The Open Library is a project I have been hoping for years that someone would start – an open source universal book catalog. Think WorldCat meets Wikipedia meets Amazon and you won’t be far off.
So go to their demo site, do a couple of searches. Their data is sketchy in places, but this means you have an opportunity to try out their editing interface. I just corrected the title for “John Irving : Three Complete Novels” (you can look at the history for “revision 2”), although my change may not be the final word, as this seems like a possible duplicate. The wonders of a wiki!
This project, if it grows wings or even legs, will truly remake our digital presence. From Open Library Numbers (OLNs) to user corrections and additions, this merger of open source and books gives us both freedom and control of our cataloging information.
from Alexis Rossi via Next Generation Catalog for Libraries (ngc4lib) newsgroup
