ILS user groups can be one of the greatest sources of tips, tricks and inspiration for tech-oriented library staff. There was a recent discussion on the Innovative User’s Group that has led to an interesting way to embed various media into OPAC search results.

Each of these work in Innovative’s Millennium OPAC. I have not had a chance to check whether this will work in other systems, but would greatly enjoy hearing whether or not it works for others.

The key to this is the MARC 970 field, using the subfield |t, which is used for Table of Contents display information. It was observed that the contents of the field were passed along to the browser, and that html code could be passed to the bibliographic display.

It works well, and is a perfect example of a “hack”, utilizing existing functionality in new and creative ways. To date, there are six ways to extend the OPAC.

To try out these examples, simply copy the html code, starting with the |t, and paste it into a 970 field in a bibliographic record. Each of the examples should work as is; some information about how to modify the code, as well as a screenshot of the example is provided.

Displaying an Image:
This is fairly straightforward insertion of an image stored on Flickr. Change the URLs to whatever you need, adjust the pixel height and width, and this will serve you well.

|t<center><object data="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3433/3694927599_039309b2e6_o.jpg" type="image/jpg" width="400" height="600"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3433/3694927599_039309b2e6_o.jpg"></img></object></center>

Image Screenshot

Embedding a Search Form:
This code embeds a search form for OpenLibrary, including a selector check box and link to an advanced search page. Search forms can be tricky, and it can be very challenging to get even basic search functionality for some services.

|t<br />Search OpenLibrary:<form method="get" action="http://www.openlibrary.org/search"><input border: 1px solid #ccc; width: 100%" type="text" name="q" value="" title="type_search." /><button class="go" type="submit">Go</button><br /><input tabindex="9" type="checkbox" value="mhsncqbxgkup" name="ftokens">Scanned books only<br /><a href="http://www.openlibrary.org/advanced" style="text-decoration: underline">OpenLibrary Advanced Search Page</a></form>

Search Box Screenshot

Embedding a Video:
This example embeds a YouTube video, specifically the preview for the film “A Streetcar Named Desire”. Previews of videos available in the library, library instructional videos, and author interviews are examples of the types of embedded video that add can value to your OPAC.

The embedding information comes from the “Embed” information from the YouTube result page. You can also simply replace the URL information in the code below:

|t<center><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ilW32IKJoM0&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="720" height="578"></embed></center>

Embedded Video Screenshot

Streaming Audio:
This example uses a third-party service called Odeo to stream the MP3 audio of Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech. The audio file lives on the Internet Archive.

|tTo listen to the speech, click the "Play" button:<br /><center><embed src= "http://www.odeo.com/flash/audio_player_standard_gray.swf" quality="high" width="300" height="52" allowScriptAccess="always" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" flashvars= "valid_sample_rate=true&external_url=http://www.archive.org/download/MLKDream/MLKDream_64kb.mp3" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed></center>

Streaming Audio Screenshot

Journal Table of Contents
This example utilizes two separate third-party services. First, the ticTOCs Journal Tables of Contents service is used to locate an RSS feed for a table of contents, in this case “Educational Research“.

After this, the feed URL is entered into the Feed2js service, which generates the code. To display any RSS feed, simply use the Feed2js service with a feed’s URL.

|t<script language="JavaScript" src="http://feed2js.org//feed2js.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.informaworld.com%2Fampp%2Frss%7Econtent%3D0013-1881&chan=y&tz=-5&targ=y&utf=y&html=a" charset="UTF-8" type="text/javascript"></script> <noscript> <a href="http://feed2js.org//feed2js.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.informaworld.com%2Fampp%2Frss%7Econtent%3D0013-1881&chan=y&tz=-5&targ=y&utf=y&html=y">View RSS feed</a> </noscript>

Journal Table of Contents Screenshot

Virtual Bookplate
This example is simply a proof of concept, but I especially enjoyed putting this one together and hope to create a more polished version in the future. It uses a background image of an open book with blank pages (credit to happysweetmama via Flickr), and then applies Relative Positioning to place text on top of the image.

