Will we ever learn the lessons
An excellent post by Casey over at MaisonBisson.
…how the standards we choose in libraries isolate us from the larger stream of progress driving development outside libraries…
So true.
I commented that there were over 140,00 registered Amazon API developers and 365 public OpenSearch targets (hey look, there’s another one already), but that SRW/SRU would always play to a smaller audience. Basing arguments on the popularity of the subjects is dangerous, especially so within the library community…
Apart from having a misconception about the limitations of OpenSearch (corrected by Michael Fagen in a comment to the post) Casey goes on to discuss the [obvious to those outside the library community] point that protocols like OpenSearch and Amazon Web Services are ideal candidates for serving up results from library systems.
Is it because the library community was first to develop search protocols, such as Z39.50, and therefore presume to know better? Or is it that interacting with library systems really is more complex than the rest of the world? I wish I knew.
Will we ever learn? Your guess is as good a mine Casey!
February 24th, 2006 at 7:15 pm
SRU is a much, eh, “fuller” specification, and there’s value to that. I was thinking before about proposing a method of requesting results in a specific sort order, so I looked at how SRU does it. My first reaction was “wow, they thought of a lot of stuff I wouldn’t have thought of,” although I believe it’s being reworked.
I never actually got around to exploring the issue further, but it is on my infinitely long to-do list.
Stating that there are 366 OpenSearch targets isn’t *entirely* accurate. Some of those listed on the A9.com site are pre-OpenSearch, and some others no longer work properly.
In the other direction, there are OpenSearch targets not listed there, more so if you would count those that only have OS Descriptions (not Responses), made mostly for IE7. And with many *systems* supporting OpenSearch (as Lucene just announced http://bitworking.org/news/Lucene_Web_Service_API ), I’m sure there’ll be many more.
btw, “Fagan” has two “a”s and no “e”s
February 24th, 2006 at 9:16 pm
Oops - sorry about the misspelling
You raise a good point about IE7. Once that hits the streets there will be a great deal of incentive for everything to have an OS interface.
It’s quite possible that Mr Gates & Co will end up making OpenSearch the de facto standard.
February 24th, 2006 at 10:09 pm
> Mr Gates & Co
it really is amazing how different my perceptions of Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo differ from just two years ago. All three are very different.