Heterogeneous bibliographic database query system prototype

Biblored (public library system of Bogota) in conjunction with Fundalectura (Foundation for the Promotion of Reading), have raised the need to implement a tool that allows users to search for books and reserve them for loaning, using a single application, even if there are several independent databases and autonomous data. These catalogs belong to the main actors of the district public library system, which are Biblored and his libraries, Fundalectura with "Bibloestaciones”, and community libraries. The system must be capable to receive more libraries belonging to other private or public entities in the near future. The problem to solve is to perform an integration of these heterogeneous bibliographic databases. In the first part of this article the industry tendencies in heterogeneous bibliographic database integration will be explained, as well as the specific requirements determined by Biblored and Fundalectura. In the second part, the main techniques used for enterprise application integration (EAI) are reviewed, the extraction process, processing and reading of data (ETL), as well as federated or distributed integration techniques will be revised, in order to determine their individual advantages and how they can be combined. Finally this strategy is described and the implementation approach will be shown.