viaf_snippet_3.py

from bs4 import BeautifulSoup

def get_lc_term_name(lc_auth_number):
    # create the LoC address by inserting the auth id into a template
    lc_template = "http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/{0}.html"
    lc_address = lc_template.format(lc_auth_number)
    
    # get the html for that address
    response = urlopen(lc_address).read()
    
    # Create a BeatifulSoup object from the response
    soup = BeautifulSoup(response)
    
    # the info we want is in the first <h1> tag
    # BeautifulSoup makes extracting that text very simple:
    lc_name = soup.h1.text.encode("utf-8")
    
    return lc_name