LibWorm: Federated / Meta Search

Dragnet - new federated search engine from new york law school

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100

New York Law School’s Mendik Library has developed DRAGNET, a search engine that simultaneously searches in more than 80 legal web sites and databases.DRAGNET stands for "Database retrieval access using Google’s new electronic technology" and uses Google’s free custom search option.Being from New York, the search tool includes many US-based resources but it also includes many non-US sources such as the British and Irish Legal Information Institute, CanLII, the International Labour Organization, the OECD, etc. (Source: Library Boy)

Head, electronic serials librarian (duke university, durham, north carolina)

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 22:15:01 +0100

Head, Electronic Serials Librarian (Duke University, Durham, North Carolina) Under the supervision of the Head of Electronic Resources and Serials Management, the Electronic Serials Librarian plans, coordinates, and supervises the workflow for serials data in the electronic resources knowledgebase, link resolver and federated search engine. S/he takes the lead in resolving access problems for e-serials and trains assistants in resolving problems as appropriate. S/he supervises the Electronic Serials Section which is composed of three support staff. Salary and rank dependent on qualifications and experience. Comprehensive benefits package. Required qualifications: ALA-accredited MLS or equivalent combination of education and experience. ...

Stanford university opens new bookless engineering library

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 14:46:26 +0100

The new bookless/electronic engineering library opened yesterday in Palo Alto, CA. Here’s the announcement from yesterday and a look at their web site. Much More in an Article (Published Last Week) in Stanford News: The Engineering Library’s move from the Terman Engineering Center to the new Jen-Hsun Huang Engineering Center was an opportunity to do more than just haul books from one building to another – and the librarians jumped at the chance to create a state-of-the-art library. “It’s going to be gorgeous,” said Helen Josephine, head librarian for the Engineering Library. “There’s a lot of new technology going into this. “We’ve been working on this for the last three years – we’re anxious to get in and get going. I’m really excited about it. I can’t wait to show it off to the students,” she said. She’ll get that chance when the library opens on Aug. 2, with a campus-wide invitation to tour the new engineering center and library on Sept. 8. The new library at the Huang Center will be less than half the size of its predecessor at Terman – about 6,000 square feet compared with the earlier 16,000 (and that’s not counting footage from the physics and computer science libraries that have merged into the new library as well). The revamped library will have a completely electronic reference desk with four Kindle 2 wireless reading devices. It will be the first on campus to have a self-checkout and book security system; by this fall, it also will have 15 ebook readers that library patrons may take home like regular books. Librarians will not be staffing a desk to help students and faculty, said Josephine, “but we’ll be more available when they need us.” Available, that is, through email, online chatting and Facebook. An online journal search tool called xSearch will scan 28 online databases, a grant directory and more than 12,000 scientific journals. ...

Article/video: stanford u. opens new “bookless” engineering library; blacklight & deep web part of the tech mix

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 14:36:14 +0100

The new bookless/electronic engineering library opened yesterday in Palo Alto, CA. Here’s a blog post from yesterday about the new Terman Engineering Library and a look at their web site. Much More (including a video) in an Article (Published Last Week) in Stanford News: The Engineering Library’s move from the Terman Engineering Center to the new Jen-Hsun Huang Engineering Center was an opportunity to do more than just haul books from one building to another – and the librarians jumped at the chance to create a state-of-the-art library. “It’s going to be gorgeous,” said Helen Josephine, head librarian for the Engineering Library. “There’s a lot of new technology going into this. “We’ve been working on this for the last three years – we’re anxious to get in and get going. I’m really excited about it. I can’t wait to show it off to the students,” she said. She’ll get that chance when the library opens on Aug. 2, with a campus-wide invitation to tour the new engineering center and library on Sept. 8. The new library at the Huang Center will be less than half the size of its predecessor at Terman – about 6,000 square feet compared with the earlier 16,000 (and that’s not counting footage from the physics and computer science libraries that have merged into the new library as well). The revamped library will have a completely electronic reference desk with four Kindle 2 wireless reading devices. It will be the first on campus to have a self-checkout and book security system; by this fall, it also will have 15 ebook readers that library patrons may take home like regular books. Librarians will not be staffing a desk to help students and faculty, said Josephine, “but we’ll be more available when they need us.” Available, that is, through email, online chatting and Facebook. ...

Unlocking the full power of your library with encore synergy

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 09:57:37 +0100

I en tid av web scale discovery och aggregerade index är Encore Synergy en lite udda fågel. Innovative Interfaces har valt att möta konkurrenterna genom att fokusera på att utveckla Encore gränssnittet mot Millennium med en modul för samsökning. Genom att erbjuda användaren en vy för lokalt katalogdata och en vy för artiklar och externa databaser menar Innovative att de har ett verktyg som uppfyller Discoveryplattformarnas krav på enkelhet och ”goes beyond the limitations of both federated search and aggregated index models”. Inlåst på Innovatives kundwebb finns det en webinar som förklarar produkten och upplägget. Efter att ha kikat på den och på de installationer som finns tillgängliga på Deakin University Library, Saginaw Valley State University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of San Diego och HELIN konsortiet är jag tveksam till om Encore lever upp till sina ambitioner. Ja, det är praktiskt att kunna rulla vidare med Encore om man haft det som sitt gränssnitt för OPAC. Användarna är bekanta med hur den fungerar och genom att lägga till en vy/modul för artiklar så får man en gemensam ingång och det fungerar ungefär som tidigare. Men det stora problemet är och förblir parallellsökningen. Varje extern resurs som skall samsökas måste konfigureras. Innovative anger inte vilka databaser man har stöd för eller vilken teknik som används. Men man säger att det sker via ”webservices” och att de är snabba. Ändå får man vänta på resultat och jag tycker att gränssnittet har problem. Eftersom varje resurs hanteras individuellt redovisas de individuellt. Relevansrankning är samma som man får från källan. I bästa fall kan man erbjuda ett begränsat antal facetter (fulltext och peer reviewed). När man söker i det lokala indexet så spränger man in resultat från artikelsökningen i träfflistan i en egen ”tips-tier”. Det är sådär och ställer till träfflistan för mig. Intrycket blir rörigt. ...

