This is a video recording of the RDAP webinar “Using APIs for Non-Programmers” held on April 22, 2020 @ 1:00 pm EST as part of the RDAP Town Hall “Ask Me Anything” series webinar.
Webinar Description:
Application programming interfaces -- "APIs" -- are a key way that systems make functionality and detailed information available. Long available only to software developers, modern APIs are quite accessible to the human user, even those with no programming skills!
This webinar will cover:
- why you might want to access APIs
- how to formulate API requests using a web browser
- how to do the same using other freely available tools
- how to interpret and work with responses
- how to translate API documentation to API requests
- examples of APIs drawn from repository, preprint, and identifier systems
- next steps to crawling information from APIs
The webinar is specifically targeted at those working in libraries and library-like settings, who may want or even need to access APIs, but who have no programming or command line experience.
Greg Janée is director of the Data Curation Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a certified Carpentry instructor. He's been a researcher and developer in the areas of digital libraries and digital preservation for over twenty years. As a software developer, most recently he was the principal developer of the California Digital Library's EZID persistent identifier service; earlier, he was the principal developer of UCSB's Alexandria Digital Library, Gazetteer Protocol, and related technologies