Comments on: rescuing data from the OPAC http://www.walkingpaper.org/386 A library weblog by Aaron Schmidt Sat, 13 Mar 2010 15:02:38 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: Aaron http://www.walkingpaper.org/386/comment-page-1#comment-11268 Aaron Thu, 11 Jan 2007 17:27:17 +0000 http://www.walkingpaper.org/386#comment-11268 awesome ideas! the fact that i had been working on this and was sooo sick of making entires was one of the reasons i was so excited about the technical aspects of your project. let me know if you do anything more with it. awesome ideas! the fact that i had been working on this and was sooo sick of making entires was one of the reasons i was so excited about the technical aspects of your project.

let me know if you do anything more with it.

]]> By: caleb http://www.walkingpaper.org/386/comment-page-1#comment-11262 caleb Thu, 11 Jan 2007 10:02:55 +0000 http://www.walkingpaper.org/386#comment-11262 i'm just getting around to looking at this. i love that you went ahead and did it anyway without the "automatic" part. iii records are pretty easy to scrape if you can convince the opac admins to turn on xrecord in the wwwoptions. /record and /xrecord searches work on accession numbers, and accession numbers are incremental, so it's real easy to guess what the next accession number is going to be. just tell the admins your trained monkeys will only slam the website in the middle of the night. failing that, here are some other wacky schemes: how about setting up a fake patron account and use iii's e-mail alerts to notify a script of when new dvds are added to tfml? it won't handle discards, but might work well for new materials. isn't that sad? it might work? better yet just have the acquisitions staff put a hold on every movie for your fake patron. when it comes in, have the e-mail alert your patron. or just have them scan the UPC into a text file. if it's really this important, convince the other swan partners. spring for a few extra dollars for more lists, or share a movie list and have the trained monkeys divy it up by location. i’m just getting around to looking at this. i love that you went ahead and did it anyway without the “automatic” part.

iii records are pretty easy to scrape if you can convince the opac admins to turn on xrecord in the wwwoptions. /record and /xrecord searches work on accession numbers, and accession numbers are incremental, so it’s real easy to guess what the next accession number is going to be. just tell the admins your trained monkeys will only slam the website in the middle of the night.

failing that, here are some other wacky schemes:

how about setting up a fake patron account and use iii’s e-mail alerts to notify a script of when new dvds are added to tfml? it won’t handle discards, but might work well for new materials. isn’t that sad? it might work?

better yet just have the acquisitions staff put a hold on every movie for your fake patron. when it comes in, have the e-mail alert your patron. or just have them scan the UPC into a text file.

if it’s really this important, convince the other swan partners. spring for a few extra dollars for more lists, or share a movie list and have the trained monkeys divy it up by location.

]]> By: Sarah Houghton-Jan (Librarian in Black) http://www.walkingpaper.org/386/comment-page-1#comment-10977 Sarah Houghton-Jan (Librarian in Black) Mon, 18 Dec 2006 23:31:31 +0000 http://www.walkingpaper.org/386#comment-10977 I like the genre tagging idea--much like some libraries are doing booklist blogs, and tagging by genre so users can easily see all the mysteries at once, or all the cookbooks...whatever. The one thing that stops me from doing something like that for our twelve libraries is sheer scale. I think this works well for a small library (even with the number you had to hand-enter, I am amazed at your endurance). For large libraries with thousands upon thousands of films, this becomes untenable. It is, however, something that we should be able to extract from our library catalogs in a nice presentable way. Browsing in the catalog should be an option. Period. May I live long enough to see that day.... I like the genre tagging idea–much like some libraries are doing booklist blogs, and tagging by genre so users can easily see all the mysteries at once, or all the cookbooks…whatever. The one thing that stops me from doing something like that for our twelve libraries is sheer scale. I think this works well for a small library (even with the number you had to hand-enter, I am amazed at your endurance). For large libraries with thousands upon thousands of films, this becomes untenable. It is, however, something that we should be able to extract from our library catalogs in a nice presentable way. Browsing in the catalog should be an option. Period. May I live long enough to see that day….

