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Welcome to Liblog 1 - a weblog of current web sites and stories dealing with the interface between technology and libraries. Sometimes the connection to the sphere of the library is tenuous... but in today's world, everything has an impact on libraries, on librarians... and on library users. If you find this weblog of interest, you may enjoy these other library weblogs as well.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Building Web 2.0 Native Library Services
Casey Bisson, Plymouth State
available at http://MaisonBisson.com
"Bagged products" problem - what does it mean? What does "cookery" mean? How to put things into understandable terms?
Slide; Web 2.0 is made of people. Over 3/4 of americans have access to the Internet.
The web became something other than we predicted.
Analogy of cars and drive-in restaurants - people buying at drive-up windows, but parking to eat in their lots (as opposed to going into restaurant.) Cars compared to trains - cars give individuals control, where trains do not.
How can we deliver everything we know and value about libraries online?
Lessons From Web 2.0
We get one chance to prove we're not stupid, that the services we have are worth using. We've been trying to bend old models and tools into the new world, with generally poor results. We need to rethink our tools, adjust to new models.
Surfacing facets and subjects lets the user know what the librarian knows.
Search boxes are for answering questions. But, can the search box in the catalog do this? Maybe it can tell someone how many copies of books by J.K.Rowling we have, but how often are we asked that? Better to analyze the question and try to include in results other possibilities for answering the question. So if a query seems to be about anthropology, why not also include some guides to anthropology resources, not just books or periodicals?
Links are citations. Showed Cook memorial Library in New Hampshire page of gardening resources.
Library not the center of the universe - not even the information universe. People want to remix information, re-purpose it in many different ways. We need to build tools that can go beyond set collections of resources, that allow people to easily mix information from different areas. And not just from the library. YouTube example - easily allowing linking incredibly important; it enables inviting people into the catalog.
Valid, clean, semantic markup is essential.
Sites that allow comments essential! Best lesson of Web 2.0 is that our users are smarter than us. Example - Beyond Brown Paper site. By allowing user comments able to learn things that no one in library knew before - names of people, use for equipment, etc. Comments that add value to existing photos on the web.
Your website is not a marketing tool... it's a service point. People need to be able to do something on our sites, not just view them.
Scriblio (formerly WPOpac). - Casey is going to install a fresh version of Scriblio in 15 minutes or less. Has already tested the server so it works, has already downloaded for install Word Press.
Finishes installing Word Press (used by over 2 Million sites)
Scriblio is a set of plugins for WordPress that help you represent Library catalogs (and in many cases, the entire library website, making it possible to search everything at once.
Activates many plugins.
Scriblio is now installed, but data still needed.
Imports dataset from Cook Memorial - hardest part of the import is testing, correcting to avoid duplicate records.
Scriblio III Importer - can import records directly from the ILS without having to export those records.
Scriblio is data agnostic - should be able to work with horizon or other non-III data.
In less than 10 minutes, the system was installed and populated with data.
Using standard Word Press tools, able to drag-and-drop search box, facet display, etc. into catalog screen. Easily toggled between Cloud view and List view.
Do you have 11 minutes to create a social web catalog for your library?
Software and instructions available at scriblio.net. All free and open source.
Labels: Casey Bisson, IL2007, Scriblio, Social OPAC
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Other web logs with links to library issues:
- Lori Bowen Ayre's Library Technology Musings provides "Hopes, dreams, wild ideas and practical solutions for libraries."
- Marylaine Block's Neat New Stuff I Found This Week (and her Ex Libris E-Zine for librarians.)
- Tara Calishain's Research Buzz, "news about search engines, databases, and other information collections."
- Blake Carver and Steve Galbraith's LISNews.com, focuses on (as the subtitle puts it), "news for information professionals."
- Steven M. Cohen's Library Stuff, provides readers with information on the wonderful and exciting world of librarianship.
- Gary Frost's Future of the Book, looks at "preservation and persistence of the changing book."
- Michael Gartenberg (an analyst with Jupiter Research, a market research and advisory firm focused on emerging technologies and the Internet) is one of several Jupiter researchers producing an Analyst Weblog.
- Brend Hough and Liz Rea's NEKLS Technology Weblog, "50 Feet From the Cutting Edge in the Northeast Kansas Library System."
- Sarah Houghton's Librarian In Black, has "resources and discussions for the 'tech-librarians-by-default' among us..."
- Jenny Levine, the original bloggin' librarian, is back with the Shifted Librarian, working to make libraries more "portable... to serve our remote patrons."
- Alex Soojung-Kim Pang (one of the Institute for the Future's research team) is producing Future Now, which looks at emerging technologies and their social implications.
- Gary Price and Shirl Kennedy's ResourceShelf has "resources and news for information professionals" (including the latest scoops on what's what with the invisible web).
- Michael Stephens' Tame the Web includes, "current technology uses in libraries, training tips and various other interests concerning library settings."
- Sandra Stewart at San Jose Public Library is producing a Library Tourguide to Blogs and Technology.
- Jessamyn West's librarian.net, keeping track of the nifty reference sites - and library references - she finds.
- Stephanie Wright's TechnoBiblio, where librarians and technogeeks speak the same language.
Not a weblog, but a very funny look at libraries:
- Unshelved - Bill Barnes' and Gene Ambaum's library comic strip (formerly known as Overdue.)
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