APIs (Application Programming Interface): What are they?  Why are they?  Introduction to APIs and their role in the Librar

Hukill, Graham S

English

Digital Commons@Wayne State University

APIs and the Library:What, Why?Scholars Cooperative Brown Bag Series, 2015Graham HukillWhat do Librarians do?I’m going to get myself in trouble here.What do Librarians do?I’m going to get myself in trouble here.Libraries used to be all about books.Responsibilities have diversified,but the essence remains the same:organizing and providing access to information.APIs facilitate just that.Technical DefinitionAPI = “Application Programming Interface”“The API is a technical gateway enabling the automated exchange of information between software systems.” (Burton & Jackson, 2015)My DefinitionA datasource I can request information from, via HTTP (aka the Internet), in a predictable and understandable fashion.the API watersAPIAPI APIAPIAPI12APIAPIHumansComputerProgramsComputer ProgramsRequest: “I would like a dataset about worms in Nashville”1) Query an API: “worms Nashville”,2) returns an ID3) Use an API to retrieve that dataset by that ID, returns a dataset12Anonymous Definition“Pull the informationwhere we need it.”HTTP Request / Response CycleData Source {“response”:”Here is your data!” }http://example.org/data_pleaseRequestResponseOur userthe InternetHTTP Request / Response CycleData Source {"WSUDOR_API_status": "No functions declared." }http://digital.library.wayne.edu/WSUAPIRequestResponseOur userthe InternetJSONJSON = “JavaScript Object Notation”JSONAPIs and the LibraryWe use APIs in two interesting ways in libraries...Discovery AccessAPIs and the LibraryDiscoveryQuickSearchArticles (Summon)DatabasesCatalog Research GuidesDigital CommonsDigital CollectionsLibrary WebsiteJournalsEach one of these arrows represents an API “call” that returns data we can use on the page.QuickSearchQuickSearchdata from API(JSON format)QuickSearch : Catalog{"title":[" Code biology : a new science of life \/ Marcello Barbieri."," The biology and ecology of giant kelp forests \/ David R. Schiel & Michael S. Foster."," Electromagnetic fields in biology and medicine [electronic resource] \/ Marko S. Markov."],"lc":["ELECTRONIC BOOKS-DDA","ELECTRONIC BOOKS-DDA","ELECTRONIC BOOK-ELECTRICALENGINEERINGnetBASE"],"bibNum":["b5022463","b5062284","b5063817"],"bookTotal":3,"bookTotalComplete":14419,"location":["Libraries Electronic Books","Libraries Electronic Books","Libraries Electronic Books"],"status":["AVAIL. ONLINE","AVAIL. ONLINE","AVAIL. ONLINE"],"showStackView":["yes","yes","yes"]}QuickSearch : SummonThat is well and good, but this is what an actual API response often looks like......as you can see, API responses are mostly created by computers, for computers.QuickSearch : LibGuides<div id="libGuideWidget"><div id="api_search_guides_iid692"><ul><li><a href="http://guides.lib.wayne.edu/biochemistryandmolecularbiology" target="_blank">Shiffman - Biochemistry and Molecular Biology</a><div class="s-lg-guide-list-info"><div class="s-lg-guide-list-description"></div></div></li><li><a href="http://guides.lib.wayne.edu/biologicalsciences" target="_blank">Biological Sciences</a><div class="s-lg-guide-list-info"><div class="s-lg-guide-list-description">This Guide will assist Biological Sciences faculty and students in locating library resources and websites in Biology.</div></div></li><li><a href="http://guides.lib.wayne.edu/reference_tools" target="_blank">Reference Tools</a><div class="s-lg-guide-list-info"><div class="s-lg-guide-list-description">Quick reference information.</div></div></li></ul></div></div>QuickSearch : LibGuides<div id="libGuideWidget"><div id="api_search_guides_iid692"><ul><li><a href="http://guides.lib.wayne.edu/biochemistryandmolecularbiology" target="_blank">Shiffman - Biochemistry and Molecular Biology</a><div class="s-lg-guide-list-info"><div class="s-lg-guide-list-description"></div></div></li><li><a href="http://guides.lib.wayne.edu/biologicalsciences" target="_blank">Biological Sciences</a><div class="s-lg-guide-list-info"><div class="s-lg-guide-list-description">This Guide will assist Biological Sciences faculty and students in locating library resources and websites in Biology.</div></div></li><li><a href="http://guides.lib.wayne.edu/reference_tools" target="_blank">Reference Tools</a><div class="s-lg-guide-list-info"><div class="s-lg-guide-list-description">Quick reference information.</div></div></li></ul></div></div>APIs and the LibraryAccessFlow of Information WordsFor quite some time... Fairly recently... WordsKnowledgeKnowledgeEven more recently...DataInterpretation & AnalysisFlow of InformationKnowledgeWeather data in Metric...“24° C, 15 m/s from NE” Metric to ImperialConversionExample“75.2° F, 33.6 mph from NE” Simple Pulley(Unmediated Information Consuming)MediationCompound Pulley(Mediated Information Consuming)AnalysisThe QuestionWhen will librarians feel comfortable suggesting APIs as scholarly and useful information sources to users?Perhaps we are closer than we think...Our users have been interpreting data for a long time  Thought we were done with clip art did you...ResourceIndexNewspaper12 Humans Request: “I would like an article about the 1986 Earthquake in Romania”1) Consult Detroit News Index, learn what volume, issue, and page number2) Use microfilm, find and view the article12ResourceResourceResourceData providers are prioritizing API access to info And some libraries are doing it already!MIT: APIs for Scholarly Resources● World Bank IndicatorsUC Berkeley: Information Studies: APIs for scholarly resources● HathiTrust Extracted Features Dataset● WorldCat IdentitiesAPI Examples● NYPL Menu API (example)● HathiTrust Research Center (data & search)○ “Wayne State University” in title○ “Wayne State University” in full-text● Summon Search API (example)● Wayne State University Digital Collections○ Sketches and Scraps (computer & human)○ Lincoln Letter (computer & human)● BLAST DNA Sequence Database (query & results)● the Walters Art Museum (example)And then there are not-so-good ones:● JSTOR (example)A P/K Reference Desk PrototypeA simple API to handle routine questions at the P/K reference desk:● Where’s the bathroom?● Where is room 110?● How much is printing?● How many parsecs are we currently from our nearest neighbor star?Thanks!Questions?2015, Scholars Cooperative Brown Bag SeriesGraham HukillReferences● Enthusiastic Person: https://www.flickr.com/photos/imagesfrugales/8154030461/● Flashlight: https://thenounproject.com/term/flashlight/1398

APIs and the Library: What, Why?

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APIs and the Library: What, Why?

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