Innovative To Issue Encore xQuery

In an effort to open up some of the data locked within ILS systems, Innovative Interfaces has announced the release of Encore xQuery, due out in early 2009. The product is an API (application programming interface) for the company's Encore Discovery client, developed to “liberate library data,” according to Betsy Graham, VP of product management.

The product addresses some criticisms leveled against the company for making certain data elements difficult to access in its Millennium catalog, Graham told LJ. “People want to get at the information [in their ILS] in a modern, programmatic way, and this is our attempt to satisfy those needs.” Encore xQuery is being positioned as a starting point both for Innovative and for library developers interested in building their own applications and extending catalog interfaces.

Gene Shimshock, marketing VP, indicated that one key feature of the API is the access it would give to any of the information encompassed by the Encore Discovery interface. This would include not just bibliographic records but OAI metadata records for local special collections, such as those harvested by the Encore Harvester companion product as well.