[Dtb-talk] An experimental federated search of accessible books

[Fr. John Sheehan]

Interesting. All of our library holdings are part of the NLS database so we're 
covered. I look forward to seeing how it works out.
 Fr. John R. Sheehan, SJ
Chairman


Xavier Society for the Blind
154 East 23rd St
New York, NY 10010
(212) 473-7800
Help us raise money for the Xavier Society for the Blind just by searching the 
Internet or shopping online with GoodSearch - www.goodsearch.com - powered by 
Yahoo! Free for you - and money for us! Thank you.




________________________________
From: Greg Kearney <gkearney at gmail.com>
To: Tony Iezzi <Tony.Iezzi at visionaustralia.org>; Andrew Furlong 
<Andrew.Furlong at visionaustralia.org>; VIP-L list <vip-l at freelists.org>; 
Technical Developments Discussion List <technical-developments at mail.daisy.org>; 
daisy group <dmfc-ig at mail.daisy.org>; Discussion of Digital Talking Books 
<dtb-talk at nfbnet.org>; Alternate Media <altmedia at htclistserv.htctu.fhda.edu>
Sent: Mon, November 8, 2010 4:00:32 AM
Subject: [Dtb-talk] An experimental federated search of accessible books

Greeting;

The following is somewhat technical if your not into do not worry about it too 
much.

One of the great problems we see in alternative media is knowing where a book is 
or who might have produced it. This federated search experiment attempts to 
address that problem. 


A federated search is a single point to search across multiple holdings of 
title. To this end I have an experimental z39.50 proxy server running which will 
search the following sources:

Association for the Blind of Western Australia braille and talking book library
Vision Australia braille and talking book library
National Library Service (USA) which hold their own records and those of RFB&D 
as well.

There is a webpage where you can try this out at 
http://www.guidedogswa.org/tmp/yaz.php

While the web interface works it is slow. I would recommend that you use a true 
z39.50 client and direct it to the following:

Server: www.guidedogswa.org
Port: 9000
Database: all

You can also direct your searches to just one of the services by changing the 
database:

Association for the Blind of Western Australia: Database: ab
Vision Australia: Database: va
National LIbrary Service: Database: nls

And these libraries which are not part of the "all" database
Libraries Australia: Database la
Library of Congress (USA): database: lc

Please understand that at this point this is a very experimental system prone to 
breaking down or going off line without any  warning. 


Thanks for any comments if you have or know of other libraries holding 
collections of alternative media with z39.50 server running I would like to be 
able to add those servers to the system. I can also convert collections of books 
in spreadsheet form to work in this system as well. If you have any comments or 
questions please feel free to contact me.


Gregory Kearney | Manager Accessible Media
Association for the Blind of WA - Guide Dogs WA
PO Box 101, Victoria Park WA 6979 | 61 Kitchener Ave, Victoria Park WA 6100
Tel: 08 9311 8246 | Fax: 08 9361 8696 | www.guidedogswa.com.au
Tel: 307-224-4022 (North America)
Email: greg.kearney at guidedogswa.com.au
Email: gkearney at gmail.com


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