Bibliographic database

For computer programs to manage an individual's bibliographic references, see Reference management software

A bibliographic database is a database that contains descriptive records of books, periodical articles, conference proceedings, and audio-visual collections. It may be a database containing information about books and other materials held in a library (e.g. an online library catalog, or OPAC) or, as the term is more often used, an electronic index to journal or magazine articles, containing citations, abstracts and often either the full text of the articles indexed, or links to the full text.

Many scientific databases are bibliographic databases. Within Chemical Abstracts, for example, there are databases of chemical structures and within Entrez there are databases of sequences. Outside of science, the same holds—there are databases of citations to articles in art history journals, and there are databases of images, such as ARTstor.

A well structured bibliographic database is an indispensable tool for modern researchers to find descriptive records of relevant information sources.

Library book databases

These databases are intended to be employed by college and university students to identify and locate books for class work and research. The books are then usually obtained through the catalog of the specific library, or via interlibrary loan.

OCLC

This very widely used database, known as WorldCat has input from almost all US academic and large public libraries, and from many in other countries. It is available to libraries that subscribe to the service.

A somewhat less powerful free version is now available, called simply Worldcat.org. In a version known as Open WorldCat, it can be integrated into web browsers.

WorldCat

WorldCat is a union catalog which itemizes the collections of more than 10,000 libraries which participate in the OCLC global cooperative. It is built and maintained collectively by the participating libraries from more than ninety countries. Created in 1971, it contains more than 90 million different records pointing to over 1.2 billion physical and digital assets in more than 360 languages, as of November 2007. It is the world's largest bibliographic database. WorldCat itself is not directly purchased by libraries, but serves as the foundation for many other fee-based OCLC services (such as resource sharing and collection management).

Specific libraries

The catalogs of the largest libraries, especially the major national libraries, can be used for general purpose bibliographic searching; they can be assumed to include all significant titles, and information then used to search more specific library catalogs. The catalogs of individual libraries can be used for finding books in those particular libraries.

Online general-interest book databases

Some databases are intended primarily for general rather than academic use, and are constructed less formally than those mentioned above.

Internet Book Database

• The Internet Book Database

The Internet Book Database (IBookDB) is an online database with information about books and authors with an added social networking component. It was started as an effort to be the IMDb equivalent for books. It currently contains information on over 94,000 books (over 316,000 ISBNs), 28,000 authors and 2,200 series making it one of the largest online databases of author and book information. Unique features include finding historical publication information for books using their 'Other Versions' feature on every book page. They also provide price comparisons.

Registered users can catalog and manage their book collections online, find users with similar books, authors or series' and discuss books on the forums. They can also rate and review books in addition to Tagging them. Users can also rate and tag authors and series'. Other features offered include showing random books from users catalogs on their websites, blogs or on their pages on social networking sites, and search web sites of various bookstores. IBookDB also holds a monthly giveaway in which they giveaway around 10 books each month to users of the site, most of which are signed by the authors. Users can request editor status which currently allows them to enter and correct series related information.

IBookDB also offers services to authors such as hosting their official forums for free, getting their books listed, updating their Biography and other book publicity services, providing a platform for authors and readers to connect. Currently IBookDB hosts the Official Forums for several authors, including Paul Levine, Susan McBride, Becky Garrison, Kristina O'Donnelly and Danielle Girard.

Internet Book Database of Fiction

• The Internet Book Database of Fiction

The Internet Book Database of Fiction (IBDoF) is an online database for books, mostly works of fiction. The site also hosts a message board specifically geared to the discussion of books. The Database currently holds information for over 35800 books and 4730 authors, the community consists of roughly 1330 active members who have made 123500 forum posts in over 6400 topics.

Members of the IBDoF are able to and encouraged to add books and authors to the database as well as rate and write reviews on existing books. The message board, which is now shared with the Internet Book List, includes discussion areas on some of the more popular authors in the database and also hosts official discussion boards for several authors including: Charles Pellegrino, L. E. Modesitt, Jack McDevitt, Lois McMaster Bujold, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller (joint board), Debra Doyle and James D. Macdonald (joint board), Heather Gladney, John Dalmas, Elizabeth Bear and David B. Coe.

