It isn't unfortunate, it was deliberate. I have a key for the basic api,
but I was being advised that I had overlooked the obvious answer of the
worldcat search API. I have no confusion between the two, except for the
confusion that seems to be promulgated by OCLC itself.
kc
On 7/12/12 9:46 AM, Karen Coombs wrote:
> Karen,
>
> Unfortunately it looks like you requested a key for the WorldCat
> Search API which does have specific eligibility criteria. The WorldCat
> Basic API which Ross mentions is available to anyone -
> http://www.oclc.org/developer/services/worldcat-basic-api
>
> It allows you to do an OpenSearch keyword query of WorldCat and get
> back basic metadata including the link to the worldcat.org page for
> each record returned.
>
> The easiest way to get a key is to go to http://worldcat.org/config/
> and login with a WorldCat username/password. You should see a link
> that says WorldCat Basic API Key which you can use to get a key.
>
> I apologize for the confusion between the two APIs (WorldCat Search
> and WorldCat Basic). The difference is something we've tried to make
> clearer in our documentation but unfortunately given your experience
> it is still an issue.
>
> Karen
>
>
> On Thu, Jul 12, 2012 at 11:33 AM, Karen Coyle <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> On 7/10/12 5:07 PM, Karen Coyle wrote:
>>> On 7/10/12 4:02 PM, Richard Wallis wrote:
>>>>
>>>> But is it available to everyone, and is the data retrieved also usable as
>>>> ODC-BY by any member of the Web public?
>>>>
>>>> Yes it is, and at this stage it is only available from within a html
>>>> page.
>>>
>>> The "it" I was referring to was the API. Roy is telling me that people
>>> should use the API, as if that is an obvious option that I am overlooking. I
>>> am asking if the general web public can use the API to get this data. I
>>> believe that should be a yes/no question/answer.
>>
>> Since no one here from OCLC had the integrity to answer this question, I
>> went ahead and applied for a Worldcat API key, and here is the reply:
>>
>> *****
>>
>> Hello,
>>
>> Thank you for your interest in the WorldCat Search API, however at this time
>> the web service is only available to institutions, primarily libraries, that
>> have a specific relationship with OCLC and then only for work related to
>> that library's services. The specific relationship is explained further
>> here,
>> http://oclc.org/developer/documentation/worldcat-search-api/who-can-use.
>>
>> However, there are other OCLC services that are available to individual's
>> non-commercial use. Looking at the list of services available on
>> http://www.worldcat.org/wcpa/content/affiliate/ you'll see that the WorldCat
>> search box and WorldCat links with embedded searches are available to
>> anyone. You may also be interested in checking out the WorldCat Registry,
>> or low-volume use of the xISBN and xISSN services.
>>
>> If you have questions about the service, please contact the product manager,
>> Dawn Hendricks at [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>.
>>
>> *****
>>
>> There is nothing wrong with having a proprietary API; but pretending that it
>> isn't (either directly or through omission), or being afraid to say it, is
>> the kind of thing that has caused me to lose respect for OCLC. Nothing
>> should be declared "open" that isn't available to all, not just members. And
>> advertisements for WC API classes should state "members only." That would be
>> honest. And telling folks on a wide-open list that they should use the
>> Worldcat API (without mentioning "if you are in a member institution and
>> using this for library services) is at best deceiving, at worst dishonest.
>>
>> I, for one, am tired of OCLC's lies, and I'm not afraid to say it.
>> Fortunately for me, retirement is looming and I don't need to care who likes
>> what I say. This is a relief, to say the least.
>>
>> kc
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>> kc
>>>
>>>> This experiment is the first step in a process to make linked data about
>>>> WorldCat resources available. As it will evolve over time other areas
>>>> such
>>>> as API access, content-negotiation, search & other query methods,
>>>> additional RDF data vocabularies, etc., etc., will be considered in
>>>> concert
>>>> with community feedback (such as this thread) as to the way forward.
>>>>
>>>> Karen I know you are eager to work with and demonstrate the benefits of
>>>> this way of publishing data. But these things take time and effort, so
>>>> please be a little patient, and keep firing off these use cases and
>>>> issues
>>>> they are all valuable input.
>>>>
>>>> ~Richard.
>>>>
>>>>> kc
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Roy
>>>>>> On Tue, Jul 10, 2012 at 2:08 PM, Kevin Ford <[log in to unmask]>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> The use case clarifies perfectly.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Totally feasible. Well, I should say "totally feasible" with the
>>>>>>> caveat
>>>>>>> that I've never used the Worldcat Search API. Not letting that stop
>>>>>>> me,
>>>>>>> so
>>>>>>> long as it is what I imagine it is, then a developer should be able to
>>>>>>> perform a search, retrieve the response, and, by integrating one of
>>>>>>> the
>>>>>>> tools advertised on the schema.org website into his/her code, then
>>>>>>> retrieve
>>>>>>> the microdata for each resource returned from the search (and save it
>>>>>>> as
>>>>>>> RDF
>>>>>>> or whatever).
