cerl 0.0.5

Library for querying CERL infrastructure

CERL library

Python bindings for the Consortium of European Research Library's API.

See /docs/docs.ipynb for a Jupyter notebook with additional documentation

Basic example

from cerl import ample_query, ample_record, ids_from_result, by_dot, the

# Connect to any AMPLE instance
ct = 'data.cerl.org/thesaurus'
# Run a search query
result = ample_query(ct, 'Purslowe, Elizabeth')
for idx in ids_from_result(result):
    # Download the record as a Python dict
    record = ample_record(ct, idx)
    # Access the record by dot notation
    cid = the(by_dot(record, '_id'))
    assert cid == idx

Installation

pip3 install cerl

Features

• Access to any AMPLE instance by specifying the host string (e.g. "data.cerl.org/thesaurus")
  • Some databases hardcoded as syntactic sugar:
    • CT
    • ISTC
    • HOLDINST
    • MEI
• Use the standard search syntax with ample_query
  • The same databases hardcoded as syntactic sugar: ct_query etc.
• Download records as Python dict objects with ample_record
  • Again, ct_record etc.
• Download records in other formats with ample_record_export
  • Again, ct_record_export etc.
  • Export formats supported (but not all for each database):
    • rdf/ttl
    • rdf/xml
    • rdf/jsonld
    • json
    • yaml
    • unimarc
• Access to record fields using the dot notation from search syntax via by_dot (NOTE: always returns a list of results)
  • If you know there is only one object/value being returned, wrap in the
  • Syntactic sugar around some fields:
    • Resolve CT record types with ct_record_type
    • Get the CID (CERL ID) with cid
• Add a timestamp to a record after modifying it with add_timestamp