cURL - is it best for me?

Hi, My main site allows authenticated users to insert bibliographic data into our database. We ask them to start by putting in an ISBN or ISSN. Some documentes don't have them, or the use is too lazy to look for them. Rather than them entering jibberish, we first check that if they have entered something - that its mathematically correct (there's a algorithm to check these). Where they don't know the ISBN/ISSN, I would like them to enter their document title and then get my system to check the UK's main library biblio service (COPAC) and see if the title exists on their db. I've set up a simple cURL test which queries the COPAC site and displays the page as if it was from my site (not quite what I wanted - I'd rather have a list of ISBN/ISSNs and their associated titles without all the baggage). So my questions are: Is there a way for me to (using cURL) ask COPAC how many records match the search and if >0, return the data in a way that I can use it as I wish? If not, is there another tool that I should be using? MTIA George in Oxford (using a mix of NT4/XP by command of the company)