Links for 2010-07-18 [del.icio.us]

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 17:40:02 +0100

healthmash - Conduit Search PolyMeta, "Universal Meta search & discovery" joined HealthMash, now also available as Chrome extension via Conduit http://bit.ly/91nGd4 (Source: DigiCMB)

Technology services head at mugar memorial library

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 04:00:00 +0100

Boston University's Mugar Memorial Library is recruiting a Technology Services Head. Here's an excerpt from the ad: Guide assessment of existing and emerging library and information technologies. Lead project and implementation planning for library technologies. Provide coordination and programmatic guidance for the library technology services group (LTS), a multi-unit team, comprised of members from the University Libraries and Information Services & Technology. The LTS plans, deploys and supports a wide range of digital systems and services, including an integrated library system, WorldCat Local, link resolver, federated search software, institutional repository, search and discovery services, library web development, interlibrary loan system, proxy server, and staff desktop support. Collaborate with administrators, department heads and managers throughout all the University libraries and Information Services and Technology to adapt library services to the changing needs of faculty, researchers, and graduate students of Boston University and work with senior managers on the Library's other two teams, the Graduate & Research Services and Undergraduate & Distance Services to implement initiatives consistent with the Libraries’ strategic plan. (Source: DigitalKoans)

Job posting: assistant director for information technology

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 04:00:00 +0100

The Ohio State University Libraries seeks a dynamic and creative leader for the administrative team. The Assistant Director for Information Technology provides leadership, vision, and strategic direction for a wide range of digital systems and services of the Ohio State University Libraries. This position has responsibility for the integrated library system; federated search software; deployment of search and discovery services, such as WorldCat Local and other research databases; library web development; a suite of digital publishing and repository tools; and desktop support. The Assistant Director coordinates support for staff and public computing services in the Libraries in conjunction with the Office of the Chief Information Officer. Reporting to the Director of University Libraries, the Assistant Director ensures robust library systems support for new and established technology services that meet the teaching, research and service needs of the university community. For more detailed information: (Source: gmane.education.web4lib)

Technology services head at mugar memorial library

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 03:04:47 +0100

Call for articles & ideas - journal call for papers from library hi tech news

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 04:00:00 +0100

Call for articles & ideas - Journal call for papers from Library Hi Tech NewsLibrary Hi Tech News (LHTN), is actively seeking submissions. LHTN is an established (1984+) print and online monthly journal that quickly publishes articles of interest to our international readership. The journal’s major focus is on developments in library technology. Although not formally peer reviewed, LHTN is indexed in Library and Information Science Abstracts (LISA), Library, Information Science and Technology Abstracts (LISTA), Scopus, INSPEC, Current Index to Journals in Education and others. Published by Emerald Publishing Group, LHTN is interested in articles of varying lengths, reports from relevant conferences, and case studies of library use of technology. The editors will work with authors that are new to LIS publishing, and those who are seeking outlets for reporting on practical uses of IT in libraries. Publishing your article in LHTN can be “a place to start,” analogous to a “poster session in print” and does not preclude publishing a more fulsome piece in a peer-reviewed journal at a later date. Readers consider LHTN the source to hear what’s coming next in terms of technology development for academic and public libraries. ...

New jersey library funding cuts "only" 43 percent

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 04:00:00 +0100

http://www.libraryjournal.com Most databases preserved, but per capita state aid cut in half, regional networks consolidated. | By Norman Oder Jul 9, 2010 After the proposed 74% cut in state support for libraries in New Jersey generated a groundswell of protest, and the result has been a 43% cut, a reduction of $6.1 million. This decidedly mixed result includes a halving of per capita state aid to libraries and the consolidation of four regional networks into one. "We've lived to fight another day," Pat Tumulty, executive director of the New Jersey Library Association, told LJ. "This is a way of keeping our programs going." "To All The Library Supporters Who Made Your Voices Heard, Thank you, you did it!" NJLA said on its advocacy site, Save MY NJ Library. "$4.299 Million was restored in the New Jersey Budget for library programs!" The $4.3 million restored (out of the proposed $10.4 million cut) will support crucial services such as most databases, interlibrary loan, and the JerseyConnect Internet system. Nor will Thomas Edison State College, the distance learning institution that also houses the New Jersey State Library (NJSL), be merged with the New Jersey State Museum and governed by Rutgers University. New federal funds Crucially, sufficient money was restored—especially for JerseyConnect—for the State Library to get a $5.1 million federal broadband grant, supplemented by $1.5 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; add computers at 124 libraries; upgrade connectivity at 79 libraries; and provide job search assistance, employment skills, workforce development programs and other online resources at 365 libraries across New Jersey. While the broadband grant does not replace state funds lost, it allows local libraries to improve connectivity, and positions the state library to work with consortium of New Jersey's community colleges to train library staff and job seekers. ...