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> If someone has created something like this, do speak up.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Yours,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Kevin
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On 07/10/2012 04:48 PM, Karen Coyle wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Kevin, if you misunderstand then I undoubtedly haven't been clear
>>>>>>>> (let's
>>>>>>>> at least share the confusion :-)). Here's the use case:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> PersonA wants to create a comprehensive bibliography of works by
>>>>>>>> AuthorB. The goal is to do a search on AuthorB in WorldCat and
>>>>>>>> extract
>>>>>>>> the RDFa data from those pages in order to populate the bibliography.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Apart from all of the issues of getting a perfect match on authors
>>>>>>>> and
>>>>>>>> of manifestation duplicates (there would need to be editing of the
>>>>>>>> results after retrieval at the user's end), how feasible is this?
>>>>>>>> Assume
>>>>>>>> that the author is prolific enough that one wouldn't want to look up
>>>>>>>> all
>>>>>>>> of the records by hand.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> kc
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> On 7/10/12 1:43 PM, Kevin Ford wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> As for someone who might want to do this programmatically, he/she
>>>>>>>>> should take a look at the "Programming languages" section of the
>>>>>>>>> second link I sent along:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> http://schema.rdfs.org/tools.**html<http://schema.rdfs.org/tools.html>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> There one can find Ruby, Python, and Java extractors and parsers
>>>>>>>>> capable of outputting RDF. A developer can take one of these and
>>>>>>>>> programmatically get at the data.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Apologies if I am misunderstanding your intent.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Yours,
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Kevin
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> On 07/10/2012 04:34 PM, Karen Coyle wrote:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> Thanks, Kevin! And Richard!
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> I'm thinking we need a good web site with links to tools. I had
>>>>>>>>>> already
>>>>>>>>>> been introduced to
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> http://www.w3.org/2012/pyRdfa/
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> where you can past a URI and get ttl or rdf/xml. These are all good
>>>>>>>>>> resources. But what about someone who wants to do this
>>>>>>>>>> programmatically,
>>>>>>>>>> not through a web site? Richard's message indicates that this isn't
>>>>>>>>>> yet
>>>>>>>>>> available, so perhaps we should be gathering use cases to support
>>>>>>>>>> the
>>>>>>>>>> need? And have a place to post various solutions, even ones that
>>>>>>>>>> are
>>>>>>>>>> not
>>>>>>>>>> OCLC-specific? (Because I am hoping that the use of microformats
>>>>>>>>>> will
>>>>>>>>>> increase in general.)
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> kc
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> On 7/10/12 12:12 PM, Kevin Ford wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> is there an open search to get one to the desired records in the
>>>>>>>>>>> first
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>> place?
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> -- I'm not certain this will fully address your question, but try
>>>>>>>>>>> these two sites:
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> Website:
>>>>>>>>>>> http://www.google.com/**webmasters/tools/richsnippets<http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets>
>>>>>>>>>>> Example: http://tinyurl.com/dx3h5bg
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> Website:
>>>>>>>>>>> http://linter.structured-data.**org/<http://linter.structured-data.org/>
>>>>>>>>>>> Example: http://tinyurl.com/bmm8bbc
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> These sites will extract the data, but I don't think you get your
>>>>>>>>>>> choice of serialization. The data are extracted and displayed on
>>>>>>>>>>> the
>>>>>>>>>>> resulting page in the HTML, but at least you can *see* the data.
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> Additionally, there are a number of "tools" to help with microdata
>>>>>>>>>>> extraction here:
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> http://schema.rdfs.org/tools.**html<http://schema.rdfs.org/tools.html>
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> Some of these will allow you to output specific (RDF)
>>>>>>>>>>> serializations.
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> HTH,
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> Kevin
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> On 07/10/2012 02:42 PM, Karen Coyle wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>> I have demonstrated the schema.org/RDFa microdata in the WC
>>>>>>>>>>>> database to
>>>>>>>>>>>> various folks and the question always is: how do I get access to
>>>>>>>>>>>> this?
>>>>>>>>>>>> (The only source I have is the Facebook API, me being a "user"
>>>>>>>>>>>> rather
>>>>>>>>>>>> than a "maker".) The microdata is CC-BY once you get a Worldcat
>>>>>>>>>>>> URI, but
>>>>>>>>>>>> is there an open search to get one to the desired records in the
>>>>>>>>>>>> first
>>>>>>>>>>>> place? I'm poorly-versed in WC APIs so I'm hoping others have a
>>>>>>>>>>>> better
>>>>>>>>>>>> grasp.
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>> @rjw: the OCLC website does a thorough job of hiding email
>>>>>>>>>>>> addresses or
>>>>>>>>>>>> I would have asked this directly. Then again, a discussion here
>>>>>>>>>>>> could
>>>>>>>>>>>> have added value.
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>>>>>>>> kc
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Karen Coyle
>>>>> [log in to unmask] http://kcoyle.net
>>>>> ph: 1-510-540-7596
>>>>> m: 1-510-435-8234
>>>>> skype: kcoylenet
>>>>>
>>>>
>> --
>> Karen Coyle
>> [log in to unmask] http://kcoyle.net
>> ph: 1-510-540-7596
>> m: 1-510-435-8234
>> skype: kcoylenet
--
Karen Coyle
[log in to unmask] http://kcoyle.net
ph: 1-510-540-7596
m: 1-510-435-8234
skype: kcoylenet
|
