Cataloging Source not listed in Available Sources

1. I have used Konstanz University (located in Germany) 26 times as a cataloging source. I believe all the books so cataloged were via OVERCAT. I would like to also select it as a possible source, but it is not listed under GERMANY where it would belong. I also looked at neighboring countries (perhaps it was misplaced, see point 2) - no luck. Are all souces via OVERCAT also in Available Sources???

2. I reported very long ago that VK Olomouc (Vědecká knihovna v Olomouci) is in the Czech Republic, and it was then listed there {VK Olomouc (2)}. However, it is still also under the Netherlands {see VK Olomouc (1)}; there is only one such library and it is in the Czech Republic; I have been there.

WHo maintains the sources? Can this be directed to him or her.

Many many thank from Vienna, John

> Konstanz University

Yes, they released their data into the public domain and we loaded it into Overcat directly. I see some details online on how to connect to their catalog remotely, but it would require some testing to make it work right. With their data loaded, I'm not sure that's worth the effort.

> VK Olomouc

I have changed VK Olomouc (1) to the Czech Republic.

Fixed.

Hi Tim!

Many thanks.

My problem is that with sources books in German not published in Germany, Slovenian, Romanian, Croatian etc. etc. are often very hard to find - even in Amazon.de!
I have a nice office in the Imperial Palace here right next to the National Library (actually part of the same building). Is there any thing I can do to get some Austrian Library into LT? Our library at the Museum für Völkerkunde is finally going digital (yes we still have cards!!!). I will find out the new system and you can let me know if we can get it into to LT. It has over 180,000 books on anthropology, ethnology, early explorers, etc. etc. Of course the University of Vienna is much larger, not to mention the National Libraray, City of Vienna Libarary, etc. etc. I could also travel to Slovakia or Slovenia or whereever to get libraries from countries bordering Austria into LT.

Countries bordering Austria in LT: Czech Republic, Hungary, Germany, Italy, Switzerland.
Countries bordering Austria not in LT: Slovenia, Slovak Republic, Lichtenstein.

How can we get more sources (outside USA which is very well covered) into LT?

THanks for the prompt answer - it would be nice to have Konstanz University - but also OK if that library is uploaded every year or two to OVERCAT!!

greetings from Vienna, JOHN

Have a look at these pages for explanations of what kind of sources can be added and what information is needed to request that they be added:
http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/Book_sources
http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/New_book_sources

>4 rsterling: Thanks, but John is probably already aware of those wiki pages.

For years, I have been urging Tim & company to contact either/both the Austrian and German national libraries. Both offer Z39.50 access, but want to be informed/discuss costs by email prior to opening the gates. There was never an acknowledgment of either my messages/posts nor whether Tim & co. actually contacted the libraries.

Perhaps John can informally discuss the matter with the national library and hopefully manage to get LT free access to the data. For Austria, the Austria Union Catalog (Verbundkatalog) would be the most helpful one. If they, organized as a GmbH/PLC, want too much money, I'd try the national library next.

IRspy lists two compliant targets in Austria, UBW and Österreichischer Bibliothekenverbund - Austrian Union. However, they list UBW as having 100% connection reliability, and Austrian Union as 0%.
http://irspy.indexdata.com/find.html?_query=zeerex.country+%3D+%28%22Austria%22%...

IRspy lists no Z39.50 or and SRU/SRW compliant targets in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Serbia, or Romania.

I don't know how complete IRspy is.

The New Book Sources wiki page also says that some European libraries use the ISO 5426 character encoding, which doesn't work for LT.

I will be discussing these matters with the librarian at the Museum für Völkerkunde this coming week. Plan soon to also visit the library of the KHM (over 250,000 art books). I think, if they can support me, I will approach the National Library. It is also interesting to note that in the last couple of years no Austrian library appears in WorldCat.

I will keep you all informed on any progress. Where should we discuss this - bugs is not the place.

My long-term goal is to include a number of countries not represented. I have many Indonesian books - but not one library of the country of 220,000,000 is represented. Nor India for that matter. And both of those countries publish many books in English. For Indonesia the Australian libraries have some - but many many are missing. Also not in WorldCat!

Thanks once again for the help and information. If anyone is in Vienna or comes to Vienna, I would love to discuss these matters in person. Nice views of Vienna from my rooftop office and I have an espresso machine (and usually cake too)!

Thanks again rsterling and jcbrunner!

John

The IRspy information on the Austrian Union catalog is outdated: bibvb.ac.at shoud be turned into obvsg.at (the wonders of outsourcing!). Their info page says the character set is ISO 646, ISO 5426, so that avenue seems to be closed off for now.

An interesting idea is to ask whether LT can receive the 4 mio. record Google Books XML data dump they produce to link the Union catalog to Google Books. They converted their MAB2 format to Dublin Core to Google XML which should not be too difficult to read in.

I was also wondering about the European Library, and whether that is accessible as a source for LT. They seem to aggregate catalog data for number of national libraries, and to use Z39.50/SRU to do so, but I couldn't figure out if they also make that data publicly available in that format, for others to use.

BTW He isn't kidding about that view! It's spectacular!