Government Publications Catalog

Would it be possible to add the GPO Catalog of Government Publications as a database to add books from? http://catalog.gpo.gov/F

Do they have a direct network interface into their data?

To be perfectly honest, I have no idea. All I know is that when you do a title search, the record contains all the information you would want to import into LibraryThing records for a government document or book published by GPO...SuDoc Call #, publication information, PURLS to the online version of the document, etc.

Perhaps Tim Spalding could contact GPO (http://www.gpo.gov) and ask if they would be interested in partnering up with LibraryThing. What a way to promote access to Government Documents! ;-)

Okay. Thanks. I'll give this info to Sonya, our recently hired staff person that is actually in charge of stuff like this. Woohoo for staff additions!

Update: It turns out that she is only handling LTFL stuff. So I sent this to Casey who handles the import code for the site. He can give you more feedback about data import issues.

Great. I also tried using "Grab from a webpage" to import a record from the CGP and it worked because the record had an ISBN. Woo!

Aaah, but it didn't grab the information from the CGP record...shoot...it took Amazon.com's record info instead. Well, darn. I tried.

Yeah, we'll have to set something up special for them unless they have a Z39.50 server (doubtful, but certainly possible). Casey may not have the time or willingness to write custom code for them...I'm not going to make statements about his time. :)

You guys are awesome. Thanks! :-D

>8 conceptDawg:

They were testing one about a year ago:
http://www.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/cip/z39.50-update.pdf

Good to know! I never heard about that. I wonder if the test was successful?

well, if you go to
http://catalog.gpo.gov/z3950/
you get a 'access forbidden', not a 'file not found', so that may be a good sign. :-)

Perhaps if Casey contacted the person in the PDF (who is the Library Technical person for GPO), they might get an update.

Just heard from someone at FDLP that replied to my query about an update...they are making an announcement to the FDLP community regarding Z3950 soon. Woo!

Ok, FDLP made an announcement today. Hmm. Requires a password. Well...looks like I can manually upload records?

"Library Services and Content Management is pleased to announce that access to the CGP via Z39.50 for searching, retrieval and downloading of bibliographic records is now available to depository libraries. A password is required for access. This password is found in a field created for this purpose in the new Federal Depository Library Directory
(FDLD) at: http://catalog.gpo.gov/fdlpdir/login.jsp.
Go to: http://catalog.gpo.gov/F/?func=file&file_name=find-z3950 for configuration information to connect to the CGP via a Z39.50 client and for directions on how to access the password in the FDLD."

To quote from their webpage:

"Access to the CGP via Z39.50 for searching, retrieval and downloading of bibliographic records is limited to depository libraries."

Sorry.

Yeah, I saw that after I posted my message...doh!