[Foundation-l] [Wikisource-l] Universal Library

[John Vandenberg]

On Fri, Sep 4, 2009 at 7:21 PM, Lars Aronsson<lars at aronsson.se> wrote:
> ...
> For example, a new project might download the database dump from
> OpenLibrary and start to weed out the "junk records". But that
> junk sorting could also take place inside OpenLibrary. Why not?

Because metadata without digital objects are next to useless. Worldcat
already provides a directory of where physical books are held.

A database of metadata with lots of duplicates and no means for the
reader to fix them, and discuss them, is disrespectful.

> If a new project goes to a library to ask for a copy of their
> catalog, they might get the question "we already gave (or didn't
> give) that to OpenLibrary, so how is your project any different?"
> And what should the new project answer to that?

See above.  I dont see any value in going back to the libraries.
Doing that would only end up with the same result that OpenLibrary
has; it would be simpler to take the OpenLibrary dump.

> I want to encourage wikipedians and wikisourcerers to join the
> OpenLibrary project, just like you should also join OpenStreetMap
> and other good projects for free knowledge and information. Bring
> your experience. If you get tired of one project, as I do
> sometimes, work on another one for a while.

Tell me _one_ thing that I can do at OpenLibrary that I can not do at
Wikisource.

> OpenLibrary has author pages for 6.5 million author names. Some of
> these are "junk" duplicates that should be merged, but still there
> are quite a large number of authors there. These have a field for
> a Wikipedia URL, but only 1100 records have a value. Connecting
> author pages in OpenLibrary to Wikipedia biographies is just one
> way where we can do a lot, without needing to start a new project.

_Most_ of them are duplicates.

http://openlibrary.org/search?q=Jules+Gabriel+Verne

I have an account at OpenLibrary, and I am responsible for 0.2% of the
Wikipedia links :P

I am not keen on becoming attached to a project that is littered with
so much crap, especially when I am not given the tools required to fix
the crap, nor do I have any say in whether more crap can be imported.

http://openlibrary.org/user/jayvdb

These two need to be merged.

http://openlibrary.org/a/OL2296708A/Charles-C.-Nott
http://openlibrary.org/a/OL2544127A/Charles-Cooper-Nott

Both of them look terrible, because I have no control over the
presentation of the pages.  Dups, lack of sorting, etc.

I haven't found the OpenLibrary coolaid; I'll stick with Wikisource,
for good or ill.

--
John Vandenberg