York : Oxford University Press,</ns.0:publisher>
<ns.0:subject>LLC: NA2500</ns.0:subject>

That's your basic Dublin Core metadata.  Depending on how much I need,
that may be good enough as a last resort, or I may try running it through
a DC-to-MARC crosswalk.  At the very least, as a final resort, it's
certainly better than nothing, and a large union catalogue is a very
useful data source.

> What you don't get (today) is the full Marc record back  - the underling
> reason for this being is that we are addressing the tricky problem of
> the assertion of ownership of Marc records and the data they contain as
> you may have noticed from my recent blog post
> http://blogs.talis.com/panlibus/archives/2007/04/when_is_data_no.php.

Good Lord, was that only nine days ago?  I'd read it, but forgotten about
it.  The amount of blog entries we library types post gets overwhelming
sometimes.  Your post reminded me of Casey Bisson's plan to use the Mellon
award to buy LC MARC records, the MIT library data dump that was shared,
and so on.

I agree with you and others who want more openness with this kind of data.
I think it is wrong that publicly-funded institutions do not make their
metadata available to everyone.  I realize there are legal issues, and I
realize that adding "for non-commercial use" may be necessary.  It's still
wrong.  I can't do anything to change it right now, but I can work around
it.

Bill
--
William Denton, Toronto : www.miskatonic.org www.frbr.org www.openfrbr.org