Importing references from New Worldcat site

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Mikkel Plannthin
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Joined: Sat Nov 05, 2022 1:42 pm

Importing references from New Worldcat site

Post by Mikkel Plannthin »

I have been importing references from the Worldcat site to Bookends as londg as I have used the latter. Following the upgrade of the Worldcat site this seems - at least to me - to be impossible.

Am I missing something?

Kind regard

Mikkel
Jon
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Re: Importing references from New Worldcat site

Post by Jon »

I haven't explored it in detail, but they've made it difficult if not impossible. They used to embed reference information as COinS, which Bookends could import. That's no longer the case. And they don't seem to include DOIs (at least the the hits I've found). You can write to them and ask for restoration of such features (which affect other reference managers, too). But at least for now I don't see a way to import from WorldCat.

Maybe someone else has found a solution.

Jon
Sonny Software
Mikkel Plannthin
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Nov 05, 2022 1:42 pm

Re: Importing references from New Worldcat site

Post by Mikkel Plannthin »

Thank you for the reply.

Mikkel
mrob
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Joined: Mon Nov 02, 2015 8:43 pm

Re: Importing references from New Worldcat site

Post by mrob »

I also tripped over this. At first, I thought it was temporary/transitional, but evidently no.

Not only have they removed support for reference managers like Bookends, but they apparently no longer support a number of common human-readable bibliography formats.

It's just astonishing that the Worldcat 'upgrade' ripped out all this important functionality. It's like their site has regressed a decade, and for what?

I contacted them, got a support ticket, but was immediately brushed off and directed to give them more "feedback". I already described the issue. What's so complicated about "fix X and Y to work as they did before"?

If you wish to complain — and I would encourage anybody who uses Worldcat to do so — here's the form:

https://www.oclc.org/oclc-forms/en/volu ... dback.html

I told them that I like NOTHING about the new site design, and that I am NOT available to "participate in virtual discussions". ;)
Dellu
Posts: 268
Joined: Sun Mar 27, 2016 5:30 am

Re: Importing references from New Worldcat site

Post by Dellu »

Isn't there any progress yet?

It is very sad that such a rich source is locked away from us.
Jon
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Re: Importing references from New Worldcat site

Post by Jon »

I see that there is an option to download reference metadata as RIS (click on the quote mark on the left). The result is sent to the screen, where you can copy it and import into Bookends from the clipboard.

Jon
Sonny Software
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