Searching for ISBNs using Sirsi

I tried LibraryLookup, but gave up when I discovered my local library uses Sirsi, which "doesn't seem to support ISBN queries." Well, it turns out Sirsi does support ISBN searching, it's just not exposed in any obvious way. The pattern is:

http://unicorn.stdl.org/uhtbin/cgisirsi/x/0/5
?searchdata1=1579550088

Where the red unicorn.stdl.org should be replaced by the website you're searching and the green 1579550088 houses the actual ISBN.

In addition, I wrote a simple web service (but not a Web Service ala XML-RPC or SOAP) that writes the URL for you. You just supply the website (only once -- it's bookmarkable) and from then on you can plug in the ISBN you're searching for.

Update: Very cool. Jon already updated his LibraryLookup bookmarklet generator. Rather fast turn-around, Jon!

Monday, April 07, 2003
12:00 AM