Re: Book database (slightly OT)

Perhaps the Library of Congress?? http://www.loc.gov/z3950/ You could hack the web interface, but it would be more efficient to query the database directly using the Z.39.50 stateful protocol: see http://lcweb.loc.gov/z3950/gateway.html#about and http://www.niso.org/standards/resources/Z3950_Resources.html among other places. You could probably write a pretty decent interface using PHP's socket functions, but it would be more efficient to write a PHP extension for it - depending on how intense your searches were. That was on my to-do list for a project a few years ago, but I'm no longer working on that. -steve At 4:32 PM -0500 1/29/02, Reuben D Budiardja wrote:

Hi, I am working on a projects for book cataloging. What I want to do is to input all the books isbn to a mysql table, either by hand or by scanning it, and then let php go through those data and add more info such as tittle, author, publisher, etc. Now, the real question is, does anyone know is there any database / services out there that I can query using isbn, that will return me a parse-able info for this purpose? I am looking for service that is free, if possible, since this project is not for commercial at all (academic purposes). Any information on this will be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Reuben D. Budiardja

-- +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Steve Edberg sbedberg@ucdavis.edu | | University of California, Davis (530)754-9127 | | Programming/Database/SysAdmin http://pgfsun.ucdavis.edu/ | +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | "Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of | | all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily | | defeat us." | | - Supreme Court Justice (1939-1975) William O. Douglas | +------------------------------------------------------------------------+