Content systems manager at james madison university

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 04:00:00 +0100

The James Madison University Libraries are recruiting a Content Systems Manager. Here's an excerpt from the ad (request/posting number: 0403574): This position will design, develop, administer, and enhance content management systems and related applications for the Libraries. The position will work with the Libraries Digital Services to promote resource discovery and improve access to the Libraries' online collections and lead the Libraries' staff in resolution of issues, improvement of work-flows, and optimal use of systems. . . . Develop, administer, and enhance the Libraries' content management systems, including the LEO/Millennium, Electronic Resource Management, Check for Full Text reference linking, LOCKSS, and federated search software. Promote resource discovery and improve access to the Libraries' collections. Collaborate with others to analyze collection access and management needs and investigate new technologies, recommending system modifications or additional products where appropriate. (Source: DigitalKoans)

Content systems manager at james madison university

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 03:04:23 +0100

"discovering new seas of knowledge" : eahil2010 must read advice!

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 04:00:00 +0100

How open are Medical Library Conferences? How easy is it to get the material discussed or presented there? And is it supposed to be available all the time and for free? In this age of Open Acess, web 2.0 and the expectancy of the "users" -being us librarians, spoiled with Google:-) one would assume that much(if not all) is freely available via Conferences websites and/or social media. Why then do I find it hard to find the extra info about those events, including papers and slides and possibly even webcasts? Are we still not into the share-mode and overprotective to one's own achievements, or is it a genetic defect just being too modest as a librarian, satisfied with a quiet role in the background? Please anyone, fill my gaps of knowledge in this. Is it ignorance by me, or is there a real issue? Hiding content behind a registration I cán understand, but it is missing the actual elementary necessity of trying to keep all medical librarians up to date in their struggle for basic "survival" and/or finding the new (digital) divides we need to tackle in this day and age of "medical information on the loose" on the web. We need to share more. For the EAHIL you can see or find much of the content at: the EAHIL website The EAHIL Public Page (Netvibes) The EAHIl Search Engine that connects all content spread over the various Conference and Workshop websites. The experience of the 12th EAHIL Conference in Lisbon and Estoril was impressive. It seems every year the EAHIL community gathered together for that one week gets more and more intense, socially and content-wise. The Continuing Education Courses of this year touched the actual needs of many librarians. I want to bring a few special ones under attention. ...

Mods and mads: current implementations and future directions

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 13:56:28 +0100

MODS and MADS: Current implementations and future directions ALA Annual Conference 2010 Sunday, June 28, 2010 10:30 to noon Intro, Jenn Riley: Metadata Librarian, Indiana U. Digital Library Program MODS 3.4 schema released June 2010. MODS/MADS editorial committee considering overall direction for MODS 4.0. mods 3.4 has support for RDA descriptions better handling of subject vocabularies (specify vocabulary at relevant subject subelements, specify vocabularies and terms by URI. Better support for multilingual cataloging expanded the use of the usage attribute expanded use of the displayLabel attribute. Ability to bind a specific name to a title to create a Uniform title. The ability to mark selected elements as containing cataloger-supplied data (rather than brackets, etc.). Various changes to make the schema itself for consistent, easier to manage and of greater utility to other applications importing elements from the MODS namespace. For mods 4.0 thinking of a more formal data model, maybe RDF. Want to encourage linked data and hope that the more formal model may help. Give feedback on the MODS listserv Speakers: Bill Leonard, Library and Archives Canada In 2004 national archives and national library of Canada merged. This meant that they had to merge all of their data and records. They have a federated search to both the archival and bibliographic descriptions: http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/lac-bac/search/all They are also building a trusted digital repository using these metadata standard: METS PREMIS MODS Government of Canada records management metadata standard (records are received this way and then stripped down to the archival core set, eventually mapped to MODS to be placed in the TDR) archival core set ARK MODS is the common schema for all the descriptions within the TDR. Another project is Canadiana Authorities: http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/canadiana-authorities/index-e.html. ...

Job posting: senior software developer - northwesternuniversity library

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 04:00:00 +0100

Senior Software Developer This is an exciting opportunity to work with large-scale library server applications and participate in cutting-edge digital repository development at a major university. JOB SUMMARY: This position works in a highly collaborative environment with Library colleagues and external partners on the analysis, design, coding and testing of software in support of the Library's enterprise applications. The position also explores, adapts, and implements emerging digital repository technologies-particularly in the areas of digital preservation, metadata, collections, discovery, and repository services. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES: (See posting for additional info) 1. Designs, develops, implements, and maintains application code for use in support of the Library's enterprise systems, including the digital object repository, library catalog, and federated search systems. Development includes designing, writing, testing, and debugging code; 2. Collaborates with others, inside and outside of the U (Source: gmane.education.web4lib)

Development of a clinical information tool for the electronic medical record: a case study.

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 04:00:00 +0100

Development of a clinical information tool for the electronic medical record: a case study.

