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Ideas2 min read

Cataloguing by ISBN: DNB, K10plus and Crossref

The librarian types in an ISBN and, within seconds, sees a ready-made description from national catalogues. How it works, and why the record still isn’t saved automatically.

Alexander Ananyev

For a librarian, cataloguing new acquisitions is one of the longest routines. Title, authors, publisher, year, extent, series, subjects — ten to fifteen fields from the title page. Most of this data already exists in national catalogues. Why retype it?

How it works

  1. Enter the numberThe “New record” form has an “ISBN or DOI” field. The number is typed in, and Enter starts the search straight away.
  2. Validate the numberISBN check digit, ISBN-10 to ISBN-13 conversion, recognition of DOIs and doi.org links.
  3. Check for duplicatesIf the book is already in the catalogue — including hidden records and the trash — the system shows it and offers to add a copy. In that case it doesn’t even contact the external catalogues.
  4. Find descriptionsSeveral catalogues are queried in parallel, each with eight seconds to respond.
  5. Choose and checkThe librarian picks a description and the fields are filled in the form. They add the call number, collection and item themselves and save with the usual button.
Katlog: “New record” — the ISBN field and descriptions found, shown as cards with source names
The description of an English-language book was found in K10plus and the Library of Congress, while DNB and Open Library answered “Not found”. The librarian picks a source and clicks “Fill in the form”. The screenshot shows the Russian interface.

Where descriptions come from

  • Deutsche Nationalbibliothek — German publications and GND subjects.
  • K10plus — the union catalogue of many libraries in Germany, including Baden-Württemberg.
  • Library of Congress and Open Library — English-language publications, as a fallback.
  • Crossref and DataCite — articles and datasets by DOI.

All sources are free. The requests are made by the server, not the browser, and only the ISBN or DOI leaves the system — no reader data.

Why the record isn’t saved automaticallySomeone else’s description is an excellent draft, but not the truth. It may describe a different edition, a different translation, a different transliteration. The librarian decides; the system just saves them time.

How we tested it

The ISBN of “Fly pushing”, already in the catalogue, triggered the duplicate warning. A German book was found in DNB and K10plus. The DOI of Watson and Crick’s famous paper on the structure of DNA filled in a description from Crossref. An ISBN with an invalid check digit was rejected with a clear message. And when DNB once failed to respond, the other sources kept working.

A bonus: the system logs where a description came from. A year from now it will be clear which data came from DNB and which was entered by hand.

Sources