--- Tim Shearer <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hi Folks,
>
> I'm looking into tapping the texts in the Open Content Alliance.
>
> A few questions...
>
> As near as I can tell, they don't expose (perhaps even store?) any common
> unique identifiers (oclc number, issn, isbn, loc number).
I poked around in this world a few months ago in my previous job at California Digital Library,
also an OCA partner.
The unique key seems to be text string identifier (one that seems to be completely different from
the text string identifier in Open Library). Apparently there was talk at the last partner meeting
about moving to ISBNs:
http://dilettantes.code4lib.org/2007/10/22/tales-from-the-open-content-alliance/
To obtain identifiers in bulk, I think the recommended approach is the OAI-PMH interface, which
seems more reliable in recent months:
http://www.archive.org/services/oai.php?verb=Identify
http://www.archive.org/services/oai.php?verb=ListIdentifiers&metadataPrefix=oai_dc&set=collection:cdl
etc.
Additional instructions if you want to grab the content files.
From any book's metadata page (e.g., http://www.archive.org/details/chemicallecturee00newtrich)
click through on the "Usage Rights: See Terms" link; the rights are on a pane on the left-hand
side.
Once you know the identifier, you can grab the content files, using this syntax:
http://www.archive.org/details/$ID
Like so:
http://www.archive.org/details/chemicallecturee00newtrich
And then sniff the page to find the FTP link:
ftp://ia340915.us.archive.org/2/items/chemicallecturee00newtrich
But I think they prefer to use HTTP for these, not the FTP, so switch this to:
http://ia340915.us.archive.org/2/items/chemicallecturee00newtrich
Hope this helps!
--SET
> We're a contributer so I can use curl to grab our records via http (and
> regexp my way to our local catalog identifiers, which they do
> store/expose).
>
> I've played a bit with the z39.50 interface at indexdata
> (http://www.indexdata.dk/opencontent/), but I'm not confident about the
> content behind it. I get very limited results, for instance I can't find
> any UNC records and we're fairly new to the game.
>
> Again, I'm looking for unique identifiers in what I can get back and it's
> slim pickings.
>
> Anyone cracked this nut? Got any life lessons for me?
>
> Thanks!
> Tim
>
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> Tim Shearer
>
> Web Development Coordinator
> The University Library
> University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
> [log in to unmask]
> 919-962-1288
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>
