Improving input data: DDB (German National Library) with Z39.50 access

Most of the books I put into LT I couldn't find in the two swiss libraries available, so I had to make do with what amazon.de puts out.
I have been asking around a bit and if I am not TOTALLY mistaken, it seems that Die Deutsche Bibliothek (German equivalent to the Library of Congress in the USA) has the required Z39.50 server:
Link
At least as of year 2000. The named servers still seem to be online, but of course I cannot access them.

By googling, I found a "Z39.50 gateway" (current). It also lists contacts for questions.

If there is a chance of hooking them up in addition to amazon and the 2 universities, the german LTers would be eternally grateful... :-).
At least we wouldn't find Goethe listed under the "original english title" anymore, just because the data from the LoC overrules amazon.de ;-).

I can't believe you couldn't find Goethe in NEBIS! I work in the biggest of the more than 80 libraries that are part of NEBIS. We're a scientific (academic) library and even we carry a few of Goethe's works. A quick search in www.nebis.ch returned 901 works by him, in libraries all over Switzerland.
I haven't tried it here with Goethe, but if you couldn't find him it must be a bug or something.

I just tried it. Goethe gets 4944 hits and "Die Leiden des Jungen Werthers", as an example, gets 59 hits.

Access to that server requires a username and passsword. I just tried without and got a 236 diagnostic. Which confirms what the profile page you linked to says, that it's auf Anfrage. It probably can't hurt for Tim to request credentials. But if I am not mistaken most (all?) of the servers currently used by LT have open access.

OK, OK, I admit, Goethe was a bad example (just threw a name in, offhand). Bad idea. But if you look at Michael Ende's Wunschpunsch (not in NEBIS), it comes up as The Night of Wishes: Link
Same with Rafik Schami. Viktor Klemperer's LTI comes up in English as well. Probably because more than one person entered it via LOC or another english library. My entries via NEBIS didn't help, there :-). It's all numbers, it seems.

My point would be: The DDB has the biggest database of german-language literature (they get one copy of every book printed in german, or should get one). We wouldn't have to go to amazon.de for our input data for german novels/non-scientific stuff. Currently 69% of my library data comes from amazon.de. With the other amazons, it's up to 83%.

343 Amazon.de, 45 Amazon.co.uk, 18 Amazon.com
58 Manual entry
14 NEBIS (Switzerland), 11 Library of Congress, 10 Universität Basel, 1 National Library of Australia

MMcM: "it's auf Anfrage. It probably can't hurt for Tim to request credentials. But if I am not mistaken most (all?) of the servers currently used by LT have open access."
Which means he would have to pay for it, or be an academic institution to get it for free?

Some time ago, I emailed Tim the link to the GBV, an interlibrary server with 24 mio titles on Länderebene in Northern Germany (state level) which should be open. The site uses bureaucratic language, so it is unclear if a licence is necessary. At least, in my understanding, the part without full text access should be free.

But others here will be more qualified to answer the question or test the access.

Which means he would have to pay for it, or be an academic institution to get it for free?

I do not know. It does not seem to say. Page's grandparent likewise only says, "Die meisten Z39.50-Server sind nicht öffentlich zugänglich. Um eine Benutzerkennung zu bekommen, wende man sich bitte an die genannten Ansprechpartner." And it does indeed name such a contact. Which is why I proposed asking. (Subject to the obvious consideration of prioritization among all the other things that we users are demanding.) Maybe she'll say yes.

But others here will be more qualified to answer the question or test the access.

German bureaucratese isn't my strong suit, but I can confirm technically that the GVK (Gemeinsamer Verbundkatalog, the Union Catalog) database at Z3950.gbv.de is indeed open and that a couple queries seemed to return plausible results. No need even for the dummy password they give.

I wonder how hard it would be for LT to have a page that directed its Z39.50 client against a server whose connection parameters (and whatever workaround meta-data server entries have) were entered there. It need not actually interface to the LT database. Just show the MARC records that would result from a given search string. Between librarians and computer scientists, there are probably enough volunteers to test and qualify servers.

One of the Austrian bookcrossers sent this link to the Austrian Verbundkatalog (network of Austrian academic libraries). It says that excluding the full MAB data, access is free (RIS format, EndNote format, and "Reference manager" --just typing it off their page).
For the German Verbundkatalog I couldn't find a similar access, but the GBV covers at least a part of it. And I think they also cover the bigger public libraries.

Sounds excellent and hopefully closes an important gap for German language books. Perhaps a LT librarian has a contact at Deutsche Bibliothek to open the motherlode of German books, too.

I second the test interface page (although for me, only Italian still remains to be covered).

This is excellent stuff. German is first on the hit-list, so I will return here soon.

I also ADORE the users-add-Z39.50s issue. God, that's a million-dollar idea!

Yaaay! Three cheers for Tim!

Is there any german-language librarian listening in, that would know on how to go about contacting the Deutsche Bibliothek concerning the Z39.50 access? I'm not a librarian, nor do I have knowledge of the technicalities involved, so I am not sure if they would take me seriously.

MMcM: I wonder how hard it would be for LT to have a page that directed its Z39.50 client against a server whose connection parameters (and whatever workaround meta-data server entries have) were entered there.
Heh. You just lost me there. Do you mean a tool that would allow me (for example) to surf around German library sites, and when I find one with open-access Z39.50, to check out whether their data is compatible to LT? Then Tim's exclamation would make more sense to me.

I sent Tim the same link as jcbrunner back in March (plus one for HeBIS - http://www.hebis.de/ben/themenuebersicht.php?we_objectID=1290 )

Very glad to see that something might be about to happen! :)