RE: Database language

["Gimon, Charles A" <CAGimon at mplib dot org>]

> 1)  an sql-compliant backend would be far more accessible for direct 
> querying by those of us who would like to link-to or build interfaces to 
> local data outside the ILS;

Or to restate that....you could build your own web interface to the catalog,
and do pretty much whatever you want. Building screens just to search the
catalog
could probably be done super-easily. Doing things that interface with circ,
placing holds for example, you'd need more of a documented API (that is,
you'd 
have to know more about the internals of the system and how the bits of it
work together...) My sense is that for smaller, local customizations it
would
be a godsend. Rebuilding the whole web opac from the ground up with all its
functionality might not be worth it.

> 2)  an sql-compliant backend would be a far more flexible means of 
> extracting reporting data from my ILS than the present black box, aka 
> 'create lists';

Absolutely. Positively. Definitely.

--Charles Gimon
  Web Coordinator
  Minneapolis Public Library