The text position, font, size, and content are all able to be controlled for each record. This can be a great way to honor those who add to a collection, or to highlight items from a particular collection.

|t<center><object data="http://www.libology.com/capital/OpenBook500.jpg" type="image/jpg" width="500" height="364"> <img src="http://www.libology.com/capital/OpenBook500.jpg" width="500" height="364"></img> </object><div style="position: relative; top:-225px; left:-125px"><font size="+1" font-family:"Times New Roman",Georgia,Serif;>A Gift from:</font></div><div style="position: relative; top:-260px; left:125px"><font size="+2" font-family:"Times New Roman",Georgia,Serif;>Josiah H.<br />Blackmore II</font></div></center>

Virtual Bookplate Screenshot

There are, I am sure, dozens of ways that one can use this hack to enhance the OPAC… these are just a start.

A couple of news items that signal trends in the way the web will evolve:

Internet Explorer has lost a significant amount of market share recently. This is good news in a couple of ways.  First, it signals growing diversity among web browsers, and the people who use them.   This strengthens the concept of web standards, and encourages design that is browser agnostic.  The other way in which this is good news is that IE6 use has dropped below 10% and IE7 is heading that way as well.  Internet Explorer 8 is superior to either one, and it is great to see people upgrading.   There are also many fantastic browsers not made by Microsoft, including Mozilla’s Firefox, Apple’s Safari, Google’s Chrome, and Opera.  Whichever you choose (and why limit yourself to just one?), make sure you are using the most current version.  Otherwise the only thing you aren’t missing out on is the security problems.

XHTML 2 will disappear at the end of this year.  That I think this is good might surprise those who know that I have been designing using versions of the XHTML standard since around 2005.  I like the separation of content from design, and some of the features of XHTML 2 look fantastic.  However, I think HTML 5 is going to take the internet by storm, and it is better to incorporate as many of the good features of XHTML 2 in HTML 5, eliminate the problematic issues, and let one standard guide the design of general web pages.  This requires that HTML 5 be as good as it looks.  I have high hopes for it.

This has been a busy week; so much so that the previous post, HTML 5, Google Wave, and the Future of the Web was started last weekend, with some editing and additions each day, and them actually posted yesterday.  Note that it says “posted”.  I realized last night that I hadn’t actually finished it.  So, if you read it and wondered what the heck did HTML 5 have to do with the rest of the post, here is my wrap up:

You may be wondering why I started this post discussing HTML 5.  The newest version of HTML has been in development for years, and has had its share of controversy.  Many developers and users have spent years pushing for effective use of web standards, with an eye towards XHTML use and support, which emphasizes the separation of content and style.

HTML 5, according to some, muddies the content/style waters too much, and will make it harder to preserve the gains that continue to be made.

However, with the timely announcement of Google Wave, it seems clear that HTML 5 is a game changer with serious potential, and that it will make many things easily possible that currently require a great deal of work and computing power.

For the next few years, at least, we will be working with web pages that, at best, will be coded to two fairly different standards.  XHTML and HTML 5 will co-exist, and if web developers approach their task with an understanding of each, we can design sites around the standard that suits them best.

Perhaps the next iteration of HTML will be a unification of the standards, allowing everything to exist within one framework.  I don’t know if that is possible (and don’t know HTML 5 enough to have a grasp of the differences between them), but I for one will be very happy to have two powerful and well-created standards to work with, and look forward to seeing what lies in the future.

Amidst a great many other topics, HTML 5 has been on my mind the past couple of weeks.  It started on Tuesday, May 26th, with Kevin Yank posting HTML 5 : Now or Never? on the SitePoint blog.  He was floating the question of whether or not they should look into publishing a book on HTML 5 now, or if they need to wait until it matures enough for developers to use with confidence.  If you read his post, and especially if you look over the comments, you will see that there is a full range of opinions (including that HTML 5 should never be implemented) by developers about the topic.

This remained a relatively minor, background issue until two days later, Thursday, May 28th.  On that day Google announce the existence of a new project called Google Wave.  My initial thought was that Google was simply creating their version of a FaceBook/Twitter/Blogging style platform.  The more I looked, the more I realized that this was much different, and much more important, than a differently branded service.  Wave is something that has the potential to change many, many aspects of how we use the internet.

