Written by Wayne Johnson, University of Guelph
Presented by Charles Woods, University of Waterloo
The objective of this project was to provide a limited view of Verde data for a selected audience; specifically to display Verde license info for ILL staff. Verde is so complex and contains so much information (some of it confidential) that it's fine to bypass all this for staff with a very specific purpose. The licensing terms themselves are often also complex and it's not easy for a non-expert to interpret it into a concrete answer to "Can we loan this?" The application boils licensing terms down into three possible answers - "Yes," "No," or "Maybe/Unknown".
User interface is a single-line title search that pulls data from Verde:
Enter a title, get a list of choices, click the title you want. Title-by-title returns Yes, No, Unknown. For Unknown, can navigate up to package or interface level, since license information may be located there. That interface or package license info is also boiled down to Yes, No, Unknown (mostly Yes or No).
Done in Cold Fusion, but SQL queries could be completed by any scripting language.
Shows only the tables needed for answering this question - can you loan it? - needs just 5 of the many, many ERMI and Verde tables. So query structure and data source is pretty simple.
First, select work expressions matching the keywords in the search form. MARCXML field contains full MARC record but must be parsed for display. Verde FIQ ("find it quick") table contains searchable and presentable bibliographic data.
Then, find work expression that matches title.
Then, select license linked to target work expression. Note that table ER_UPCODE stores the EPRODUCTCODE of the parent element - this is what controls your ability to navigate up to a higher level to the package or interface where license terms might be located.
Then, select license linked to parent packages and grandparent interfaces.
Yes/No is set by allowed/prohibited terms in license, but Charles wasn't sure what the logic is. Wayne will have more details.
Future plans include:
Links to the e-license
Course reserve and course pack
User restriction notes
Application has gotten attention/interest from many institutions in Canada, US, Germany.
Summary:
Tailor the data to the audience
Use flexibility of direct SQL query into database, or APIs, or Web services
Code is posted in EL Commons.
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