J Med Libr Assoc. 2010 Jul;98(3):223-7

Authors: Epstein BA, Tannery NH, Wessel CB, Yarger F, LaDue J, Fiorillo AB

QUESTION: What is the process of developing a clinical information tool to be embedded in the electronic health record of a very large and diverse academic medical center? SETTING: The development took place at the University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences Library System. METHOD: The clinical information tool developed is a search box with subject tabs to provide quick access to designated full-text information resources. Each subject tab offers a federated search of a different pool of resources. Search results are organized "on the fly" into meaningful categories using clustering technology and are directly accessible from the results page. RESULTS: After more than a year of discussion and planning, a clinical information tool was embedded in the academic medical center's electronic health record. CONCLUSION: The library successfully developed a clinical information tool, called Clinical-e, for use at the point of care. ...

Assistant director for information technology at ohio state university

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 03:02:59 +0100

The Ohio State University Libraries are recruiting an Assistant Director for Information Technology. Here's an excerpt from the ad: The Assistant Director for Information Technology provides leadership, vision, and strategic direction for a wide range of digital systems and services of the Ohio State University Libraries. This position has responsibility for the integrated library system; federated search software; deployment of search and discovery services, such as WorldCat Local and other research databases; library web development; a suite of digital publishing and repository tools; and desktop support. The Assistant Director coordinates support for staff and public computing services in the Libraries in conjunction with the Office of the Chief Information Officer. Reporting to the Director of University Libraries, the Assistant Director ensures robust library systems support for new and established technology services that meet the teaching, research and service needs of the university community. (Source: DigitalKoans)

Assistant director for information technology at ohio state university

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 03:02:09 +0100

On the european union search engine schizophrenia

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 11:48:59 +0100

The European Parliament has asked the European Commission to include search engines in the Data Retention Directive. This will force the search engines to store your searches and IP addresses, undermining the Commission’s attempts at protecting the privacy of European citizens. Privacy and search engine data storage It is not easy being a search engine. Giants like Google and Bing would really like to store your searches and link them to your IP address, cookie or logon information, as this coupling gives them data they can use to improve their search engine algorithms and tailor search results to your personal taste. On the other hand people like you and me feel uneasy about this invasion of privacy and would prefer Google and Bing to know as little as possible about our search habits. The Article 29 Working Party It is not easy being the European Union, either. The European Commission and its Article 29 Working Party (not to be confused with Written Declaration 29 — see below) considers itself a champion of the little people — that is people like you and me — and has therefore put a lot of pressure on Google and its siblings in an attempt to reduce the amount of personal data stored by search engines. The search engines have at least partly complied, by deleting IP adresses (the id number your computer or your ISP gives the search engine when you do a search) earlier than before. Bing is to cut the amount of time it stores the IP addresses associated with search queries from 18 months to six months. One of our favorite search engines, Duck Duck Go, does not store collect any information about its users. Some meta search engines too, like Ixquick and Yauba have made privacy part of their business model, promising not to store any personal information. Data Retention Directive Unfortunately, another part of the European Union wants desperately to use all this data for police work and surveillance. ...

On westlawnext, state of the art & steve jobs: a conversation with peter jackson, chief scientist for thomson reuters

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 13:15:20 +0100

For about a year I’ve wanted to talk to Peter Jackson*, the Chief Scientist and Vice President of Technology at Thomson Reuters. It started around this time last year when I stumbled across a brief video interview of him discussing Reuters Insider. Although Jackson’s comments (advancements in turning video into text) had little to do with legal publishing, I was intrigued by any possible extensions into the legal space, and I also wanted to know more about what exactly a chief scientist for one of the world’s largest publishing companies actually does. So I connected with him on LinkedIn, subscribed to his personal blog, and kept tabs on whatever work his group was doing that might pop up on the Interwebs. When Project Cobalt broke, and I was lucky enough to receive an invitation to preview WestlawNext this past January, I thought I might have an opportunity to visit with Jackson about the project. After all, it represented a significant advancement in legal search, and who better to talk to about the brains behind the system? Unfortunately, that didn’t happen, and, like so many things, those questions were deferred. Until last week. When you talk to an architect about a project, that conversation is going to be very different from the one you have with a person selling it. And so it was with Jackson. While most of the questions regarding WestlawNext and the search engine behind it, WestSearch, have been addressed by the online media, listening to Jackson talk about the project and some of the history behind it left me with a very different impression of the project’s importance to both Thomson Reuters and the profession as a whole. In the end, I look at it in two ways. First, WestSearch is to terms and connectors, what terms and connectors is to whole word searching in Acrobat. It’s that much more sophisticated. ...

Science and health sciences librarian (southern illinois university edwardsville)

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 00:30:02 +0100

Science and Health Sciences Librarian (Southern Illinois University Edwardsville) Library and Information Services DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES: The Science and Health Sciences Librarian works in a collaborative environment and reports to the Director of User Services, who reports to the Dean of Library and Information Services. ...

