Importing Worldcat lists

sannasca
I'm very new to Zotero, so please be patient if this is silly question. I'm a heavy user of the "lists" function in Worldcat, where you can create lists of texts and attach notes to them. I'd like to import my lists into Zotero, complete with notes. Is this possible? I've searched the forums and I haven't found any information on this.
  • aurimas
    Looks like that can be easily integrated. As far as I can tell, importing lists is already possible. We would just need to attach notes, right?
  • sannasca
    Yes, I believe so. And it looks like the worldcat lists can only be exported to CSV, so I'd have to get the citations into a format Zotero can import, right?
  • adamsmith
    don't export the list. Use the Zotero URL bar icon when you're looking at the list.
  • sannasca
    Thank you for your help, aurimas and adamsmith.

    Can you tell me how I might import Worldcat notes, or is that something the Zotero engineers would have to build?
  • adamsmith
    (that would have to be coded, I believe aurimas has a trial version running, but it may break other things, we'll let you know if/when it happens).
  • sannasca
    Thank you, adamsmith.
  • aurimas
    Sorry for the long delay. This is now possible. You can update your translators in Zotero via Preferences -> General -> Update Now. Let us know if it's not working.
  • bjuhl
    Hello all - coming back to this with the newish WorldCat.org interface. While Zotero connectors work with results lists now (thank you!) I discovered today that the personal lists view has reverted to a web page in the connector. There is still the option to export a list in csv format but the metadata does not look very robust to me. Will be happy to share an example list page and csv export - forgive me if this has already been discussed.
  • c-sander
    "Zotero connectors work with results lists now"

    Not on my machine, e.g. https://www.worldcat.org/de/search?q=ti:cursus+theologic*&datePublished=1545-1790&itemType=book&limit=10&offset=1&orderBy=publicationDateAsc

    Can you confirm @adamsmith @bjuhl
  • bjuhl
    Hello @c-sander - I am using Firefox, have Zotero client running (6/0/26) and the connector was updated July 10, 2023.

    From your search results, I see the folder icon indicating multiple results are available for import into Zotero, choose some and they are imported. The records look pretty complete to me. Your results set are very early printed books ( not-quite-incunabula but close!) and some of the records I tested are a little sparse (for example Collegii Salmanticensis Fr. Discalceatorum B. Mariae de Monte Carmeli Cursus theologicus Summam Theologicam angelici doctoris D. Thomae complectens. Vol. 1 lacks some publication info)

    Hope that helps? Am I understanding your question?
  • adamsmith
    @bjuhl -- I believe we looked at personal lists and gave up given metadata issues, but I'll double-check.
  • bjuhl
    Thank you, @adamsmith - it's on OCLC. You can't even export from WorldCat Lists so I don't see how Zotero could capture anything there.
  • c-sander
    edited August 28, 2023
    I used this all the time, and the mass import (folder icon) stopped working a while ago. But it's back, as it seems. Wonderful. Thanks @bjuhl.

    The quality of the ingest of single items from WC is another issue. Book series, e.g., seem to ignore the series number. Creator roles often don't match. Some publishers aren't imported. There are many issues, but this might be due to changes in the WC data...
  • DWL-SDCA
    edited August 29, 2023
    The quality of Zotero's import of WorldCat metadata is really not a Zotero problem because Zotero imports the metadata that is provided by WorldCat.

    Understand that WorldCat data is provided by libraries that send their catalog metadata to the OCLC*. The quality of the metadata is dependent upon the nature of caution with which the participating local libraries maintain their local catalogs. Some libraries provide excellent, complete, and accurate metadata. Many libraries do not provide good and complete metadata.

    "WorldCat is the world’s most comprehensive database of information about library collections. OCLC delivers quality, discoverability and value. Member libraries provide the foundation." - https://www.oclc.org/en/worldcat.html

    "Library contributions to WorldCat are made via the Connexion computer program,[30] which was introduced in 2001; its predecessor, OCLC Passport, was phased out in May 2005". - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WorldCat

    There are often several duplicate records of the same item that are provided by the different participating libraries and these differ in quality. This duplicate record problem for books is considerably less a problem than for serials (journals) where there are often many records with the same ISSN each with somewhat different metadata completeness and timeliness. I don't know how Zotero selects which of the duplicate records to import.

    WorldCat is the world's largest and most complete library union catalog but is not a source for every book title (or edition) and journal that is currently published and certainly not everything that has been published. Each item that is a record in WorldCat must have been added to the local collection of the participating libraries. There are many niche journals of high quality that are published in languages other than English and where the libraries of the nation were published do not participate in the OCLC WorldCat. The same is true for books.

    edit
    *The OCLC uses the metadata provided by local libraries to produce a (costly) product for libraries to use to import records into their local catalog (so that every single library doesn't need to hand enter every item they add). The records in this product have been curated and distilled from the WorldCat database so that metadata is complete. The software used by local libraries to maintain their catalogs differs in the quality of abilities to import records and to export records to be used by services such as WorldCat.
  • c-sander
    Thanks for clarification @DWL-SDCA. I am, of course, aware of what WC is and what it is not. The issue of heterogenous metadata and metadata quality is something I am aware of.

    I work a lot with bibliometry, and track down copies of editions worldwide. See my www.magnetic-margins.com

    Yet, there are glitches (or were) in the Zotero translator. I will pinpoint some in a separate issue. None of this is "severe" and sometimes it's an issue of interpreting characters in a field.
  • adamsmith
    The above is actually a bit too generous. While yes, there's some variance in the metadata member libraries share with OCLC, OCLC has much better metadata than they're providing access to through Open WorldCat. Their (paid) API is better, as is the (subscription) access to WorldCat through FirstSearch. There is no way to use the former with Zotero, but the latter does work if you have access.
    I have no details on the internals, but the low metadata quality (and how difficult it is to get to it) on Open WorldCat is a policy decision. We can try to work around some of the issue if we get reports, but there are significant technical limitations imposed by the site.
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