Upgrade StorageCatalogue - University of Groningen
I hope I am posting this in the right area...
I recently started using Zotero for my PhD research at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. What I have noticed is that when I use the catalogue of the university library (http://catalogue.rug.nl/IMPLAND=Y/SRT=YOP/LNG=EN/DB=1/), Zotero does not seem to automatically recognise items such as books, journals. Nor does it recognise groups of items in searches.
Taking this as an example:
http://catalogue.rug.nl/DB=1/XMLPRS=Y/PPN?PPN=296990167
The Zotero icon does not show up in the location bar. Obviously I can enter the entry by pasting the ISBN into Zotero, but it would be nice to be able to use the automatic option.
I'm no expert, so the only thing I can think is that somehow the library catalogue is set up in such a way that it does not communicate its information to Zotero. Either that or there is no site translator for our catalogue?
Is there anyway to make this function?
Many thanks!
I recently started using Zotero for my PhD research at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. What I have noticed is that when I use the catalogue of the university library (http://catalogue.rug.nl/IMPLAND=Y/SRT=YOP/LNG=EN/DB=1/), Zotero does not seem to automatically recognise items such as books, journals. Nor does it recognise groups of items in searches.
Taking this as an example:
http://catalogue.rug.nl/DB=1/XMLPRS=Y/PPN?PPN=296990167
The Zotero icon does not show up in the location bar. Obviously I can enter the entry by pasting the ISBN into Zotero, but it would be nice to be able to use the automatic option.
I'm no expert, so the only thing I can think is that somehow the library catalogue is set up in such a way that it does not communicate its information to Zotero. Either that or there is no site translator for our catalogue?
Is there anyway to make this function?
Many thanks!
the website is using a common product (PICA) but doesn't seem to be configured to "show" the data to Zotero. There's no simple solution to correct this on our side. The easiest way would be to ask the institution to make its catalog zotero compatible (see http://www.zotero.org/support/dev/exposing_metadata ). The second solution would be to develop a specific translator for this website (see http://www.zotero.org/support/dev/translators/coding#web_translators ).
Sorry for not coming with a perfect solution but I don't think there's one which is easy for this catalog.
In general our university library recommends and uses RefWorks... I obviously am not using it. I wonder, could this then have anything to do with the way that the catalogue is subsequently set up, so that metadata is only released to specific programs (i.e. that which the university holds a license for)?
PICA installations (like e.g. SUDOC in France and GBV in Germany) typically embed metadata in the "COinS" format. That doesn't have anything to do with the Reference Manager the Library typically supports, no.
You could ask your library if that would be something they'd consider - it wouldn't just benefit Zotero users, but also other reference managers like Mendeley.
The other thing is that we do have dedicated translators for most major library catalogs and while PICA won't be the cleanest to write (it's always easiest if we can get direct access to the catalog data, the so called "MARC"), it would also not be terribly hard - most of the code is already in place for the SUDOC translator, so I could try to get to that eventually.
But getting your library to embed COinS would be a good idea anyway.
I'll have a chat with a few other colleagues who I know are working with Zotero tomorrow and perhaps we can collectively lobby the library administrators.
But it's already good that I now have a clearer idea of what I need to request of them.
Your version of Zotero will automatically update within 24hs, or you can update manually using the "Update Now" button in the "General" tab of the Zotero preferences.
Any problems let us know.