What is Google Wave?  I have spent a good part of last week trying to distill it into a couple of paragraphs, and am not having much success.  The overall essence of it is something that I haven’t yet wrapped my head around, but here are a few aspects of it that will hopefully illustrate some of it:

It is a communication platform that allows users to send, receive, and use a variety of information (think communications like e-mails, IM, tweets, feeds, etc.) in a way that offers greater control, speed, and usability.  Messaging becomes “real-time”, with your keystrokes being sent live to the person you are communcating with (unless you select to hold the message until you are ready).  The effect of this is that it becomes possible to hold a real-time conversation with others utilizing a variety of communication forms simultaneously.  You can incorporate text, images, documents, and other digital formats into the conversation in a free-flowing manner that saves time, effort and reduces confusion.

To quote from the introduction to an interview, “Email is asynchronous conversation. Instant messaging, by contrast, is synchronous. Wave is both.“  Possibly the best general description of Wave could be that it lets users and groups easily communicate and collaborate in one interface, using whatever editing/communication/collaboration techniques fit the task at hand.  Think of it as a collaboration mash-up tool.

A few places to find further info:

• Went Walkabout : Brought Back Google Wave. (Google Blog)
• Google Wave Drips with Ambition. (TechCrunch)
• Video Interview with the Google Wave Founders (TechCrunch)
• Live with the Google Wave Creators (TechCrunch)
• Sergey Brin : Google Wave Will Set a New Benchmark for Interactivity (TechCrunch)
• Google I/O A Real Eye-Opener (SitePoint)

Watch for the technological shift from these developments.  This will not only give us new and improved tools to perform tasks and work together (think of the possibilities for online meetings and conferencing), but will set standards for what will be expected from web presences.  Our OPACS may have some new goals to aim for.

Note added later:  I have had a busy week, and forgot to actually address the relationship between HTML 5 and Google Wave.  I do so in another post, Why HTML 5.  Apologies for not getting it right the first time!

Eric Shonfeld at TechCrunch writes:

“Once again, the Internet is shifting before our eyes. Information is increasingly being distributed and presented in real-time streams instead of dedicated Web pages. The shift is palpable, even if it is only in its early stages.”

Twitter.  RSS.  Facebook.  Digg.  You-Name-It-Feed.  It is becoming apparent that this is the next big shift in internet usage, and, as with the previous shifts, it is hard to guess what the effects will be, and who will be affected.

And this, like previous shifts, will not supplant previous internet use trends.  HTML, or some form of it, will still be very dominant.  Blogs and Wikis will continue to exist, and will be useful tools for certain types of communication and interaction.  Integration will continue to be the norm, with the “now” infusing itself throughout.  How will this change be considered dramatic?

“Traffic occurs in bursts, depending on what people are paying attention to at that second across a variety of services. Someone might notice an obscure blog post on Twitter, where it starts spreading, then it moves to FriendFeed and Facebook and desktop stream readers such as Tweetdeck or Seesmic desktop and before you know it, a hundred thousand people are reading that article. The stream creates a different form of syndication which cannot be licensed and cannot be controlled.”

This “cannot be licensed and cannot be controlled.”  Think about this.  How much of your web presence is based on control:  control of layout, content, contributors, and most of all, control over the rate at which change occurs?   For a library web site, how much of this control is able to be ceded before the concept of a library web site itself changes, without controls?

As with many future technology issues, now is the time to begin thinking, discussing, understanding all of this.  We cannot begin the process of deciding or planning, because none of us can predict how this will play out.  What will we have in place to deal with this, to anticipate this, to harness this?  One benefit of this process will be the inevitable inspiration that some will have about the potential of streams; a future must-have library web site technology might come from this.

Start thinking!

This is just one of my passing thoughts, which I suspect is understood by many, but not necessarily expressed this way:

Google’s PageRank is, for all practical purposes, a form of social networking applied to the concept of a particular html tag.  The ranking system is built upon the idea that someone, somewhere, decided that something on their web page was so associated with another web page that it needed to be wrapped in <a> </a> tags with the web page’s address referenced.  Thousands (millions!) of people finding it imperative to add these tags around their text, and thereby making it possible to judge the importance of specific web sites by aggregating these millions (billions!) of tags.  Will we look back at this and call it the beginning of social networking on the web?

the thought passed through my head while reading Stefano’s Linotype…

SitePoint Reference is an online guide with a wealth of information on web design.  Divided into three sections, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, it is a great place to find that bit of information you need while designing or editing a web site.  Keep it in your bookmarks.

