Translator request: Talis Reading Lists

fbrauer
I would like to request support for Talis reading lists (see http://campus.talisaspire.com/) used by many universities in the UK.

Examples of list items:

- book: http://resourcelists.ed.ac.uk/items/A4DB9BCB-7B55-08E1-47E0-98E40BE33F6F.html

- article: http://resourcelists.ed.ac.uk/items/0C63A843-5E00-07C7-BCD3-A1566423C61F.html

- Examples of lists:
- http://resourcelists.ed.ac.uk/lists/9079BECA-F41F-BF25-17AC-02C1740854B7.html (featuring a Zotero translator icon in the address that does not seem to make much sense and when clicked saves the one item from this list that happens to contain a DOI)
- http://resourcelists.ed.ac.uk/lists/40F59127-9F13-6F46-79BE-4989F38C7FF6.html
  • adamsmith
    these are actually supported in general, see e.g.
    http://lists.library.lincoln.ac.uk/items/FEB50B30-652C-55B2-08F8-F2D399BF308A.html

    the problem is that Edinburgh uses a non-standard URL for them. We expect them to start with "lists.library" (*insert clever remark about independence here*).

    Without this, we have to run the translator on every site that contains "/items/" or "/lists/" which isn't great.
  • fbrauer
    edited September 13, 2014
    Not quite "non-standard", it seems. The majority of UK universities uses "readinglists" or "resourcelists", and quite a few other terms are used as well. See http://support.talisaspire.com/entries/20060403-Where-can-I-find-a-list-of-existing-customer-Talis-Aspire-tenancies-
  • aurimas
    For reference
    aspiresurreyac.ukindex.html
    cypruslistscentral-lancashireac.ukindex.html
    lancastermyreadinglistsorgindex.html
    liblistsderbyac.ukindex.html
    liblistssussexac.ukindex.html
    listsboltonac.ukindex.html
    listsexeterac.ukindex.html
    listsglamac.ukindex.html
    listshopeac.ukindex.html
    listslib.keeleac.ukindex.html
    listslib.mmuac.ukindex.html
    listslib.plymouthac.ukindex.html
    listslib.portsmouthac.ukindex.html
    listslibrary.lincolnac.ukindex.html
    listslibrary.qmulac.ukindex.html
    myreadinglistskclac.ukindex.html
    readinglistsbournemouthac.ukindex.html
    readinglistsbrightonac.ukindex.html
    readinglistsbrunelac.ukindex.html
    readinglistscentral-lancashireac.ukindex.html
    readinglistscityac.ukindex.html
    readinglistsglasgowac.ukindex.html
    readinglistsharper-adamsac.ukindex.html
    readinglistshullac.ukindex.html
    readinglistsleac.ukindex.html
    readinglistslib.monasheduindex.html
    readinglistslsbuac.ukindex.html
    wwwreadinglistsmanchesterac.ukindex.html
    readinglistsmdxac.ukindex.html
    readinglistsnorthamptonac.ukindex.html
    readinglistsnottinghamac.ukindex.html
    readinglistsuclac.ukindex.html
    readinglistswinchesterac.ukindex.html
    resourcelistsbrookesac.ukindex.html
    resourcelistscoventryac.ukindex.html
    resourcelistsedac.ukindex.html
    resourcelistsfalmouthac.ukindex.html
    resourcelistskentac.ukindex.html
    resourcelistsntuac.ukindex.html
    resourcelistsrguac.ukindex.html
    resourcelistsroehamptonac.ukindex.html
    resourcelistsshuac.ukindex.html
    resourcelistsst-andrewsac.ukindex.html
  • aurimas
    OK, I updated the translator to cover the entire list. Give it a try. Update your translators via Preferences -> General -> Update Now and restart browser.
  • fbrauer
    Great. However, upon closer inspection it seems that the data - not only in Edinburgh but in many other Talis reading lists - is usually of rather poor quality. Just check out:

    - http://resourcelists.ed.ac.uk/items/969ED199-7B62-55ED-3449-E357287FEF5B.html - author instead of editor, no edition

    - http://resourcelists.ed.ac.uk/items/691917A7-04DD-FD04-B465-372A212D1A31.html - title, author, ISBN only

    - http://resourcelists.ed.ac.uk/items/F731CBF3-F15B-C2F9-6956-8504296A92A6.html - botched year

    - http://resourcelists.ed.ac.uk/items/D6E7A7C9-92CB-C289-9A3A-E9B2D27F1B2D.html - volume instead of series, author instead of editor, botched year

    This makes me wonder whether it wouldn't be a much better approach to use only the ISBN or DOI if given, and get more reliable data from elsewhere.
  • adamsmith
    I don't think we'll want to mess around with that.

    Using other catalogs to get data has all types of problems--e.g. with ISBNs it's easy to get wrong versions of books etc.

    (not to mention more complex translators, more resource intensive requests, also, I think, those requests would likely break translators in the bookmarklet, i.e. on mobile devices).
  • adamsmith
    and obviously the actual solution here is to get those folks to fix their metadata rather than to build hacks for every reference manager.
  • fbrauer
    edited September 15, 2014
    I do see the points you make in terms of complexity and resources. And, yes, in an ideal world "the actual solution ... is to get those folks to fix their metadata". I don't see that happening anytime soon, however, since even the data model used in Talis is so limited (among many deficencies, there are no editor, series, ... fields; see http://support.talisaspire.com/entries/382710-Mapping-RIS-fields-to-Talis-Aspire).

    Again, I see your points but maintain it'd result in a much better user experience if Zotero used more reliable sources than Talis at least in case an ISBN or DOI is found. (DOIs are unambiguous in any case, and when rechecking 100+ book entries imported from Talis by comparing them with entries obtained by entering the Talis-provided ISBN into Zotero's "Add by identifier" I didn't encounter a single case of a "wrong version" either.)
  • aurimas
    This won't happen on a per-translator basis, but supplementing metadata via DOI, ISBN, etc. after the item is imported into the library is planned in general. It probably won't happen in the next few months, but, I'd say, probably within a year or so.
  • Caroline Checkley
    Hi

    We would like to add the University of Essex (UK) domain to this list. How would we go about this?

    Our Talis aspire domain is readinglists.essex.ac.uk

    Thanks
  • adamsmith
    Caroline -- we're not actually adding individual domains, but just general patterns -- and if yours were actually readinglists.essex.ac.uk, that would already work. Problem is that for actual lists/resources, it's redirecting to https://essex.rl.talis.com/

    We can take a look at accounting for that, but won't be super fast.
  • Caroline Checkley
    Hi Adam

    I did wonder about the redirect but if you could account for that it would great. We are not in a hurry.

    Thanks
  • sparkyc84
    Hi Adam,
    Sorry for resurrecting this ancient thread if this has been discussed more recently. I see that from the table above my institution's Talis instance - which is at lists.library.qmul.ac.uk -should be parseable by the translator, but it doesn't seem to be working for me. Is the Talis translator still supported?
    Best,
    Chris
  • adamsmith
    Works for me -- could you link to a list that's not working?
  • sparkyc84
    Here's one: https://rl.talis.com/3/qmul/lists/25885556-F72E-9FF2-278D-A88CA1E19900.html?lang=en
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