[Koha-devel] RFC: Koha Book Cover System

[Kyle Hall]

Hey All,
   Writing the LibraryThing book cover module has really got my brain
in full gear. I've been thinking about how nice it would be to add an
internal cover system to Koha. That way, a library could specify the
exact cover they want if they so wish. Here's what I'm imagining.

A new ItemImages.pm ( BookCovers.pm, BookJackets.pm, what have you... )

This new Covers module would be the sole interface for Koha for all
cover systems ( Amazon, LibraryThing, Syndetics, etc. ) and would act
as an interface between Koha and the book cover modules.

Another module ( say LocalCovers ) would act as a caching system.
Librarians would then at the time of cataloging, but able to search
various sources for book jackets, and choose one to download and save
for that bib record.

A set of preferences would allow for a cascading selection of sources
from which to display book covers. For example, a library could have
the system set up to look for a locally stored book cover first. If
one is not found, it checks LibraryThing for one, if one is not found
there, it then uses an Amazon book cover.

Possible Issues:
Do any of the cover API's have Terms of Service that could pose a
problem to such an system? ( For example, can we cache amazon.com
images, or must they always be links? )
The existing C4::External modules would need to be modified.
Where should local/cached covers be stored? Filesystem and/or MySQL blob?

Any and all opinions welcome,
Kyle

http://www.kylehall.info
Information Technology
Crawford County Federated Library System ( http://www.ccfls.org )