On 10/19/07, <b class="gmail_sendername">ils shopping</b> <<a href="mailto:ils.shopping@gmail.com">ils.shopping@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<div><span class="gmail_quote"></span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Our system administrator once again assured me he can output all the<br>MARC data as a standard file and that he can give me files for<br>individual details such as item, hold, call number, and user data.<br><br>Most of the data other than MARC will be in delimited with "|". We
<br>don't have alot of experience with SQL loading but he came up with a<br>pretty interesting thought on sharing the process of migrating data<br>out of Sirsi Unicorn. Apparently they have a site for the storing of<br>
API data. He proposed posting the information there so that other<br>sites needing the information would have access without raising legal<br>problems for the Koha project.<br></blockquote><div> <br>Glad to hear of your Board's support for migration.
<br><br></div>The two main venues for discussion and sharing of Unicorn API code are Sirsi's client care forum and the "API Repository" at <a href="http://sirsiapi.org/">http://sirsiapi.org/</a><br><br>The former is directly controlled by Sirsi, the latter indirectly. As you'll notice from following that link, neither is sufficiently open to allow those interested access, without a current account or the company's "API certification" (
i.e., spending ~$5000 and a week of your time in their classes). While the other folks on those sites might be interested, I don't think it makes sense to impose that threshold on libraries hoping or intending to leave Unicorn, or to trust SirsiDynix to host material that is works effectively against their business interests.
<br><br>Something like sourceforge or any other public site would be better. (And to be honest, the repository sees very little activity anyway.) In general though, I think you are right that there are a lot of Unicorn sites out there, and many of them will be considering or actively pursuing the exact same kind of tasks your library is about to undertake.
<br><br>--joe atzberger<br></div>