It's actually easier to implement as a special page as Brion points out: ISBNs will generate a link to "/wiki/Special:Booksources?isbn=XXXXX", and that special page will have links to Pricescan, AddAll, Amazon,
Why not allow for Special:Booksources?isbn=XXXXX&titlewords=YYYY&author=ZZZ with all values optional. All the above mentioned sites can search books based on author and title. We could then also add ebay links for example, as well as links to catalogs of libaries which participate in interlibrary loan.
The Title/Author combination has the advantage that it captures all editions and therefore doesn't age like ISBN numbers do.
We just have to come up with some catchy wiki notation for the book links. Maybe [[book:Douglas Hofstadter|Godel, Escher, Bach|0465026567]] (again with all fields optional) could turn into a link to Special:Booksources and render as something like "(find this book)".
Axel
Axel Boldt wrote:
Why not allow for Special:Booksources?isbn=XXXXX&titlewords=YYYY&author=ZZZ with all values optional. All the above mentioned sites can search books based on author and title. We could then also add ebay links for example, as well as links to catalogs of libaries which participate in interlibrary loan.
You know what would really work out? If you could look up a book by the ISBN and then get links to all versions of that book ever. This combines: * not being restricted to one instance of publication; * looking things up by a code that isn't subject to variations of spelling; * being able to copy it down from your copy even if it's not too recent.
LC number satisfies the others but not the last. As time goes on, and more and more books are printed with their LC numbers, that code would end up coming out as even better. Right now, there just isn't anything perfect.
-- Toby
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