I realized since I made that comment that the API is designed to give the top 10 subject heading suggestions rather than all of them. 

So that part is fine. But I am once again unsure if the API will work for me. I am creating a mashup of several data sources for my auto-suggest feature, and I am having a hard time dynamically adding the results from the LOC Suggest API to the existing collection of data that is used to populate my jQuery UI Autocomplete field. Ideally, I'd like to be able to have all the LC Subject Heading data cached on my server so that I can build my autocomplete data source one time rather than having to deal with dynamically adding, sorting, etc. But then the problem I run into is that the LCSH master file is so big that it basically crashes the server.

That's why I'm thinking I might have to give up on this project.

Josh Welker


-----Original Message-----
From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Michael J. Giarlo
Sent: Wednesday, June 05, 2013 9:59 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] LOC Subject Headings API

Josh,

Can you say more about how the API isn't behaving as you expected it to?

-Mike



On Wed, Jun 5, 2013 at 10:37 AM, Joshua Welker <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I went with this method and made some good progress, but the results 
> the API was returning were not what I expected. I might have to give 
> up on this project.
>
> Josh Welker
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf 
> Of Ethan Gruber
> Sent: Wednesday, June 05, 2013 8:22 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] LOC Subject Headings API
>
> You'd write some javascript to query the service with every keystroke, e.g.
> http://id.loc.gov/authorities/suggest/?q=Hi replies with subjects 
> beginning with "hi*"  It looks like covo.js supports LCSH, so you 
> could look into that.
>
> Ethan
>
>
> On Wed, Jun 5, 2013 at 9:13 AM, Joshua Welker <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > This would work, except I would need a way to get all the subjects 
> > rather than just biology. Any idea how to do that? I tried removing 
> > the querystring from the URL and changing "Biology" in the URL to ""
> > with no success.
> >
> > Josh Welker
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf 
> > Of Michael J. Giarlo
> > Sent: Tuesday, June 04, 2013 7:05 PM
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] LOC Subject Headings API
> >
> > How about id.loc.gov's OpenSearch-powered autosuggest feature?
> >
> > mjg@moby:~$ curl http://id.loc.gov/authorities/suggest/?q=Biology
> > ["Biology",["Biology","Biology Colloquium","Biology Curators'
> > Group","Biology Databook Editorial Board (U.S.)","Biology and Earth 
> > Sciences Teaching Institute","Biology and Management of True Fir in 
> > the Pacific Northwest Symposium (1981 : Seattle, Wash.)","Biology 
> > and Resource Management Program (Alaska Cooperative Park Studies 
> > Unit)","Biology and behavior series","Biology and environment 
> > (Macmillan Press)","Biology and management of old-growth 
> > forests"],["1
> > result","1 result","1 result","1
> > result","1 result","1 result","1 result","1 result","1 result","1 
> > result"],["http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85014203","
> > http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79006962","
> > http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n90639795","
> > http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n85100466","
> > http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/nr97041787","
> > http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n85276541","
> > http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n82057525","
> > http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n90605518","
> > http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/nr2001011448","
> > http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no94028058"]]
> >
> > -Mike
> >
> >
> >
> > On Tue, Jun 4, 2013 at 7:51 PM, Joshua Welker <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
> >
> > > I did see that, and it will work in a pinch. But the authority 
> > > file is pretty massive--almost 1GB-- and would be difficult to 
> > > handle in an automated way and without completely killing my web 
> > > app due to memory constraints while searching the file. Thanks, though.
> > >
> > > Josh Welker
> > >
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Bryan Baldus [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> > > Sent: Tuesday, June 04, 2013 6:39 PM
> > > To: Code for Libraries; Joshua Welker
> > > Subject: RE: LOC Subject Headings API
> > >
> > > On Tuesday, June 04, 2013 6:31 PM, Joshua Welker 
> > > [[log in to unmask]]
> > > wrote:
> > > >I am building an auto-suggest feature into our library's search 
> > > >box, and
> > > I am wanting to include LOC subject headings in my suggestions list.
> > > Does anyone know of any web service that allows for automated 
> > > harvesting of LOC Subject Headings? I am also looking for name
> > authorities, for that matter.
> > > Any format will be acceptable to me: RDF, XML, JSON, HTML, CSV... 
> > > I have spent a while Googling with no luck, but this seems like 
> > > the sort of general-purpose thing that a lot of people would be 
> > > interested
> in.
> > > I feel like I must be missing something. Any help is appreciated.
> > >
> > > Have you seen http://id.loc.gov/ with bulk downloads in various 
> > > formats at http://id.loc.gov/download/
> > >
> > > I hope this helps,
> > >
> > > Bryan Baldus
> > > Senior Cataloger
> > > Quality Books Inc.
> > > The Best of America's Independent Presses
> > > 1-800-323-4241x402
> > > [log in to unmask]
> > > [log in to unmask]
> > > http://home.comcast.net/~eijabb/
> > >
> >
>