[Koha] opac add-on

[Baljkas Family]

Sunday, November 7, 2004    20:47 CST

Hi, all,

Just wanted to sound off quickly on this whole link-to-Amazon idea.

Please, be aware, that not all of us in the library world are that enamoured of Amazon.com. Yes, they have transformed the world of bookselling and they certainly provide a valuable resource of information to librarians and readers in general.

That acknowledged, their 'formula' for determining what books would be of interest to you as a reader is laughable. It relies heavily on commercialised data, totally ignoring the fact that many people are buying books for more than one person at a time, whereas (depending on the demographic) most library users are only borrowing for themselves.

Their standard review sources are reputable (if again, overwhelmingly commercial: try to find a critical review that is actually critical! I dare you!) but many people seem to rely on the readership. Some of the ignorant voices that are allowed authority in this manner are very troubling, indeed, and may dissuade readers away from good materials that fall outside popular fads and even scholarly vogues.

For suggested materials, I'd sooner trust NoveList or the Reader's Guides to various genre lits than Amazon. It is practically useless in terms of more academic materials. Some of the ludicrous things it's suggested to me in the past indicate some fairly eccentric buying patterns somewhere in the U.S.

I think the idea of allowing a link to Amazon -- AS AN OPTION -- is great. I myself would not want a library catalogue I was responsible for taking on the role of free advertising for a vast commercial enterprise.

I thought what Chris suggested was more useful, and certainly conforms with what I have seen done: quick summaries in 520s derived from Amazon.com, with that source cited in the note.

With either approach, given the copyright statement at the bottom of all Amazon.com pages, I am wondering whether you might have legal problems whether you link to them or downlink their info to your catalogue. (You may not be aware of this, but it is illegal to download the cover shots of books for use in one's own catalogue without express permission -- whether one can scan the covers of books and other materials and use those as photographic proof of ownership would depend on jurisdictional interpretations.)

Finally, one note on ISBNs. However Amazon.com is managing the ISBN/ASIN numbers, they do seem to change the location -- not to forget the actual contents!! -- of pages depending on whether the item sought is still in print and available through them, still available but no longer in print, and when it is no longer in print and no longer available through them. Wouldn't you need to be able to design something to discriminate between those 3 cases?

Anyway, just some thoughts.

Cheers,
Steven F. Baljkas
library tech at large
Koha neophyte
Winnipeg, MB, Canada
 
> From: "Owen Leonard" <oleonard at athenscounty.lib.oh.us>
> Date: 2004/11/07 Sun PM 03:04:33 CST
> To: koha at lists.katipo.co.nz
> Subject: Re: [Koha] opac add-on
> 
> > here is an example
> > 
> http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/073571228x/qid%3D1099770
> 587/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F1/102-8947619-9086523
> >  
> > 
> http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1861004494/qid%3D1099770
> 864/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F1/102-8947619-9086523
> > 
> > the isbn# folows the /ASIN/ in the url 
> > note that the next pointer /qid%xxx... has changed.
> > 
> > simply changing the field after /ASIN/ to the isbn
> > will not give you the correct result.
> 
> If I understand you correctly, the root of your problem is 
> that all the stuff *after* the ISBN doesn't matter at all.  
> It's all session stuff.  All you need is this:
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/073571228x/
> 
> ...in order to pull up an Amazon record.  Amazon adds all the 
> rest.  So we make the link in the template like this:
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/<!-- TMPL_VAR 
> NAME="isbn" -->
> 
> It should work fine.  
> 
> > 3. a computer driven enter or cr.
> 
> This is the part that's not possible.  You can't simulate user 
> input like that on a separate site.  And if we're just talking 
> about pulling up an Amazon record from an ISBN, we don't have 
> to.
> 
> One concern, however, is how far to trust Amazon to always 
> have details on the item in your catalog.  That's where a 
> solution like Chris' has advantages--you're sucking down the 
> information into your own database, so you know whether 
> there's extended information to display.
> 
>   -- Owen
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