Library journal webcasts: summon, primo central & web scale discovery

Mon, 21 Jun 2010 18:40:38 +0100

Den 2 juni kunde man via Library Technology Guides läsa Serials Solutions pressmeddelande om effekterna av Summon vid Michigan’s Grand Valley State University: Summon is enabling students to go directly to full-text, boosting the use of a variety of databases. For example, Academic Search Premier saw a usage increase of 92% and ABI/INFORM rose 354%. Journal usage is up significantly. Before Summon, the use of individual journals in which the library had invested was generally going down. However, after Summon’s implementation at the close of August 2009, GVSU’s top 100 journals showed an average increase in usage of 48% and the top 1000 had increased usage of 82%. Increased usage occurs even for databases from content providers that are not participating in the Summon service, a result of the service’s indexing of the same content from alternate sources. Summon is having an impact on the type of content students are choosing. For example, the library has seen a significant increase in the use of newspaper content. Discoveryplattformar och stora aggregerade index är onekligen i ropet. Jag har under dagen ägnat en timme åt att kika på Ex Libris webcast av Primo Central via Library Journal med titeln Primo Central: The Ultimate in Next-Gen Discovery: Raising Research to a New Level. Webcasten gick av stapeln lite tidigare men gjordes åtkomlig för de som registrerat sig idag. Jag antar att den kommer bli öppet tillgänglig i arkivet som de andra inom kort. Spana in på Library Journals Webcasts sida om en stund så finns den säkert där. Primo casten var mycket givande och om man tittar på den bör man även spana in två andra webcasts via Library Journal. Dels The Success of Web-Scale Discovery in Returning Net-Gen Users to the Library: The Summon Service in Academic Libraries och dels Understanding the New Discovery Landscape: Federated Search, Web-scale Discovery, Next-Generation Catalog and the rest. ...

Oclc cooperative enews - membership news, views, events, support and training - vol. 1, no. 8

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 20:39:00 +0100

From: OCLC Americas Regional Council Member Update [mailto:oclc@oclc.org] Sent: Thursday, June 17, 2010 4:36 PM Subject: OCLC Cooperative eNews - Membership news, views, events, support and training - Vol. 1, No. 8 June 2010 | Vol. 1, No. 8 | ISSN: 2152-8993 James LaRue Director, Douglas County Libraries, Castle Rock, Colorado Libraries throughout a lifetime As director of Douglas County Libraries, I have witnessed firsthand the tremendous growth and development of many individuals in the communities we serve. I’ve come to recognize that the true significance of our profession is simply this: we’re there. We’re there throughout all of the various phases of life, from birth to childhood, adolescence, adulthood, parenthood and beyond. We provide a host of customized offerings, for everybody, at every phase. We help individuals through every possible transition of life. The library as an institution assembles the public around activities that promote the public good—literacy, lifelong learning, civic engagement and culture. Together, libraries encourage our communities to be both more civilized and more interesting. The odds are good that at least one of these big life transitions—or the many smaller transitions that occur within one’s lifetime (such as a job change or health crisis) will catch people off guard. ...

Links for 2010-06-09 [del.icio.us]

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 06:20:02 +0100

Musings about librarianship: Why libraries should proactively scan Twitter & the web for feedback - some examples Why libraries should proactively scan Twitter & the web for feedback - some examples http://j.mp/9Engn8 RT @aarontay: [Blogged] Exhibitors presentations/Training sessions Going to demonstrate HealthMash medical federated search @EAHIL2010, 16th Wednesday 14:00-14:30PM http://bit.ly/9etdqA RT @healthmash Tweetup :: International Tweet-up EAHIL2010 (via @digicmb, @bibliovirtual) #twtvite Join event for june 11 please! International Tweet-up EAHIL2010 on Jun 13-14, 2010 RSVP here: http://bit.ly/dCq0Vs #eahil2010 #twtvite (Source: DigiCMB)

Links for 2010-06-04 [del.icio.us]

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 08:40:02 +0100

foursquare :: Bitter & Zoet I'm at Bitter & Zoet. http://4sq.com/awdBiH foursquare :: Gevangenismuseum :: veenhuizen I'm at Gevangenismuseum (veenhuizen). http://4sq.com/dvFkGB No Alternative to Federated Search | Deep Web Technologies Blog RT @DeepWebTech: New blog post: : No Alternative to Federated Search http://deepwebtechblog.com/no-alternative-to-federated-search/ Twitpic - Share photos on Twitter Radbraken , that was punishment 1.0 http://twitpic.com/1trs69 Twitpic - Share photos on Twitter Veenhuizen Tour http://twitpic.com/1tt676 "Wijs beleid" (Source: DigiCMB)

Nylink annual meeting

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 23:05:00 +0100

Today I spoke at the NyLink Annual meeting, but first Marshall Breeding started the morning with is talk entitled “Technology trends in library automation and resource discovery.” Marshall pointed us to his ILS turnover report on his website which shows what ILS people had and what they have switched to. He also showed us what ILSes were being used in NY public libraries right now – and interestingly there are no Koha libraries on the list, however there are several academics in NY already on Koha. I had to giggle when Marshall then told us that automation systems are complex because I was remembering a talk given by Chris Cormack where he said that originally he thought the ILS was just a big database and would be easy to write. Marshall also went through his perceptions report and mentioned that interest in open source was surprisingly low overall – which just means I have to up my game and get the word out there about what open source is – because as you know I always feel that lack of education on a topic is the number one reason people fear something. He went on to explain that people aren’t judging systems on features so much anymore, but on service offerings – this I feel is where the strength of open source can be found – since you’re not buying the software itself you’re buying the services on the system. Marshall also reminded us that the most important part of our ILS is the OPAC (or discovery layer) since this is what our users see – and the marketplace is showing this as well – people are putting their resources into improving their discovery layers. As well all know we’re also dealing with libraries that are spending more on electronic subscriptions than print materials – so we need tools that will allow us to index and search that information. ...

