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Z-Books:  Hunting Down Zombie Ebooks Hiding in your Catalog

Z-Books:  Hunting Down Zombie Ebooks Hiding in your Catalog. Kathryn Lybarger @ zemkat OVGTSL 2013 #ovgtsl2013 May 17, 2013. Cataloging ebooks. Success!. Except sometimes…. Or even worse…. Zombies?. These ebooks look normal. Until someone looks too closely.

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Z-Books:  Hunting Down Zombie Ebooks Hiding in your Catalog

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  1. Z-Books:  Hunting Down Zombie Ebooks Hiding in your Catalog Kathryn Lybarger @zemkat OVGTSL 2013 #ovgtsl2013 May 17, 2013

  2. Cataloging ebooks

  3. Success!

  4. Except sometimes…

  5. Or even worse…

  6. Zombies?

  7. These ebooks look normal

  8. Until someone looks too closely requires a subscription Please login Purchase for $30 Page not found error Currently unavailable

  9. Then the screaming starts

  10. Nobody wants that!

  11. Not just dead? • Dead links not so bad … if they are not in the catalog • Our patrons hate LOST books in the catalog • Zombies are more disappointing

  12. Strategy: • Make sure zombies don’t get into the catalog in the first place • Watch for news of recently turned • Hunt down the ones that are already in there

  13. URLs may be bad initially • May be a typo • Book not actually on the vendor site yet • Record may have NO URL

  14. Bad DOI • Not registered yet • Registered incorrectly • Maybe points TWO places!

  15. URLs may be modified • May contain proxy prefix • May be institution specific • May have session information

  16. Provider neutral records • Old standard: • One record per provider • To catalog: • Use that record • New standard: • All e-versions on one record • To catalog: • Use that record • Delete all URLs that don’t apply

  17. Ebook links in print books • Some print book records have URLs • 856 42 “Related Resource” • May sneak in through fast copy or batch cataloging

  18. Spot some bad URLs • Query the catalog for distinct hosts • In Voyager: SELECT DISTINCT ELINK_INDEX.URL_HOST FROM ELINK_INDEX WHERE ELINK_INDEX.RECORD_TYPE="B";

  19. Catch them before they come in • Verify one by one • Do they have notes indicating they’re bad? • Run list through a link checker

  20. Just keep new ones out? • Not sufficient • Good links may die • Nobody may tell you

  21. Vendor announcements • E-mail, RSS feeds • Often interspersed with ads or news • Do not always mention deletions

  22. Vendor data for deletions • Some vendors release “deleted” lists • You may have to check the web site • Even dig for them

  23. Current status data only • Some vendors will provide a list of what they currently have • Changes not highlighted • Download periodically

  24. Useful tool: vimdiff • Free and open source (charityware) • Available on unix, mac • Available on Windows (Cygwin)

  25. Vimdiff in action

  26. Some vendor data is less accessible • Examples: • MARC blob • “Whatever’s on the web site” • Watch for announcements? • Download / overlay periodically?

  27. Convert data to text • MARC -> .mrk text (MarcEdit) • Web site • Find A-Z title list page • Download / extract list • Compare text (vimdiff)

  28. How to extract? • Different per web site • Script (gather) • Download A-Z page • Find lines with book titles • Delete everything but the title • Compare to last month’s copy

  29. Unix tools • vim / vimdiff – editor • curl – download web pages • grep – search file contents • sed – reformat files • Available in Windows through Cygwin

  30. Hunting in the catalog • Necessary maintenance • Links can go bad • (Sometimes whole platforms!)

  31. Link checking • Many link checkers available • They check for codes: • Good? • Forbidden? • Not Found?

  32. Codes aren’t everything • A table of contents is a good page • A bad DOI can be fixed • Effective method differs by vendor

  33. Humans are better at this • Instructions might be complicated: • Go to the web page • Open up one of the chapters • Make sure it is a PDF, not an order form

  34. Normac • MARC Normalizer and Access Checker • Free, open source software • Available from GitHub

  35. Normalize MARC • Only include URLs for the vendor you want • Delete URLs with a proxy prefix

  36. Access Check • Zombies look different on each site – specify • Load in MARC or list of URLs • Check access according to rules

  37. Is it really a zombie? • Or does it just look that way to you? • Maybe your subscription changed?

  38. If you’re sure… • (Remove them from your catalog) • Contact the vendor • Modify WorldCat master record

  39. Dead links in WorldCat • Leave them in! • Make 856 second indicator blank • $z This electronic address not available when searched on [Date]

  40. Then what? OCLC WorldShare Metadata Collection Manager? Separate database of dead links?

  41. Any questions?

  42. Contact Me Kathryn Lybarger @zemkat Kathryn.Lybarger@uky.edu Problem Cataloger http://pc.blog.zemows.org/ GitHub http://github.com/zemkat

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