Message-Id: <199602062245.QAA28258@library.wustl.edu> Date: Tue, 6 Feb 1996 16:40:11 -0600 From: Art Zemon <mailto:art@DRA.COM> Subject: URLs To: Multiple recipients of list WEBCAT-L <mailto:WEBCAT-L@WUVMD.WUSTL.EDU>
Folks,I watched some discussion fly by as I plowed though a ton of back email... and I want to toss a thought out. Isn't publishing a URL that refers to a specific bib record like telling a patron that they will find the card for Huck Finn in the seventh drawer from the top, as the 57th card in the drawer? Worse, isn't publishing a URL that refers to a specific holdings record like telling a patron that they will find Huck Finn in the fourth aisle, nineth shelf, 6.7 inches from the left?
The URL is really an implementation detail of your library automation system. I don't think you really want to publish that.
I believe that repeating the search is the "right" way to do it. So instead, I want to publish a URL that executes a search that returns exactly one bib record or exactly one holdings record. (Hopefully, it returns the *right* record! :-)
I've been way off base before, so I'm open to opinions that I'm way off base again.
-- -- Art Z. http://www2.dra.com/art/bio.html