http://qs1969.pair.com?node_id=60678

The stats pages now support the Virtual Distributed Library. I'll fix the node scanner in the next day to scan for the tags mentioned in (jcwren) Re: Virtual Distributed Library. The books you see in there right now are not really part of the library! (although I do have 2 that I'm willing to send to someone who will be a librarian. I'm a horrible horrible person about getting to a post office to mail stuff).

If you have books you want to offer, send me a /msg, and I'll manually insert them into the database, for the moment. In either case, offerers and wanters should go ahead and put the appropriate tags in their homenodes, but they won't show up until I make the node scanner changes.

As usualy, any complaints should be sent to /dev/n... I mean, jcwren@jcwren.com, and I'll attempt to address them.

Next stats pages feature coming up: Ability to request an immediate tag scan of your homenode, and get feedback about any erroneously formatted tags.

--Chris

e-mail jcwren

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
(jcwren) Re: Virtual Distributed Library Online
by jcwren (Prior) on Feb 25, 2001 at 21:50 UTC

    Couple of notes here:

    Here are some example books tags:

    • <!-- book-offered:1-56592-419-3 -->
    • <!-- book-offered:0-7357-0921-1 -->
    • <!-- book-wanted:0-201-48567-2 -->
    • <!-- book-loaned:1-56592-262-X,user=979 -->
    • <!-- book-loaned:1-56592-392-8,user=39362 -->
    I would recommend formatting the ISBN number as it looks on the back of the book. This is called 'The Pretty ISBN Format', but in no way actually impacts anything. ISBN numbers are always 10 digits, except for the last character, which may be an upper or lowercase letter 'X'. Any prettifying dashes are stripped when actually manipulating ISBN numbers.

    ISBNs contain a publisher code, a country code, and a check digit in them. There is a CPAN module Business::ISBN that is useful for validating ISBN numbers, as far as being legally constructed and having a valid check digit. Alas, there is no CPAN module for interfacing to an ISBN database and returning nicely formatted data for our own purposes.

    Someone referenced me to a site that allows ISBN lookups, and returns HTML that is parsable, although it's still pretty ugly. www.isbn.nu is the root site, and a book can be looked up by going to isbn.nu/0764550292/price. The 0764550292 is the ISBN. You don't have to add the /price, but it will re-write the URL to contain it. There don't seem to be any obvious other options than /price.

    Here's what NOT to do:

    • <!-- book-loaned:0764550292,user=<a href="/index.pl?node=9270&lastnode_id=979">9270</a> -->
    • <!-- book-loaned:0-7645-0762-1,user=<a href="/index.pl?node=9270&lastnode_id=979">9270</a> -->
    Note that some silly person tried to stuff a URL in there, when it should just be the homenode number of the person the book is lent to. If it's not a valid homenode number, the scanner will kick it out.

    And while I think everyone pretty much has in mind lending Perl related books, remember that since it's a simple ISBN, you can also loan your copies of 'McCracken on Fortran', 'Dr. Suess: Green Eggs & Ham', and 'The Kama Sutra'.

    --Chris

    e-mail jcwren
      jcwren, this is great. Thank you for providing a mechanism for this idea.

      <quote> ISBNs contain a publisher code, a country code, and a check digit in them. There is a CPAN module Business::ISBN that is useful for validating ISBN numbers, as far as being legally constructed and having a valid check digit. Alas, there is no CPAN module for interfacing to an ISBN database and returning nicely formatted data for our own purposes. </quote>

      would there be some mechanism perhaps for trawling amazon or other bookseller? I think I may check that out today, actually. Does anyone have another idea? Just having the ISBN doesnt really help, I dont think. We need to go just one additional step.

      feelin' groovy,
      brother dep.

      --
      transcending "coolness" is what makes us cool.

Re: Virtual Distributed Library Online
by AgentM (Curate) on Feb 25, 2001 at 06:37 UTC
    Idea for you and others to consider: Could there be certain flags to indicate whether a book wishes to be sold/bought, traded, or just temporarily lent? I use my books periodically, so I wouldn't be willing to sell, but I'd be happy to trade books for a month or two. Such a system would be able to accomodate for this as well...
    AgentM Systems nor Nasca Enterprises nor Bone::Easy nor Macperl is responsible for the comments made by AgentM. Remember, you can build any logical system with NOR.
Re: Virtual Distributed Library Online
by footpad (Abbot) on Feb 25, 2001 at 10:21 UTC
Re: Virtual Distributed Library Online
by unixwzrd (Beadle) on Feb 25, 2001 at 11:25 UTC
    Just a thought, maybe it's obvious but, some of the books once they've been assimilated by the new borrower/owner, that person could also be considerate and make the book available to someone else. Sort of like "pass it on..."

    Mike - mps@discomsys.com

    "The two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen... and stupidity."
    Harlan Ellison

      Good idea, as long as the original owner knows what's going on with their book (if the book is being borrowed, not sold.. ).

      That may have to be decided on an individual basis - if there is a long waiting list for a specific book and it's being borrowed and the owner does not need it for some time, then it may be an idea to make a list of addresses and just pass it on like you said - the last person would mail it back to the original owner. It may cut some sort of cost down on shipping, each person who receives it would pay for the shipping to the next person.