Yaz4J is a wrapper library over the client-specific parts of YAZ, a C-based Z39.50 toolkit, and allows you to use the ZOOM API directly from Java. Initial version of Yaz4j has been written by Rob Styles from Talis and the project is now developed and maintained at IndexData. ZOOM is a relatively straightforward API and with a few lines of code you can write a basic application that can establish connection to a Z39.50 server. Here we will try to build a very simple HTTP-to-Z3950 gateway using yaz4j and the Java Servlet technology.

from Building a simple HTTP-to-Z39.50 gateway using Yaz4j and Tomcat | Index Data.

I write Yaz4J a couple of years ago now and it’s great to see it getting some use outside of Talis.

Las Vegas, Nevada (CNN) — The first generation of electronic readers had little more than black-and-white text. The second generation had black-and-white text, simple graphics and Web connectivity.

Glimpses of the third generation are on display this week at the International Consumer Electronics Show, where manufacturers are previewing e-readers with color screens, interactive graphics and magazine-style layouts.

from Bold new e-readers grab attention at CES – CNN.com.

Did you notice what just happened? I used used an URI as an identifier for a subject. If you popped that URI into your browser, it will take you to WikiPedia’s article on the book and provide a lot of info there in human prose about this book, and this would make it rather easy for Bob to say that, yes indeed, that’s the same book I’ve got. So now we’ve got me and Bob agreeing that we have the same book.

from ShelterIt – My digital think-tank: On identity.

Great piece by Alexander Johannesen about the future of library data, semantic web and the difficulties of getting from here to there.

yaz4j is a toolkit for Java which includes a wrapper for the ZOOM API of YAZ. This allows developers to write Z39.50/SRU clients in Java. yaz4j supports both search and scan. See the javadoc for details.

from yaz4j | Index Data.

I wrote Yaz4J a couple of years ago when I needed a robust Z39.50 client. The underlying work is done by Index Data’s Yaz library, wrapped for use in Java using JNI (and yes, JNI does work fine and yes it does work cross-platform, we have it running on Linux, Windows and OS X). I hadn’t ever found the time to properly structure and mavenise the code or release it properly so it’s very pleasing that Adam Dickmeiss and Mike Taylor from Index Data along with Juan Cayetano have tidied it all up and published it under a home on Index Data’s site.

The problem from my standpoint is that MODS has some really odd, library-specific, design choices that I don’t think map very well to the wider world. A central concept like mods:name, with mods:role as a child of that, really makes no sense, and conflicts with more common modeling you see in DC, FRBR ,etc.

It’s semantics are also really loose.

So you have to ask yourself, just how linked could a MODS view in RDF really be?

from Conversation with Bruce D’Arcus on Motivation for MODS Ontology.

On the surface, to those not yet bought in to the potential of Linked Data, and especially Linked Open Data, this may seem like an interesting but not necessarily massive leap forward. I believe that what underpins the fairly simple functional user interface they provide will gradually become core to bibliographic data becoming a first-class citizen in the web of data.

Overnight this uri ‘http://id.loc.gov/authorities/sh85042531’ has now become the globally available, machine and human readable, reliable source for the description for the subject heading of ‘Elephants’ containing links to its related terms (in a way that both machines and humans can navigate). This means that system developers and integrators can rely upon that link to represent a concept, not necessarily the way they want to [locally] describe it. This should facilitate the ability for disparate systems and services to simply share concepts and therefore understanding – one of the basic principles behind the Semantic Web.

from Panlibus » Blog Archive » Library of Congress launch Linked Data Subject Headings.

Great to see LoC doing this stuff and getting it out there.

Despite the internet’s origins as an academic network, when it comes to finding a book, e-commerce rules. Put any book title into your favourite search engine, and the hits will be dominated by commercial sites run by retailers, publishers, even authors. But even with your postcode, you won’t find the nearest library where you can borrow that book. (The exception is Google Books, and even that is limited.)

via Why you can’t find a library book in your search engine | Technology | The Guardian.

I get a namecheck and a quote at the end:

Rob Styles, a programme manager for Talis’s data services, says: “The main reason I think libraries need freedom to innovate is because we don’t know what they’re going to look like”.

OCLC, Record Usage, Copyright, Contracts and the Law

More OCLC Policy…

Schroedinger’s WorldCat

I’m just posted this over on panlibus:

Panlibus » Blog Archive » OCLC is listening.

JISC is running a Developer Happiness Days meet, sort of like a 4 day hackfest, come code4lib type thing.

Over four intensive days we’re bringing together the cream of the crop of educational software developers along with coders from other sectors, users, and technological tinkerers in an exciting new forum.

Share your skills and knowledge with the coding community in a stimulating and fun environment and come away with new skills, fresh contacts – and you might even win a prize.

Sounds like it will be a great few days.