I sent this to the MarcEdit listserv, but am posting this here as well. No decisions have been made, and I’m looking for community feedback so that whatever changes I make — if any — work best long-term for the community.
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Hi folks,
I wanted to update folks on some changes and get some feedback regarding how MarcEdit integrates with OCLC’s api’s going into the future.
First – the changes:
OCLC will be disabling the current classify service soon. I’ve updated the tool to work with the new API they provided to replace the service. It is limited. Basically, it only works for records with OCLC numbers. Given that OCLC is building their apis with its membership in mind – I guess that makes sense. However, where the tool also excelled was when you where working with minimal records and you needed the tool to try and find a call number (i.e., a record didn’t exist and the program was essentially poling like records). I’ve found I can probably still do some of this if I work between a couple of APIs (and have recreated it the best I can), but there are just some things that will have to drop off. I’ll document those when I make the update.
However, the changes being made over the past year has made me seriously reconsider how I provide integrations to OCLC. Currently, I treat OCLC differently than other ILS systems and library vendors – partly because many of OCLC’s integrations were open to anyone to use. The cooperative had APIs that required memberships – but many of the first integrations and those that have long-been the most popular are those that exist outside of one’s membership to OCLC. They acted as a kind of community good. With classify going away and shifting to OCLC’s membership API model, I’m having a difficult time seeing OCLC as a member still providing tools for the common good of the library community and instead, creating resources specifically for the OCLC community.
I’m not going to say that’s good or bad. But it changes the way I view OCLC and their place and how I want to treat them in MarcEdit. The way I have supported integrations in MarcEdit have been:
- Core services: Services core to the Libraries operation. For integrations, services that are available to all.
- 2nd class: Services that are vendor specific but with an Open API model
- 3rd class: Services that are vendor/community specific but with a class API model
- 4th class: Individually created integrations that leverage MarcEdit’s integration API
I’ve always treated OCLC’s integration as a core service – even as they have shifted more and more of their resources behind their premium API membership model because a number of APIs and services have remained open as part of the Libraries commons. As I look at where OCLC is now, and as I look at the direction the APIs have been going – that’s changing. It might be for the better, but it is changing how I look at supporting these integrations and where I put them in the application.
I’m currently reviewing what would need to happen to pull these out of the core and move them into the 2nd class tier. However, I realize that OCLC does fill a unique space in the Library community and I’m readily willing to admit that my current thoughts around ongoing support are definitely colored by my distaste for taking these services out of the commons. So, before I make any long-term decisions, I’d like to get feedback from the community on how these tools get utilized and how folks do or don’t utilize the integrations within MarcEdit.
In terms of the update to support the shuttering of the current classify service, that will be posted 12/11.
Thanks,
–tr