Comments on: Experiments with YazProxy

By: Danielle Plumer

Danielle Plumer — Tue, 06 May 2008 18:54:08 +0000

Karen,
A couple of options. The guys at UNT (Mark Phillips and Kurt Nordstrom) have successfully set up an SRU server, using Solr for the indexing, which might be an alternative approach. Ladd Hanson at UT Austin has set up a Zebra server running SRU, although I’m having some problems with it that we need to figure out. Also, I’m going to try to get Sebastian Hammer from Index Data here this summer, and it might be a good time to bring in Ralph LeVan from OCLC again (their resident SRU guru). We could have another SRU workshop like I did a couple of years ago.
If you’d like me to test your setup using the SRU client we have built into TexasHeritageOnline, let me know.
Danielle

By: Karen

Karen — Tue, 06 May 2008 01:23:18 +0000

Well, things like e-journals are particularly problematic for a number of reasons. First if a library gets the journal from an aggregator (like say EbscoHost’s Academic Search Complete) there is an issue with the fact that what you get changes frequently, which is why libraries rely on vendors like Serial Solutions to help them keep their data up to date. But even with Serial Solutions this information has to be batch loaded on a regular basis. In terms of OCLC, I believe that this would mean adding and removing ones symbol from records frequently enough to create a maintenance issue. Non-aggregator access can also change dramatically over time. Most libraries have issues keeping up with e-journals as it is.

Also, some library’s don’t add items to OCLC that they don’t lend via ILL. In their minds, what is the point of letting people know you have it if they can’t use it. Either they can’t ILL it or it is an electronic item whose access is limited to specific users. (Ejournals and E-books are good examples of things that typically only an institution’s affiliates have access to).
Oh then there is the issue of correct URLs for electronic items. Most institutions provide access to these via proxy so each institution has a slightly different url.

These are just a few reasons why libraries might not give OCLC all their holdings info. It sure does makes things messy though.

By: Jonathan Rochkind

Jonathan Rochkind — Mon, 05 May 2008 23:24:54 +0000

I’m curious about why it isn’t the case. I definitely get the feeling that OCLC would _like_ libraries to add all their holdings to Worldcat (for their own business purposes, of course). Worldcat Local users are doing so–if not yet, then working on it. (soon to include the entire northwest summit consortium).

But I realize that most libraries, my own included, don’t do this, and feel that they couldn’t -possibly- do this, that it would create some kind of problem. But I don’t really understand why exactly, even at my own library.