Links for 2010-05-29 [del.icio.us]

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 11:00:02 +0100

WorldWideScience WorldWideScience http://worldwidescience.org/ provides federated search on free-to-access resources from 60 countries RT @ScienceBL Blip.fm | digicmb | Listen to The Police – Does Everyone Stare Long ago I heard the pice ♫ http://blip.fm/~r7lgk tedxmaastricht's Bookmarks on Delicious Bookmarks & urls from TEDx Maastricht http://delicious.com/tedxmaastricht Spectrum > Mobile Learning, Libraries, And Technologies: Merck Manuals > Apple iPhone / iPod Touch Apps Merck Manuals > Apple iPhone / iPod Touch Apps http://tinyurl.com/29vx2ft via Gerry McKiernan (Source: DigiCMB)

An overview of 45 published database resources for complementary and alternative medicine.

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 04:00:00 +0100

An overview of 45 published database resources for complementary and alternative medicine.

Health Info Libr J. 2010 Jun;27(2):93-105

Authors: Boehm K, Raak C, Vollmar HC, Ostermann T

BACKGROUND: Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has succeeded to implement itself in the academic context of universities. In order to get information on CAM, clinicians, researchers and healthcare professionals as well as the lay public are increasingly turning to online portals and databases, which disseminate relevant resources. One specific type of online information retrieval systems, namely the database, is being reviewed in this article. QUESTION: This overview aims at systematically retrieving and describing all databases covering the field of CAM. One of the requirements for inclusion was that the database would also have to be published in a medical journal. DATA SOURCES: The databases AMED, CAMbase, EMBASE, and MEDLINE/PubMed were searched between December 2008 and December 2009 for publications relevant to CAM databases. ...

Links for 2010-05-26 [del.icio.us]

Fri, 28 May 2010 13:20:03 +0100

PurpleSearch & ICT Strategisch Plan 2010-2014 Rijksuniversiteit Groningen & de Bibliotheek - Bibliotheek 2.0 PurpleSearch & ICT Strategisch Plan 2010-2014 Rijksuniversiteit Groningen & de Bibliotheek http://bit.ly/bsKacP Shortcomings of full-text searching » Federated Search Blog 14 problems one encounters with search engines, (full-text or federated) Federated Search Blog: http://bit.ly/dkBGyd #li #purplesearch Why and how to use in-text links in your posts? | Zemanta Ltd. Why and how to use in-text links in your posts? http://bit.ly/ajO69g RT @zemanta: New blog post Horizon Report K-12 Edition | emerging technologies that will likely have a significant impact on K-12 education http://bit.ly/dpnVte (Source: DigiCMB)

Search engine wars: let battle commence

Wed, 26 May 2010 04:00:00 +0100

Karen Blakeman, a UK information expert, talked about the warring search engines and developments in search at the INFORUM conference in Prague, from which I am selectively reporting. In the early days of the web I used to do regular seminars on business information sources and search engines, with detailed handouts. Karen's concentrated burst of updated information reminded me that I've got lazy, since I've stopped noticing all the changes on search engine screens, and thus probably haven't been using all the features.Karen concentrated first on the "big 3" of Yahoo, Bing and Google. She started with focus on Yahoo, highlighting to the way it gave options for refining your search on he left hand side. It now uses Bing as its underlying search engine (a change). She liked the fact that it gave you a simply-presented search results page. However some people feel that it may not be developed much in future.Bing, Microsoft's engine, by contrast, has had a lot of development. However, a lot of special features are only available on the US version. Special features include "recent tweets" "top shared links" and "related searches". Results tend to be more consumer-oriented. For Karen, who does business-related searches it was "information hell", since apart from the consumer-orientation, the search commands worked unpredictably.Google adjusts results according to what you searched for in the past and searches also vary depending on the country you are searching from (I certainly noticed that searching here in Prague!). Features include "latest news" and if you are logged in to your "social circle" (social media) then results for that will be filtered in too. Various search options are shown down the left hand side after you have searched. Karen also talked about the wonder wheel function. ...

Metasearch engine clusty becomes yippy

Tue, 25 May 2010 17:13:54 +0100

The metasearch engines – search engines that combine data from several search engines – are not as popular as they used to be in the 1990’s. But they can still add something new to your search experience, especially as regards user interface and the way they present results. One of our favorite metasearch engines have been Clusty, owned and developed by Vivisimo. As the name implies, Clusty has been especially good at clustering search results in meaningful groups or topics of result listings. Vivisimo has now sold Clusty to a Florida based company named Yippy for US$5.6 million. The name change has already taken place. Clusty is no more. Yippy has taken its place. Clusty.com attracts approximately 100,000 unique visitors and supports millions of search queries per month. To what extent Yippy will change the Clusty metaseach engine beyond the logo, is unknown. Press release. See also: Vivisimo Says So Long To Clusty as Florida’s Yippy Acquires the Technology To Power Their Search (Resourceshelf) A World of Friends! SMX East: NYC Oct 5-7 Click Here for Agenda! (Source: Pandia Search Engine News)

Links for 2010-05-17 [del.icio.us]

