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ContentSourcesWithoutAPI
Many content sources used by libraries cannot be integrated into the Library Simplified ecosystem because they don't have an API that meets our requirements. This page is our attempt to keep track of the content sources used by Simplified partner libraries and explain why they can't be put into the system.
Any content source that wants to integrate with a library needs to answer these three questions:
- How does the library know what's in the catalog? (Most common answer: MARC records. Runner-up: you don't, just hand over your patron and we'll show them.)
- How does the content source know that the user is one of our patrons? (Most common answer, at least for NYPL: authentication proxy.)
- Once the patron makes their choice, how is the content delivered? (Most common answer: web view)
That third one is the deal-breaker for us. A mobile application needs self-contained packages of content.
Ebooks, delivered through a web view. Available through NYPL, where access is gated and content served through EZProxy.
According to this page, MARC records are made available for the entire collection, but the URL that supposedly gives us the records yields an Internal Server Error.
Publisher. I can't find their library-specific gateway.
Seems to offer multimedia ebooks, most likely delivered through a web page and inserted into a catalog via MARC.
Journals in French, delivered through a web page but available in PDF form on a per-article basis.
Journals and monographs in Italian, delivered through a web interface. PDFs available for some titles but opening them reveals a multi-lingual message saying that your PDF reader is not "recognized". This may be some kind of para-DRM system or it may be actual DRM where a PDF contains its own ACSM file along with a fallback message.
Content is streamed in HTML form through a website that offers note-taking and navigation features. An option exists to "Download this book (offline)". This requires creating a personal EBSCOhost account, independent from your library account. Once you do this, you can check out the book and get an ACSM file.
The EBSCOhost API is a search API. Its search results offer a "pdfLink" but I don't see how to square a link to a full-text PDF to the "create an EBSCOhost account, check out a book, download an ACSM file" process I see on the web site. The most likely explanation is that the full-text PDF link is for open-access works only. That means there is currently no path from a Library Simplified client to an ACSM file.
In summary, all the ingredients are here for a successful integration, but they are not put together in the way we would need.
Ebooks, delivered through a web view. Here's the closest I could get to actual content, and to the catalog.
Not sure how authentication works.
Ebooks seem to be the focus. The login site seems to imply the existence of an ILS integration. I don't know what the catalog looks like.
Videos. No custom app.
Magazines. Custom app, no API. According to Recorded Books, this content will eventually be available through the One Click Digital API.
Comics. Custom app, no API.
All three of these sites are from Scholastic and combine ebooks with videos through a web view.
BookFlix is available at NYPL, where authentication is handled and content is delivered through EZProxy.
hoopla offers several media formats: ebooks, movies, music etc. They stream content to the patron's device via a custom app.
Patrons choose a library that offers hoopla service, then verify their membership in that library by providing barcode and (optional) PIN.
Hoopla offers an integration API that gives access to catalog and patron information but does not seem to offer an endpoint for delivery of the actual content. Hoopla also uses a wide variety of DRM systems to encrypt and obfuscate different types of content on different platforms.
ProQuest offers a number of APIs and API-like services.
This is a search-based API. Each search result has a link to a web view where the reader is asked to log in before displaying the book.
It may be possible to use the search API to systematically keep track of all titles in the system, but I didn't go into detail here because delivery happens through a web view, which we don't consider suitable.
A scheme whereby ProQuest will periodically send an XML file to you over FTP. The XML file contains bibliographic information and pricing information. The XML isn't ONIX, but this looks a lot like the way publishers FTP ONIX files to distributors. This may be a tool intended for integration with a library's purchasing system rather than something intended for consumption by library patrons.
The XML file contains no information about how to borrow or read a copy of the book, possibly because the book hasn't been licensed yet.
DRM is mentioned (in the context of some books being "DRM-free") but there's no indication of which DRM system is in use.
Even if we can get the content, the experience these services provide probably won't fit into the Simplified app because the content they deliver is not in a container that we can reasonably render. In most cases the best we can possibly do is open a web view and transparently handle authentication.
Lynda.com offers an API that includes authorization hooks and collection information delivered through MARC records. So we could probably show lists of courses in OPDS, and send the patron to a web view once they chose a course.
Custom app, no apparent API.
Available at NYPL, where authentication happens through and content is served through EZProxy. No visible or advertised API.
Available at NYPL, where authentication happens through and content is served through EZProxy. No visible or advertised API.
No visible or advertised API. Sales page has few details.