You might recognize SitePoint from their book publishing, including the recent Everything You Know About CSS Is Wrong! which details the use of CSS tables in web design.  The title is hyperbole, in my opinion, but the book itself is excellent.  It has changed how I view the design of web pages, and I hope to put it into practice in the near future.

found via the SitePoint blog

I thought I’d try something new and summarize the software that I use on a regular basis.  I have been thinking about this, as I have recently switched from one software program to another in a couple of areas, and have been thinking about the evolution of the programs I have used over the years.  This may become an annual (or occasional) update, or this may be the only installment.  I also note which items have Portable Apps alternatives, as I use these a great deal.

Here they are:

• Operating Systems : Windows XP is still my primary day-to-day system at home, on my notebook, and at work.  I use Ubuntu linux on a regular basis (I am set up to dual-boot both at home and on my notebook computer), but haven’t yet made the jump.  Yet.  I use Mac OS-X (Leopard) occasionally on my wife’s computer (usually when setting something up for her).
• Web Browsers : Firefox (PortableApps) is my preferred browser (and has been since it was at version 0.6 or so).  I occasionally use Google Chrome, which is definitely faster, but my habitual use of certain add-ons (see below) keeps me from getting comfortable.  I use Internet Explorer 7 when I want to run Windows Update.  My only complaints are occasional memory hog problems with Firefox.
• Firefox Add-Ons : Zotero, Groowe Search Toolbar, Web Developer Toolbar, Operator, Cooliris, Add to Search Bar.  Learn them, use them, love them.
• E-Mail : Thunderbird (PortableApps) is my primary e-mail client, although I feel it needs a good updating (version 3, anyone?).  I use Microsoft Outlook 2003 at work, mainly because we use the calendar features quite a bit.  An add-on that makes Outlook worth using, however, is Xobni (“inbox” spelled backwards).  If you use Outlook, get Xobni – you will not be disappointed.  I am eagerly awaiting a Thunderbird version.
• Office Suites : I recently switched to Go-Oo from OpenOffice 3 (PortableApps).  It wasn’t too hard of a change, as it is an implementation of OpenOffice with some very intelligent add-ons and configuration.  It is very smooth and easy to use, and hasn’t given me any problems yet.  I still use Microsoft Office 2003 at work, but am rapidly switching to Go-Oo for everything but Access.  Even that may change, as MS Access lacks some desired report functionality that exists in the Sun Report Builder.
• Text Editors : I recently switched from SciTE to Notepad++ (PortableApp) when I needed better control over the encoding of the text.  Both are excellent for editing HTML and CSS, as well as editing a variety of text files.
• Web Design : I primarily use a text editor (see above), but when I want something more powerful, I use Amaya, or sometimes Aptana.  If you need a basic WYSIWYG designer, I recommend Komposer (PortableApps).  I use FileZilla (PortableApps) as my FTP client.
• Photo Software : I currently use IrfanView, but suspect that this may change in the near future, as my needs are changing.
• Online Software : I use WordPress for blogging; Gregarius as a blog reader; Gallery for photo storage and viewing; I am trying out OpenGoo for online applications (calendar, tasks, contacts, basic word processing); OpenBiblio for my church’s ILS; Scriblio and Drupal for OPAC replacements (just playing around with them); and TextPattern as a Content Managment System.
• Security : ZoneAlarm firewall; AVG Free anti-virus; Clean-Up!; and HijackThis.
• CD Authoring : I switched from CDBurnerXP to InfraRecorder (PortableApps) earlier this year.  I haven’t tried the newest version of CDBurnerXP, so there may be some switching back in the future.
• Odds and Ends : 7-Zip (PortableApps) for compressing and decompressing all sorts of files; PDF Creator; MarcEdit.

If you are looking for a common thread, there is this:  all of these, except for two of the operating systems, and the software on my work PC, don’t cost anything.  Much of it is Open Source (of which I am an advocate).  You can do a lot with an internet-connected computer, a sub-$100 per year web hosting service, and some trial-and-error experimentation.

I hope this list helps to inform, and perhaps even connects someone else with software that I have grown to enjoy using for everyday tasks.  It has been interesting to see just how much software becomes part of my daily routines, and how much value I get from the above programs.