]]> By: Dylan Baker http://www.walkingpaper.org/386/comment-page-1#comment-10913 Dylan Baker Wed, 13 Dec 2006 02:40:50 +0000 http://www.walkingpaper.org/386#comment-10913 Excellent idea making a separate post for each title -- that's really slick that patrons can comment on each individual movie. I may have to consider doing that for our library's video game lists. Currently I just have them in a big list, with each title linked to the catalog. However, making each video game a separate post would allow for some pretty cool sorting (like by title, genre, rating, etc). Thanks for providing the inspiration! Excellent idea making a separate post for each title — that’s really slick that patrons can comment on each individual movie.

I may have to consider doing that for our library’s video game lists. Currently I just have them in a big list, with each title linked to the catalog. However, making each video game a separate post would allow for some pretty cool sorting (like by title, genre, rating, etc). Thanks for providing the inspiration!

]]> By: Aaron http://www.walkingpaper.org/386/comment-page-1#comment-10909 Aaron Tue, 12 Dec 2006 20:39:39 +0000 http://www.walkingpaper.org/386#comment-10909 That's a great thought and definitely in the works for later revisions of this site. I also want to display recent comments, and list the most films most commented upon. With any luck I can work these things in to the new design. That’s a great thought and definitely in the works for later revisions of this site. I also want to display recent comments, and list the most films most commented upon. With any luck I can work these things in to the new design.

]]> By: jill http://www.walkingpaper.org/386/comment-page-1#comment-10908 jill Tue, 12 Dec 2006 20:31:01 +0000 http://www.walkingpaper.org/386#comment-10908 Hey, Aaron - I think this will be very useful for patrons! I especially like that you link to the IMDB (and that it's open for comment, of course). Do you think you could organize the posts by category (genre) too for those who want a comedy, for example, but don't know which one? You could borrow the genre terms from the IMDB or subject terms from the catalog or something like that. I know from other places I worked with substantial feature film collections, that I was asked for that a lot...Thanks for sharing! Hey, Aaron – I think this will be very useful for patrons! I especially like that you link to the IMDB (and that it’s open for comment, of course). Do you think you could organize the posts by category (genre) too for those who want a comedy, for example, but don’t know which one? You could borrow the genre terms from the IMDB or subject terms from the catalog or something like that. I know from other places I worked with substantial feature film collections, that I was asked for that a lot…Thanks for sharing!

]]> By: Aaron http://www.walkingpaper.org/386/comment-page-1#comment-10907 Aaron Tue, 12 Dec 2006 20:15:26 +0000 http://www.walkingpaper.org/386#comment-10907 *(ideally updated automatically when new records are added to the system)* Yes, for any collection larger than ours this is probably a necessity. Sadly, it is also an impossibility for those of us who only have web-based and non-admin access to the OPAC. Glad you like it, borrow away. I can't wait to see an automated version. *(ideally updated automatically when new records are added to the system)*

Yes, for any collection larger than ours this is probably a necessity. Sadly, it is also an impossibility for those of us who only have web-based and non-admin access to the OPAC.

Glad you like it, borrow away. I can’t wait to see an automated version.

]]> By: Dave Pattern http://www.walkingpaper.org/386/comment-page-1#comment-10906 Dave Pattern Tue, 12 Dec 2006 20:07:45 +0000 http://www.walkingpaper.org/386#comment-10906 Aaron -- this is a great idea, and one that I may have to stea.... ahem, I mean borrow! I think all we have at the moment is a xerox'd list for our DVDs, but a web based version (ideally updated automatically when new records are added to the system) would be much better. Aaron — this is a great idea, and one that I may have to stea…. ahem, I mean borrow!

I think all we have at the moment is a xerox’d list for our DVDs, but a web based version (ideally updated automatically when new records are added to the system) would be much better.

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