Sat, 22 May 2010 15:00:02 +0100

Medical Library "Lab" : your toolbox < Bibliotheek < Rijksuniversiteit Groningen Launch of "Medical Library Lab" (beta) at CMB UMCG website: http://bit.ly/aWO8iC Introducing the Webicina Advisory Board « ScienceRoll RT @DrVes: Webicina goal: make quality medical social media resources accessible for everyone for free http://bit.ly/9VXFga - Sounds lik ... Keeping research data safe (Phase 2) : JISC RT @lorcanD: Pleased that OCLC Research was involved in JISC 'Keeping Research Data Safe' report. http://bit.ly/b2pFsO #oclcr Feature: Project Lefty: More Bang for the Search Query Wonderful federated search tool concept from @varnum http://www.infotoday.com/cilmag/apr10/Varnum.shtml RT @aarontay: RT @pfanderson The PurpleSearch Blog @lukask Yes, need to investigate more! Meanwhile we started a "new" blog: http://purplesearch.wordpress.com/ #purplesearch Deep Web Technologies' Federated Search Deep Web Technologies' Federated Search: Deep Web Technologies redefines the federated search ma... http://bit.ly/dq162W RT @uniknotions Old habits & good coffee... on Pikchur - Photo & Video Sharing! Old habits & good coffee... http://pk.gd/Rsi (@ ipuur UMCG) http://4sq.com/bI2RVx (Source: DigiCMB)

Links for 2010-05-21 [del.icio.us]

Sat, 22 May 2010 15:00:02 +0100

Blip.fm | digicmb | Listen to Persephone – Cocteau Twins Persephone – Cocteau Twins ♫ http://blip.fm/~qr55u foursquare :: centrale medische bibliotheek, umcg :: Groningen I'm at centrale medische bibliotheek, umcg (Hanzeplein 1, Oostersingel, Groningen). http://4sq.com/8XOIOz biomedical journals Directory of biomedical journals with free access to articles in full text: http://bit.ly/b0zyqD RT @novoseek: useful / RT @ArgosBiotech Directory of open access journals @digicmb You know this source: http://www.doaj.org/ Unfortunately, the search options are not optimal. #openaccessjournals #informatiefreak – Jo-Ann van Geest (jnnvngst) http://twitter.com/jnnvngst/statuses/14416810403 There is still so much to learn in reference management - Gobbledygook Blog | Nature Publishing Group There is still so much to learn in reference management . Nice Overview: http://bit.ly/cazm4r #li Continuing Education Courses There are still places available on the continuing education courses #EAHIL2010 14-15th June See: http://bit.ly/c6OV5S #li Windows 7 Federated Search Providers - Windows 7 Forums Windows 7 Search federation Providors: http://bit.ly/citZGl Turn you Windows Explorer Search into "Federated" Search and control your search YouTube - zw09video's Channel I subscribed to zw09video's channel on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/user/zw09video?feature=autoshare DigiCMB: ICT Strategic Plan 2010-2014 University of Groningen & the Library ICT Strategic Plan 2010-2014 University of Groningen & the Library: The ICT -term Plan 2010-2014 of the Universi... http://bit.ly/dmxrzn 7 Things You Should Know About Next Generation Presentation Tools http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7056.pdf via @Educause: 7 Things You Should Know About Next Generation Presentation Tools http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7056.pdf via @Educause: (Source: DigiCMB)

Materials from nfais conference: improving the user experience – part i

Tue, 18 May 2010 19:13:24 +0100

Last Friday (May 14th) in Philadelphia the National Federation of Advanced Information Services (NFAIS) held a conference titled, “Improving the User Experience: Part 1.” All of the of the presentations from the event are now available online. Here are direct links and summaries to each presentation. We think no matter what area you might work in there will be at least two or three presentations of interest. Opening Keynote: The User Search Experience: What Users Want (PDF) Cody Hanson, Technology Librarian, University of Minnesota This session will focus on the results of a study done to determine how relevant library resources could be made more visible, particularly within the user workflow. It will discuss five key trends related to information discovery and how those trends are reflected in user information seeking behavior. The Search Interface: Making a Good First Impression with Users This session will provide an overview of the ideal user interface and the challenges involved in “getting it right.” It will look the methods and procedures of design and how to turn data into accessible information via technology that clearly communicates with the people that use it. It will take a look at the unique requirements of interfaces for mobile devices and the interface challenges that are unique to the academic library environment. In closing it will highlight how one publisher is developing a journal article interface for researchers who need to interact with article datasets. ...

Webcast report: understanding the new discovery landscape

Mon, 17 May 2010 18:54:14 +0100

Federated search, web-scale discovery (via Summon), next-generation catalog and the rest. (Source: Library Journal News)

Federated search: users might actually like it « bibliographic ...

Fri, 14 May 2010 07:00:21 +0100

It probably doesn't cover as much content as if you were to search every single licensed vendor platform (I have not seen any academic federated sear (Source: pligg - all)

Nfais workshop on may 14th: improving the user experience – part 1

Tue, 11 May 2010 18:44:39 +0100

NFAIS (National Federation of Advanced Information Services) has organized, Improving The User Experience – Part I., an all-day workshop, that will discuss improving the user experience online. It’s scheduled to take place in Philadelphia, PA. on May 14, 2010. If you can’t make it to Philly, no problem. The workshop will be available live, virtually. From the Workshop Website: “While content itself continues to form the foundation of modern information solutions, the real differentiator is becoming the broader “user experience.” The Web, combined with sophisticated search engines and autonomous agents, has become the dominant worldwide search and retrieval system. It not only meets the information needs of its users, but also provides them with a highly satisfactory “experience” – from start to finish. The new generation of information seekers now expects a seamless, multi-sensory, interactive – and enjoyable – search experience that is their benchmark for an acceptable information retrieval service. Indeed, their product loyalty and satisfaction are “driven by a different set of values that goes beyond content and extends to the experience of using that content.” They day will include four panels: “What Users Want”; The Search Interface; Current Search Technologies; and New and Emerging Technologies The list of speakers is excellent. They include: + Harold Hambrose, CEO/Founder, Electronic Ink + Loren Frant, Head of Health Information Products, National Library of Medicine + Academic Library Needs: Joseph Lucia, University Librarian, Villanova University + Jennifer Mayfield, Electronic Journals Manager, Optical Society of America + Chris Pooley, CEO, Intellidimension, Inc. + Federated Search: Peter Noerr, CTO, MuseGlobal, Inc. ...

