Search where? links failing

For the past several weeks we have four of our "Search where?" links that return the message "The search has failed." Checked again this morning (2-15-24) with the same negative results.

Those sources are:
Biola University
California Baptist University
SEO Consortium
MELCat

We can go to three of those libraries directly online and when searching their catalog we can find the books we're looking for. However, the California Baptist University catalog is only available for student use so we can't check it.

9781576581452 "George Muller: The Guardian of Bristol's Orphans" is what we searched for today.

>1 CFBC:

Irritating as it is, an online source failure isn't actually a LibraryThing bug. It's a problem with the interface between the source and LibraryThing -- usually because the library played with the configuration. In the case of the one that's only available for student use, it's probably because they closed it off. I can't even guess about the others.

Is there a reason why you are searching obscure sources instead of common ones like Overcat, Amazon, or Library of Congress? Because an ISBN search for this book would work on either Amazon or Overcat (though I didn't find it on LOC).

>2 waltzmn: I actually asked CFBC to draw up a bug report for these, so we could investigate and keep track of the issue (in case there was a bug at play), it is probably better in another Group but our Add Books Maintenance Group is private, so I defaulted to here. Sorry.

In any case, thank you for posting this >1 CFBC:! I'm adding this to my "to-do's", hopefully this week. I'll post with what I can find.

>3 kristilabrie:

Sounds like I owe CFBC an apology for not knowing the situation. Usually it's not LT's fault. :-)

Anyway, apologies for an un-helpful reply.

There seems to be an increase in failures of the sources. I can't give details right now; but I will update in the morning with the searches I have tried & the sources.

There is an open bug report about LOC failures.

>2 waltzmn: I don't often use either Amazon or LOC because I've heard they do no include subject info, which I find important for our library. Missing subject info is also the case if I enter it manually.

I use around 11 sources for "Add books" in LibraryThing. Overcat is one but it will at times give me far too many results if I search by title. For example, we have a book named "The Key House" (9798986466408) that Overcat offers 856 results for, but nothing by its ISBN. This particular book shows up in WorldCat at an SEO Library, but the SEO search fails using LibraryThing.

There may be better methods to create a catalog entry but I haven't figured them out yet.

>4 waltzmn: No problem waltzmn. I appreciate you taking the time to reply to my bug report.

SEO Consortium as a source is broken at the moment.

For those of us with editing privileges:

marccharset utf-8
querycharset utf-8
format USMARC
ssub 100
open ohio.sirsi.net:2200/Unicorn
find @attr 1=1016 "key house"
show 1+10
quit
Results
Searched: ohio.sirsi.net:2200/Unicorn
Search failed
Error: Connection Failed: Could not resolve address

They moved to ohio.ent.sirsi.net ohio.ent.sirsi.net:2200/Unicorn does not work.

Biola University:

marccharset utf-8
querycharset utf-8
format USMARC
ssub 100
open libcat.biola.edu:210/innopac
find @attr 1=4 "harrison"
show 1+10
quit
Results
Searched: libcat.biola.edu:210/innopac
Search failed
Error: Bib1 Error: Timeout-Expired (8s)

California Baptist University:

marccharset utf-8
querycharset utf-8
format USMARC
ssub 100
open www.webcat.calbaptist.edu:2200/Unicorn
find @attr 1=1016 "harrison"
show 1+10
quit
Results
Searched: www.webcat.calbaptist.edu:2200/Unicorn
Search failed
Error: Bib1 Error: Timeout-Expired (8s)

MelCAT seems to be working at the moment. It doesn't like ISBN from the Add Books page; but it does fine with ISBN in the edit source interface.

LOC definitely has subjects for most of its books

It's been two months since I first noted these connection failures, and they are still the same. So, should I assume these links are permanently broken?

Biola University
California Baptist University
SEO Consortium
MELCat

Biola University is now on Folio. Someone should ask the library if they are allowing z39.50 or SRU connections.
Generically, Folio connection details are: z3950.folio.ebsco.com:2100/db_name. Folio may require a user/password, as well.

California Baptist University might still be using Symphony; but they are definitely using EBSCO discovery. Again, someone should ask if the library is allowing z39.50 or SRU connections.

SEO Consortium - Again, someone should ask if the library is allowing z39.50 or SRU connections. There are more than 200 Ohio libraries in this consortium, not all of them are marked as part of the SEO in the Edit Library Sources interface.

MELCat is working. This search is title only. Not author, not ISBN.

Thank you lesmel. I don't understand about z39.50 and all that, but the fact that MELCat only accepts searches by title has enabled me to use that source again. Thanks for responding to my question.