Internet Speculative Fiction Database

• The Internet Speculative Fiction Database

The Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDB) is a database of bibliographic information on science fiction and related genres such as fantasy fiction and horror fiction. The ISFDB is a volunteer effort with both the database and wiki being open for editing and user contributions. The ISFDB database and code are available under Creative Commons licensing and there is support within both Wikipedia and ISFDB for interlinking. While the ISFDB is primarily a bibliographic research database it also contains biographic data for books, authors, series, and publishers that do not meet Wikipedia's notability standards.

The ISFDB database indexes authors, novels, short stories, publishers, awards, and magazines. Additionally, it supports author pseudonyms, series, awards, and cover art plus interior illustration credits which is combined into integrated author, artist, and publisher bibliographies. An ongoing effort is verification of publication contents and secondary bibliographic sources against the database with the goals being data accuracy and to improve the coverage of speculative fiction to 100%. The current database statistics are available on line.

Major alternatives to the ISFDB for speculative fiction research include:

• Index to Science Fiction Anthologies and Collections, edited by William G. Contento. This site catalogs genre-related anthologies and collections published prior to 1984.
• The Locus Index to Science Fiction, edited by William G. Contento. This site catalogs genre-related magazines, novels, anthologies, and collections published since 1984.
• The Locus Index to Science Fiction Awards, edited by Mark R. Kelly.

Social networking book databases

There are several databases intended primarily or partially for social networking. They encourage users to make their own catalogs, to rate the books on the site, and to use this information to identify others with similar interests. LibraryThing is a large and well-known example.

LibraryThing

URL	http://www.librarything.com, http://www.librarything.de, etc.
Commercial?
Type of site	Catalog and community
Owner	Tim Spalding (60%) AbeBooks (40%)
Created by	Tim Spalding
Launched	August 29, 2005

File:Tim Spalding, LibraryThing founder.jpg

Founder Tim Spalding.

File:Abby Blachly, LibraryThing Head Librarian.jpg

Head Librarian - Abby Blachly.

LibraryThing is a prominent social cataloging web application for storing and sharing personal library catalogs and book lists.

LibraryThing

LibraryThing was developed by Tim Spalding and went live on August 29, 2005. By its one-year anniversary in August 2006, LibraryThing had attracted more than 73,000 registered users who had catalogued 5.1 million individual books, representing nearly 1.2 million unique works (In March 2008 they reached over 360,000 users and 24 million books). The LibraryThing website displays Google AdSense advertising on work and author pages for users that are not logged in, and receives referral fees from online bookstores that supply book cover images. Individual users can sign up for free and register up to 200 books. Beyond that limit and/or for commercial or group use, a subscription fee or one-time lifetime fee is charged. Online bookseller AbeBooks bought a 40% share in LibraryThing in May 2006 for an undisclosed sum.

Users (informally known as thingamabrarians, a term coined by contributor RJO) can catalog personal collections, keep reading lists, and meet other users who have the same books. While it is possible to keep a library catalog private, most people choose to make their catalogs public, which makes it possible to find others with similar tastes. Thingamabrarians can browse the entire database by searching titles, authors, or tags generated by users as they enter books into their libraries.

Features

The primary feature of LibraryThing is the automatic cataloging of books by importing data from booksellers and libraries through Z39.50 connections. Six Amazon.com stores supply a ready (if sometimes inaccurate) source of data. Library sources supply MARC and Dublin Core records to LT; users can import information from over 250 libraries including the Library of Congress, the Canadian National Catalogue and Yale University. Once the correct book and edition has been located, a click adds it to the user's catalog. If the correct book or edition is not available, it can be manually added or the record can be edited later. Furthermore, books can be added from another member's catalog or by searching on LibraryThing itself. A list of ISBNs can also be imported.

