library-api-draft

Establishing Foundations for Application Programming Interfaces (API) for Libraries, and Mobile App Intents for Library Systems Interoperability

Queens Library is proud to announce a key technology effort that began in August 2015. We have taken the knowledge gained from working with our eContent partners since 2013 on our “ Discovery and Delivery” code base for the QL Virtual Library and produced these following documents (see links below.) They are a combination of wish list and common practices that we actively use, or would like to see utilized across all external library vendors.

Inspired by conversations within multi-group efforts like Readers First, and earlier, we developed two (2) draft specification documents for the world to review, comment on, contribute to, and adopt as they see fit. We are also thrilled to announce that this cause is supported by many of our eContent partners and the ALA Digital Content Working Group, and we are actively working with NISO to support further development.

If library vendors embrace using consistent API standards for integrating with library systems, the by-product of this compliance are new possibilities, increases in customer satisfaction, and a deeper understanding of the value of their local library by the public. The previous overhead that once went into the understanding and integration of disparate external tools will be re-focused into a streamlined customer experience and fresh ways of accessing great content.

This initiative will deliver a foundational framework on which libraries can attain a stable future on common standardized feature sets as outlined in these first proposed draft(s).

Net benefits include lower costs in developing library solutions, emerging “plug and play” integration opportunities, new open source software tools, and the garnering of more commercial interest in serving the library industry as a whole.