I routinely use three different public library systems (Los Gatos, San Jose, and Santa Clara County). Needless to say, searching all of them for a book is a real pain.
But today at lunch, a friend reminded me of Jon Udall’s “LibraryLookup” bookmarklet, which worked wonderfully, but still required three searches to check all three libraries. So I decided to extend the bookmarklet to do the work for me, and here’s the result:
javascript:var%20re=/([\/-]|is[bs]n=)(\d{7,9}[\dX])/i;if(re.test(location.href)==true){var%20isbn=RegExp.$2;void(win=window.open('http://146.74.92.11'+'/ipac20/ipac.jsp?index=ISBNEX&term='+isbn,'Santa Clara','scrollbars=1,resizable=1,location=1,width=575,height=500'));void(win=window.open('http://64.204.128.44'+'/ipac20/ipac.jsp?index=ISBNEX&term='+isbn,'Los Gatos','scrollbars=1,resizable=1,location=1,width=575,height=500'));void(win=window.open('http://mill1.sjlibrary.org/search/?searchtype=i&searchscope=1&searcharg='+isbn,'San Jose','scrollbars=1,resizable=1,location=1,width=575,height=500'));}
I’m sure there’s some easy optimization to get rid of all of the repetition in the JavaScript, but I’m lazy.
What I do wish I could do is have the bookmarklet open the results in tabs instead of popup windows, but I don’t think that’s possible without turning this into a Greasemonkey script or a real XUL plugin, and I’m lazy.
But if someone else has done it….
WorldCat would, of course, be a better solution, but it doesn’t seem to include the Los Gatos library (yet, anyway).
I like your solution. I wanted to let you know that Los Gatos Library definitely is in Worldcat. We have been updating our records under the state library grant the same as Santa Clara County and San Jose.They do have our library details wrong however. If you change the location to Los Gatos you will see Los Gatos results. Also, if you search using the authenticated CALCAT/Worlcat http://64.204.128.43/rpa/webauth.exe?rs=CALCAT (you will ned to enter you library card and PIN) then you will be able to place ILL requests online and see all local aand worldwide library holdings. Also, I was playing around with the Open Woldcat-worldcat.org widgets and I noticed that it auto authenticated into calcat within our IP. Could you embed the RPA string http://64.204.128.43/rpa/webauth.exe?rs=CALCAT into the widget (with PW and PIN) and then pass the info on to CALCAT? I have been comtemplating placing the worlcat search widget into our online catalog to let people extend theri search to other libraries and to place Interlibrary Loan Requests (ILL).