Jenny, who would build something like this?

Version 1

Pass two elements:

• ISBN
• ZIP code

This might look like:

http://cardcat.com/isbn/1234567890/zip/94610/

Return:

• The book description and a list of libraries in or near the location that have this book in their collection. Availability info too. Link to each library's page for that book.  

Later releases:

• Follow the Amazon SOAP API.
• Extend to non-western languages and non-book holdings.
• Compare prices at local independent stores and on Amazon.
• Pass a report of queries to acquisition desks at local libraries (what's hot that you don't have on the shelf).

In the spirit of ISBN.nu.

via MetaFilter:

142 occupational questions. Some are thought-provoking, others need to be unpacked like a philosophical argument (scroll about halfway down the page for the beginning of the occupational questions section). If you want to apply for the archivist position at the Lyndon B. Johnson Library, in Austin, Texas, help yourself.

When you screen for completeness, what do you screen out? On the other hand, perhaps a library archivest has high tolerance for bureaucracy, dogged tenacity, lots of time, and few alternatives beckoning. There really is very little good on TV.

[aka staffing]