[Dtb-talk] Federated z39.50 searches for DAISY books

[Greg Kearney]

I have been working some on the federated search system of DAISY and Braille books. This system permits the searching for books across several library systems at the same time. It addresses the issue of how to keep databases up to date. In a federated search system each library maintains it's own z39.50 server on a publicly accessible port. The federated search knows now to connect to each system and can combine the search results for the user.

Improvements in this version include the return of Vision Australia's library and control of the display of the results with human readable and machine readable MARC record.

In addition the National Library Service (USA) search can be limited to collections from Bookshare.org, RFBD and other similar collections.

Finally phase searching can done by entering phases bound in quotes for example "Ethel Turner"

The federated search can be found at  http://bookservermac.guidedogswa.org/tmp/yaz.php

If there are any other talking book libraries in the world which would like to take part in this project please contact me. Please feel free to give it a try and let me know what you think. Thank you.

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