[Koha] Update on Coce cached cover images

[Agnes Rivers-Moore]

Hello Koha users

I'm writing to let you know about a feature I have been testing - cover images from a Coce server hosted by Bywater. The ability to use Coce has been in Koha since 3.20 but required setup of a server to make it work. Recently, Bywater offered a hosted Coce server for anyone to use. There may also be other Coce servers available in the wider Koha community!

It needs Koha libraries to use it for a time for it to work well (accumulate cached image links), so I am hoping you'll consider the option.

The method is that a server (at Bywater for me) collects and caches links to jacket images from multiple sources; right now Open Library, Google Books and Amazon. Our Koha then gets the links from that server, and in time that means it can call for image links from three sources in a single search, and pick one to display.

Pros: We are getting more cover images - specifically more for older titles and DVDs in addition to those that we got from Amazon. I philosophically approve of using Open Library, and now we can use it and Google Books and Amazon as well. Also the intermediate Coce server protects us from any data gathering that might be collected by Amazon or Google when we fetch a jacket image through their APIs.
You can see some more advantages here:
https://galencharlton.com/blog/2013/08/playing-around-with-coce/
It is really easy to set up now that each Koha system does not need to set up their own Coce server.

Cons: The "Coce" server only collects and saves the image links when a Koha system requests the jacket image, so it takes time and use by a range of libraries for the server to gather a useful collection of cached links.  We find that the return is not fast enough to load images reliably when the Coce server does not yet have a cached link for that title, so a refresh may be needed to load the images.
Also right now it is only available for the OPAC, not the staff interface. I have created bug 18421 requesting that enhancement.  We would have preferred to run it on the staff side only for a while before turning it on for the OPAC.

In practice:
See http://manual.koha-community.org/3.22/en/administration.html#coceimages. Use URL https://coce.bywatersolutions.com or alternate Coce server address. If https: does not work try http:.
We are running both Amazon.ca and Coce at the same time, and loading 2 images for some items, one from each source, until Coce has enough links built up. This is not the intended use! I know it looks untidy but we are prepared to live with that until we can turn off the separate Amazon cover service and rely on getting everything from Coce.

It is currently working on our catalogue at http://koha.hanoverlibrary.ca/cgi-bin/koha/opac-main.pl
To see it in action, search for "Peter" and notice the titles that have only one image - those would have no jacket from Amazon.

Many thanks to Frédéric Demians and everyone involved in writing Coce, and support at Bywater and Equinox for help testing this.
<mailto:frederic at tamil.fr>
Agnes
--
Agnes Rivers-Moore
CEO / Chief Librarian
Hanover Public Library
451 10th Ave,
Hanover, ON, N4N 2P1

Tel: 519.364.1420 x 1244 | Fax: 519.364.1747
Email: arm at hanover.ca<mailto:arm at hanover.ca> | Web: www.hanoverlibrary.ca<http://www.hanoverlibrary.ca>
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