After much anticipation, version 2.0 of the Social Opac (SOPAC) went live this morning at the Darien Library in Connecticut.

It looks very good… excellent, in fact.  I am already looking forward to playing with this version of the software.  What I really like at first glance:

• It was created with everyone in mind:  in theory can be coupled with any ILS for both the catalog and patron information.
• It is designed to allow sharing of reviews and other public content between libraries, thereby creating a larger social “pool”.
• The design is clean and looks to be well laid out.

The only problematic aspect I see initially is that it fails XHTML validation in a fairly dramatic way:  the doctype is listed as XHTML 1.0 Strict, but appears to have over 50 problems with the home page alone (over 200 for an OPAC search result page).  By just looking at the numbers, each type of page comes dramatically closer to validating as HTML 4.01 Strict (19 errors and 67 errors respectively) which seems odd to me.

Compromises in validation often have to be accepted for results pages, but I see no reason for not having a standards-compliant entry page.  I suspect that this could be a great “clean up” project once the dust has settled from the upgrade.

Overall, this is a great accomplishment, and a great piece of software.  This is certain to grab a lot of well-deserved attention, and will hopefully inspire all ILS and OPAC creators to improve their products.

thanks to Jessamyn for her post

Saw a shelf browse created for an Innovative (III) OPAC that is quite neat.  It lives on a development site for the Cambridge Public Library in Ontario, Canada and integrates Syndetic Solutions book covers into a pseudo-shelf listing.  Here is a direct link to a record.

Note that this has been done without resorting to Flash.  Try turning off the page’s CSS and you will see that it works just fine (just with a different scroll direction).  The page’s html still doesn’t validate, but I suspect that there aren’t any III opacs that validate properly, though I hope to be proven wrong someday.

Someday libraries will collectively understand what a good API can do for our web presence, and then the ILS companies will improve their products accordingly.  At least I hope so….

thanks to Mike Cunningham for posting the link to the Innovative User’s Group list

ILS Basic Discovery Interfaces, a.k.a the Berkeley Accord

In what may turn out to be a historically significant event in the history of library tech, a group called the ILS Discovery Task Force has generated an outline detailing what amounts to an Application Programming Interface (API) for the library OPAC. They are calling this the Berkeley Accord. Not only have they hashed out the basic understanding, but the following companies/organizations have undersigned the document:

1. Talis
2. Ex Libris
3. LibLime
4. BiblioCommons
5. SirsiDynix
6. Polaris Library Systems
7. VTLS
8. California Digital Library
9. OCLC
10. AquaBrowser

What does this mean? This means that sometime in the hopefully not-too-distant future, someone can create an online search tool and know that it will work with OPACs from many different ILSs. Much like browsing the web is a similar experience with Internet Explorer 7, or Opera 9, or Firefox 3 (because they use a shared understanding of how to display the html and css found on the web) searching various libraries using the same interface (because they use a shared understanding of how to access the information in the ILS) can make research more effective for everyone.

If this is realized, it will make our jobs easier, our patrons happier, and the institution of the library more powerful and effective. It can be a “win” for everyone who recognizes that the future is dependent on advancing search technology and interoperability.

Of note is the lone abstention: Innovative Interfaces, Inc (III). They indicate that while they agree with the general principles, they cannot offer their support until much greater detail is known about the framework. My initial thought is to question this: if you feel that this is a good foundation, then agree to it and work to build upon it. If there are flaws, express them and work to build support on an improved foundation. What comes to mind is a zen koan:

“When walking, just walk. When sitting, just sit. Above all, don’t wobble.”

found via a posting on NGC4lib (Next Generation Catalog for Libraries) by Eric Leese Morgan

Libology’s Scriblio installation.
Scriblio, the open-source Library OPAC that runs on a WordPress installation, has been installed on Libology.  Several notes about this software installation:

