[Koha-bugs] [Bug 6891] New: LDIF interoperability - a proposal

[bugzilla-daemon at bugs.koha-community.org]

http://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=6891

             Bug #: 6891
           Summary: LDIF interoperability - a proposal
    Classification: Unclassified
 Change sponsored?: ---
           Product: Koha
           Version: unspecified
          Platform: All
        OS/Version: All
            Status: NEW
          Severity: enhancement
          Priority: P5
         Component: Tools
        AssignedTo: gmcharlt at gmail.com
        ReportedBy: xan at biblionix.com
         QAContact: koha-bugs at lists.koha-community.org


Hello Koha Community,

I'm Xan Charbonnet with Biblionix.  We're a small company that provides a
hosted ILS, Apollo, to small and medium-sized public libraries in the US.

We're not open-source, but we do strongly believe in open interchange: library
data belongs to libraries, and shouldn't be used as a hostage to keep libraries
chained to their automation systems.

Far too many systems do treat their customers this way.  There are even Koha
consortia which are charging their librarians multi-thousand dollar extraction
fees just to get their own data out!

We've developed what we call LDIF (library data interchange format), which is a
W3C XML Schema that defines a way for library data to be stored and exchanged
in a vendor-independent manner.  We believe this is an important capability
which has been missing in the library world.  Any Apollo library is able to
generate an LDIF file at any time, and download (practically) everything that
Apollo knows about their library in a single, well-defined file, complete with
the schema.  Ideally, that file would be easily importable into any other ILS.

Part of making LDIF "real", of course, is engaging other ILS vendors.  The Koha
Community seemed like the place to start.  Is there anyone working on the Koha
project who would have an interest in developing support for this fledgling
standard?  And of course, in working with you, there will likely be changes to
be made to LDIF, which will make it better for everyone.

LDIF Schema: http://www.biblionix.com/ldif.xsd
Example library export (I recommend that you download this rather than view it
in your browser; it's a 4MB XML file):
http://www.biblionix.com/demolibrary_2011-09-20.xml

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