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  • Author Author: phoenixcomm
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Hacking Your Library

phoenixcomm

In 2004,  Kendall Grant Clark of www.XML.com, wrote a series of articles called "Hacking The Library" they where:

  1. Geeks and the Dijalog Lifestyle (Feb 8, 2004)
  2. The Library of Congress Comes Home (March 17, 2004)
  3. Six Steps to LOC@Home (April 28, 2004)
  4. Putting ISBNs to work (June 2, 2004)

Also, PyZ3950 a pure Python Z39.50 which you will need as well.

And lastly, you need Tyrannionware:

Synopsis: "Tyrannioware (written in Python) retrieves MARC data via Z39.50 from a host (I've tested against the Library of Congress, and the National Library of Canada/Bibliothèque Nationale du Canada), parses it, stores it in a PostGreSQL database, and makes it available via the Lucien front end, a set of CGIs (tested with Apache). (MARC is a standard for bibliographic data, with additional information not usually available in online displays. This information varies in utility from indicating leading articles in titles, to enable correct sorting without language-dependent tables, to indicate whether a work is a festschrift. There's the usual metadata tradeoff of richness against the speed of description and accuracy.) Tyrannio uses my PyZ3950 toolkit, which you'll need to install first. You can download the latest Tyrannio tarball (currently 0.8) here."

A good guide on how the library is organized by LOC Classification System. If I recall there are 21 major classifications, all with sub-classifications. ie. T is "Technology", and K is the sub-classification of "Electrical engineering. Electronics. Nuclear engineering", hence a lot of my electronics books start with TK and most are in my lab. I also have a large collection of PDFs from various sources, one of which starts with TL500.35 is the pre-fix for NASA but the papers I have are not in the LOC so you have to wing it. You just have to be consistent, so my NASA papers, standards are cataloged as TL500.35 STD-xxxx where this is a standard. And then there are the LOC Cutter Number System but you can go blind using it, so just use this tool The Cataloging Calculator Let me show you two records:

  • Dallas, Tex. : Texas Instruments, [1984-1985] TK7871.89.S35 T84 1984. But I have 1988? So you get TK7871.89.S35 T84 1988. So all I had to do was to change the date!
  • Or what happens when you have no clue and its not in the LOCdb. Case in point my 1974 Lambda Catalog and Application Handbook.pdf? So why not keep it at TK78.(cutter = L36333) hence TK78.L36333 1974. This is not perfect but it will work for now. 

Again this was project was done by several people, I have added a field for ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number) if all else fails.