• The library catalog contained within this installation of Scriblio is Capital University’s, located in Columbus, Ohio.  I could have used any of dozens of libraries, but since I work there, it made sense to create something I could use on a regular basis.
• The software is fairly close to the default installation, although I plan to tweak the design over the next few weeks.  I have several projects on my plate, and I am happy to have reached a “live” status for this, so I may put it aside while I finish the book.
• Many of the links, especially the related subject and author links, do not work.  I haven’t looked into this yet, so it may be something I didn’t do, or activate, or something.
• It runs very slowly, most of the time.  I am not sure how much of this is due to my hosting service’s specs (a new service, for me), how much is due to database clutter (I have neither indexed the tables, nor adjusted the cache settings yet), or how much is due to factors in how I set it up.  The database is about 2GB, so I would imagine that it might take a bit of time to conduct a search.
• Most of the time delay over the past couple of weeks has been due to my chasing a ghost in the php code.  I had been attempting to set up the “real time status” reporting (this tells the location, call number, and availability of each item), and couldn’t get it to work.  As I am relatively new to php, I assumed that I was missing something there.  It wasn’t until I decided to try to work backwards and find the reference in the html code that I found out that it wasn’t working because it was made invisible via the style sheet.  From there it was a very quick fix.
• To see a very well implemented Scriblio installation, check out Plymouth State University’s Lampson Library’s OPAC.  They have nearly twice the number of records in their system, but their response time is much faster.  They have also done a great job with the page layout… very little wasted space.

My feeling about the software, at this particular point, is that it is an incredible demonstration of what can be done with a solid piece of software (WordPress) and some well-focused creativity.  Casey Bisson and the rest of the people who created this software have done a terrific job.

The downside is that it seemed, to me, harder than it should have been to get my installation this far.  To set things up properly one needed be comfortable working with WordPress, PHP, HTML, and CSS.  And this is only to get everything installed, imported, and configured to show the real-time status of the items.  I am not complaining… this is a young project, and what might be easy for one library (or one developer) might be tougher for others.

So, the question is : should you try to do this.  If you are interested, I say go for it!  If you have ever installed WordPress before, then there isn’t much that won’t be familiar (mostly editing URLs in PHP and editing a style sheet).  This is a great way to push your own envelope, and to learn a few things along the way.  This has certainly been a good learning experience for me….

GRDDL, a new recommendation from the W3C, is short for “Gleaning Resource Descriptions from Dialects of Languages”, a means by which software can extract semantic information from a variety of web pages.

In other words, rather than having to rely on the code (table structure, metadata, microformats, etc.) used by whoever created the page, GRDDL will attempt to align the content it finds with other existing data structures, and turns this into RDF. The content can then be compared and used with content from other sources.

For perhaps the best means of understanding how this can change the way we find and use information, check out the Scenarios that the W3C give as examples for how this could be used (scroll down to the various “Use Cases”).

I am a big fan of Microformats, and I see this a means to create a microformat checker service, similar to how web page creators can check their html/xhtml/css code. It would be neat to be able to run one’s pages against this in order to find out how best to structure and mark up the information contained within.

found on Catalogablog

Texty is an online editor for creating and editing html.  Type (or cut/paste) your content, and Texty generates the html for you.  It is a simple, straightforward tool that does one thing very well.  Sometimes that is exactly what one needs.

found on TechCrunch

Ken Varnum – RSS Basics and Beyond : Tips and Tricks for Getting the Most out of Syndicated Content. (PowerPoint) (Handout)

Really Simple Syndication (RSS)

• Data format: RSS, RDF, Atom, etc.
• data interchange (sharing) : syndication – think of what AP or Reuters does with news stories

Where does RSS come from?

• blog software
• CMS/wikis (“what’s new feeds”)
• Perl, PHP, Ruby, etc – search databases (Search Alerts)

Reminder to remember copyright

Tools – common traits

• can access feed
• can track whats been seen already
• can reproduce item content
• can link to original source

Computer-based:

• FeedDemon
• FeedReader
• NetNewsWire (Mac)

Browser-based:

• Safari
• IE7
• Firefox / thunderbird

Aggregators (web-based):

• Yahoo
• Bloglines
• Google Reader (now offline-enabled)

Integration — RSS = Stream of information = easy to integrate into HTML

hooks:

• webblog software
• cms
• wikis

HTML:

• feed2JS (build & post rss html)
• RSS2HTML

Myfeedz — from Adobe’s Romanian office
generates new content based on your feed choices

Create “live” subject guides
del.icio.us (all tags have RSS feeds)

New books lists

Checked out book reminders for patrons

Library Elf

Monitoring the web
web page changes
Google Alerts
Page2RSS

Roll your own
Write by hand (not recommended)
set up free blog
write a script (Perl, PHP, Ruby)
FeedXs

Course reserve lists on class pages as an example of a script

Notes: Kens presentation was great as an overview of what can be done with RSS beyond just blog postings and news story gathering. I plan to use several of his suggestions, and expect that it will change the way I work with the web.

