Bigfoot user tells it like it is.
Ross Singer of Georgia Tech Library and avid participant in the code4lib community, is one of the first to have access as a developer to the Bigfoot Store component of the Talis Platform.
Having sent us a file of bibliographic records which we loaded in to a store for him (something he will be able to do for himself fairly soon), he has found the time to not only experiment with the APIs, and produce (and share) some Ruby code to use those APIs, but he has also produced a comprehensive blog post about his experience.
As the first to post about his experiences using a Bigfoot Store, it makes interesting reading. Also as you would expect from the first to use the first release of a new service, it is not all perfection. Taking input like this from users of Platform services is invaluable in helping us make them even more developer friendly.
Ross explains how much he has achieved in a couple of days ‘playing’ with the store and its APIs . He asks a few questions about features and documentation that I have been able to clarify in my response to his post. It is gratifying to note that I could answer most everything along the lines of, we are already working on this and it will be available soon.
From this:
Overall, I’m really impressed with the Talis API. It is a LOT easier to use than, say, Z39.50 and by using OpenSearch seems more natural to integrate into existing web services than SRU.
Thanks, Talis, for getting me started with Bigfoot and giving me the opportunity to play around with it.
.. you can tell that Ross found his experimentation worthwhile. I am also sure that others will find his bigfoot-ruby Ruby library useful when they come to use the Platform.
If you want to have access to and experiment with the Platform, you can do so without even having to have your own store. Check out the Bigfoot - An initial tour document in the Talis Developer Network.
If you would like your own store to put bibliographic or any other related data into, drop me a line.
Technorati Tags: Talis, Library, code4lib, Talis Platform, API, Web Services, Bigfoot, Ross Singer