After a user catalogs books, he or she can tag them, add/correct cover pictures, and use social features. When a book is tagged, it can be viewed when other users or books use that tag. "Members with your books" shows the 50 most similar libraries registered by other members. When viewing another member's profile or library, the system shows how many (and which) books are shared in common between the two users. If desired, members can leave a (public or private) comment on another member's profile. One can also add the member as a friend, to a private watch list, or as an interesting library.

A "Suggester" feature, introduced in April 2006, provides book recommendations based on catalogs with similar books. The comical "Unsuggester" lists books that are rarely owned by the same people as the books in your library. Both these features can also be applied to a specific book.

In September 2006, LibraryThing added an easy way to see book data from several book-swapping web sites. LibraryThing book pages include a "swap this book" link with the number of copies available at book-swapping sites, the number of people who desire a copy of the book, and links to specific sites where people have or want the book (sorted by number of copies).

Due to the social aspects, LibraryThing is a Web 2.0 application. It has been compared to bookmark manager Del.icio.us, the collaborative music service Last.fm, and aNobii, another book cataloguing site.

Publicity

At the end of June 2006, LibraryThing was subject to the Slashdot effect from a Wall Street Journal article. The site's developers added servers to compensate for the increased traffic. In December of the same year, the site received yet more attention from Slashdot itself over its UnSuggester feature, which draws suggestions from books least likely to appear in the same catalog as a given book.

LibraryThing maintains two blogs and a forum for discussions about LibraryThing. Since the introduction of the forum section of the site, called "Talk," the previously active LibraryThing Google Group has been retired.

Internationalization

LibraryThing has members across the world. The site supports international members by including sources (libraries and shops) from a number of countries and translated versions of the site which are available at separate URLs, such as www.LibraryThing.de (German), www.LibraryThing.nl (Dutch), and cym.LibraryThing.com (Welsh), www.LibraryThing.it (Italian).

Book retailer databases

Aimed primarily at selling books and other products.

• AbeBooks
• Amazon.com
• Barnes & Noble
• Play.com
• Powell's Books

Compilations of other databases

Also known as book meta-search engines, these combine the output of catalogs from a number of libraries and other sources.

ISBNdb.com

ISBNdb.com [1] is a website that attempts to build a free database of books by querying various libraries across the world for book data. The results are then indexed by a variety of parameters (authors, publishers, subjects, similarity, etc.) and presented on the website in an organized format. Original MARC records are available for download as well. As of May 2006, the site has data on more than 2 million unique ISBNs and corresponding books searchable by title, ISBN, author, subject, and other criteria. 2000-5000 records are added daily.

The ISBNdb.com website also offers book price comparisons for availability and pricing in many online stores, including both general dealers such as Amazon and large used book dealers (AbeBooks, Alibris, etc). ISBNdb.com displays the pricing information immediately, in parallel to normal book browsing.

Effective July 2005, ISBNdb.com offers an XML based remote access API that allows access to all of the same data that is displayed on the website itself. ISBNdb.com was started in 2001 as a hobby project by Andrew Maltsev. It is now a project of his company, Ejelta LLC.

Digital Bibliography & Library Project (DBLP)

The Digital Bibliography & Library Project (DBLP) tracks citations in computer science. As of July 2007, the DBLP website listed more than 910,000 citations to articles on the computer science field, mirrored at five sites across the Internet.

Journal and magazine article databases

General

• ProQuest
• Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature
• Scopus - large scale commercial database of social science journals indexed by subject and with cross-references
• ISI Web of Knowledge - large scale commercial database of scientific, social science, and humanities journals indexed by subject and with cross-references
• Informit (RMIT Publishing)[2] - Australian aggregator of bibliographic databases and journals.

Subject-specific

• Anthropological Index Online (AIO)
• Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) - free database by U.S. Department of Education
• Rock's Backpages

Publisher-specific

• ScienceDirect

Open-access journal article databases

• Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)

See also

• Institutional repository

External links

• National Federation of Abstracting and Indexing Services (NFAIS)
• The American Society of Indexers

az:IBList

Credits

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