Chad Boeninger – Wikis in Libraries : Enhancing Services, Promoting Sources, and Building Community (Powerpoint)

Chad started off with a show of hands – what type of librarian’s were in the audience, including media specialists.

He went on to define what a wiki is.

He emphasized that the strength of a resource depends on the strength of the community.

Software: Gallery (similar to Flickr, but hosted on your own server)

Wiki examples:

• Executive Planet (a wiki devoted to worldwide business etiquette)
• LibrarySuccess.org (devoted to promoting networking among library staff)
  

Internal wiki example:

• ReferenceWiki (only available to Ohio University reference staff – watch the presentation to view)

ReferenceWiki replaces their 3-ring binder of stumper questions, sticky-notes, and shared network folder documents.

Internal wikis ultimately become a knowledgebase:

• keyword searchable
• organized by category
• location neutral (save for network access)
• RSS feed available for new edits
• enables group collaboration

Important extras:

• A how-to page (guide to editing, style, etc.)
• faq (Frequently Asked Questions)
• sandbox (a place to practice editing)

Scholarly software is linked via reference wiki

Their library has skype-based video chat between floors — remote reference!

External wiki apps can be used for:

• communication with library users
• Research guides
• replace html/pdf guides
• can cut through the time and effort needed to maintain research guides
• dynamic content (blogs and wikis)

Wiki example: Biz Wiki (similar to ReferenceWiki in structure and style)

He demonstrated the creation and editing of info on the wiki

So you want a wiki:

• Find a purpose
• it’s not a hula hoop or ipod
• what void will it fill?
• communicate and collaborate easier
• how do others feel about the current system

Choose software

• WikiMatrix to compare and contrast various wikis
• Open Source CMS to use the various wikis without having to install (my suggestion)

Locally hosted options

• requires experience with dynamic websites (php & mysql)
• requires desire to experiment
• allow custom look and feel
• data lives on your server

Wiki farms / services

• very little technical experience needed
• free resources may run slowly, however
• you may have limited customization options
• no upgrade worries
• support varies (better than DIY)

Wiki: WikiIndex (a wiki of wikis)

How to create a community

• start with core group to add content and build momentum
• get buy-in from others
• refer to the wiki in blog posts, emails, etc. whenever applicable (use the resource)
• don’t be a control freak

when is a wiki done?

• never
• static wiki is a bad sign
• maintain, create, and edit to keep it viable

Is a wiki for you?

• flexible
• can be adapted
• save time
• requires time and effort

Challenges

• biggest challenge: getting others to contribute
• more content = more maintenance
• maintain organization and structure with growth
• difficult to see new content
• spam spam spam spam

Notes: This was a very good how-to session with a very well-defined purpose. If someone were asking the question of whether a wiki could be beneficial, and what it would take to make it happen, then 90% of their questions were answered here (the other 10% would be local questions concerning their IT setup, administration, etc.). Having set up a few wikis for a variety of purposes, I found this to be an excellent presentation.

OpenOffice.org, the open source office suite that gives Microsoft Office a run for it’s money (no pun intended), will soon be able to have its features expanded by the use of Extensions.

Extensions are small, add-on programs created by developers to add functionality to a particular program. The best known use of this is in the Firefox browser, of which I am a regular user.

The extensions I use with that program are the Groowe toolbar (think Google toolbar, then add a dozen or more additional sites to search) and the HTML Validator toolbar, which has been extremely valuable in my web design projects. There are hundreds more.

No word as to what types of extensions might become available, but I am sure that it will change the way people approach the program.

from OSDir

Yet another reason to create web pages that are accessible (although we shouldn’t need anything further than making sure that as many people as possible can use them):

Google now has a search page for the visually impaired. They rank the results based on how well the html degrades.

Google Accessible Search

from Monkey Bites