Open Library
Open Library ( German: Free library ) is a project for the collaborative creation of a bibliographic database based on an online library. Self- declared goal of the Open Library is to create a website for every book so far published. In many cases, even access to the digital copy of each book title backed with full-text is enabled via the bibliographic evidence beyond.
As a sub-project of the Internet Archive Open Library was largely initiated by Brewster Kahle and was officially launched on 16 July 2007 to life. Partner of the Open Library project is the Open Content Alliance.
According to information provided today are 24 million bibliographic records and the documents and links to 1.2 million digitized books in the Open Library contain (as of November 2009). The bibliographic data of the Open Library is in the public domain (public domain ), while the source code under the GNU Affero General Public License ( AGPL ) is.
The Open Library is non-profit oriented.
Content
In the Open Library approximately 30 million records exist by its own account, of which 20 million publicly accessible and editable with bibliographic information about books. Approximately 5 % of these are also associated with a digitized version of this title.
Proven in the Open Library digitized full come mainly from the pre -preserved in the text archive of the Internet Archive and is no longer copyrighted book titles as well as from the digitized through the Open Content Alliance books. Access to these Buchdigitalisate is usually via the text archive of the Internet Archive. There you will find now many titles of the Google Book Search. The Internet Archive -Book Viewer allows you to scroll in digitized books directly in the browser, they are also searchable as an OCR -generated full text has been deposited. In many cases, then the digitized content are also in different file formats (among others PDF, EPUB, DjVu ) available for download.
Exists with the Boston Public Library a "Scan -on- Demand ' cooperation: one Knocks in the Open Library at the side of a public domain book that has not yet been scanned in the existence of the Boston Public Library and so scan this is a button " book "is displayed. Clicking on this button causes a library staff takes place before the book off the shelf and brings it to the " Scanning Center", where it is digitized for Open Library.
Technical Basics
As a web server, the Open Library uses a Lighttpd server with a FastCGI interface. The search is based on a Solr search server with a Lucene software library.
Since May 6, 2010, the Open Library presented with a new layout and advanced features. With the relaunch of the beta phase is officially over, but the new version is not yet fully functional.
Cataloging
For cataloging bibliographic data displays a form in which the corresponding data can be entered. These are not mandatory fields defined. For the " Author" field, there is a register, which can be extended by anyone. All other fields have no related registers.
In addition to entering the common bibliographic data, the DDC and the LoC classifications can be entered. In addition, it is possible a structured table of contents, einzupflegen a description and the first sentence of the book in the catalog record. The metadata of a track can be uploaded by the users also book cover or images to the authors.
Retrieval functions
The Open Library offers both a simple and an advanced search. Furthermore, a faceted browsing ( drill-down ) is possible in which the search results can be modified by turning on and off various filters. However, a ranking of the search results, eg by Relevance criteria is not possible.
Links with other services
The individual titles in the Open Library include links to Google Book Search and book retailers like Amazon and AbeBooks. It also points to the corresponding WorldCat record of each book.
In addition, there is the possibility of using machine-readable tags from Flickr photos on Open Library book and author pages link to it.
Several open -Library APIs allow mash- ups:
- About the REST API with various search queries are possible. The response is in JSON or RDF.
- About the Books API can be used to query information about specific books by the ISBN, OCLC number, LCCN & the Open Library ID OLID. The response is in JSON format.
- The covers API allows a query of book covers and author photos in three sizes (small, medium, large). The response is in JPG format.
Open Library and Libraries
The Library of Congress, the California State Library and the Boston Public Library are cooperating with the Open Library (see contents of the Open Library ). In addition, the catalog data of numerous libraries in Open Library have already been imported. In return, of course, can download the recorded in the Open Library metadata and integrate in their own catalog and libraries through the APIs or via bulk download. To find, for example, in Cologne's university general catalog now the evidence to the 565,000 recorded in the Open Library digitized.
OCLC and the British Library does not endorse the Open Library, however.
Demarcation from LibraryThing
Unlike LibraryThing is at the Open Library is not a Web application to manage personal media library catalogs and lists. Not even the individual specimens are cataloged in Open Library, but only the metadata of the books. This also explains the numerical difference: in LibraryThing more than 45 million books, including copy data sets are cataloged (November 2009), in the Open Library half ( only books, no copies). Unlike LibraryThing, where fees are charged for certain applications Open Library is completely free. The LibraryThing founder Tim Spalding supports the Open Library since the development phase.