Canadian association of law libraries conference meetings

Sun, 09 May 2010 04:00:00 +0100

The 2010 annual conference of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) is underway in Windsor, Ontario.Some highlights from this morning:1) the Courthouse and Law Society Libraries Special Interest Group (SIG) held its annual business meeting. You can find the SIG's annual report on the CALL website.At the meeting, a number of members briefly described some of their projects of the past year.The Hamilton Law Association library has created a Facebook page to disseminate information about continuing legal education materials, training seminars and new titles.The Nova Scotia Barristers' Society library has created an annotated version of the rules of civil procedure of the province which is fully indexed and searchable.The Carleton Country Law Association library launched a new website, a library blog and Twitter feed and created a database of Association conference papers.The Law Society of Upper Canada Great Library launched a webinars series, created a reference procedures wiki and is testing (beta version) a new discovery tool that will offer one-stop searching of the catalogue, CLE materials and federated search.The Supreme Court of Canada library completed a move of a large part of its treatise collection from the sub-basement to the floor where researchers actually work. As well, a wiki is being tested where reference questions and answers are gathered.2) this spring, the Committee to Promote Research did not receive any applications that met the criteria for the CALL research grant. Thus, as in the past, the committee will conduct another competition with applications due October 15, 2010.The Committee is interested in sponsoring a session at next year's CALL conference, which will be held in Calgary. ...

Thu, 06 May 2010 04:00:00 +0100

Design Patterns: Faceted Navigation by Peter Morville, Jeffery Callender an excerpt from Chapter 4 of Search Patterns (O’Reilly, 2010) is available on A List Apart (the other ALA).Faceted navigation is a master pattern. Its deployment impacts all other search patterns and the information architecture as a whole. To oversimplify, there’s the Google model and the faceted navigation model. Choosing between these two is a major strategic decision. Determining whether or not faceted navigation is sensible and feasible is among the earliest steps in design. The infrastructure for faceted navigation can enable a tighter relationship between search and browse. It can shape the structure and navigation of the entire site or application. It also changes how we think about autocomplete and best first. It offers a familiar framework for managing the sources of federated search. Plus, its discriminatory power to clarify intent and refine results may offset the need for personalization and advanced search. That said, faceted navigation won’t work everywhere. For starters, it’s an expensive proposition. The demands on search software and servers are substantial. Also, the metadata infrastructure involves both initial investment and ongoing expense. For these reasons and more, a simpler search model is sometimes better, but it must often be supplemented by advanced search.Related articles by ZemantaSearch Patterns: User Experience Explained (arnoldit.com) (Source: Catalogablog)

Improving the user experience to be discussed at upcoming nfais workshop

Thu, 29 Apr 2010 06:01:57 +0100

NFAIS (National Federation of Advanced Information Services) has organized, Improving The User Experience – Part I., an all-day workshop, that will discuss improving the user experience online. It’s scheduled to take place in Philadelphia, PA. on May 14, 2010. If you can’t make it to Philly, no worries. The workshop will be available live, virtually. From the Workshop Website: “While content itself continues to form the foundation of modern information solutions, the real differentiator is becoming the broader “user experience.” The Web, combined with sophisticated search engines and autonomous agents, has become the dominant worldwide search and retrieval system. It not only meets the information needs of its users, but also provides them with a highly satisfactory “experience” – from start to finish. The new generation of information seekers now expects a seamless, multi-sensory, interactive – and enjoyable – search experience that is their benchmark for an acceptable information retrieval service. Indeed, their product loyalty and satisfaction are “driven by a different set of values that goes beyond content and extends to the experience of using that content.” They day will include four panels: “What Users Want”; The Search Interface; Current Search Technologies; and New and Emerging Technologies The list of speakers is excellent. They include: + Harold Hambrose, CEO/Founder, Electronic Ink + Loren Frant, Head of Health Information Products, National Library of Medicine + Academic Library Needs: Joseph Lucia, University Librarian, Villanova University + Jennifer Mayfield, Electronic Journals Manager, Optical Society of America + Chris Pooley, CEO, Intellidimension, Inc. + Federated Search: Peter Noerr, CTO, MuseGlobal, Inc. ...

Improving the user experience to be discussed at upcoming nfais workshop

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 20:47:09 +0100

NFAIS (National Federation of Advanced Information Services) has organized, Improving The User Experience – Part I., an all-day workshop, that will discuss improving the user experience online. It’s scheduled to take place in Philadelphia, PA. on May 14, 2010. If you can’t make it to Philly, no worries. The workshop will be available live, virtually. From the Workshop Website: “While content itself continues to form the foundation of modern information solutions, the real differentiator is becoming the broader “user experience.” The Web, combined with sophisticated search engines and autonomous agents, has become the dominant worldwide search and retrieval system. It not only meets the information needs of its users, but also provides them with a highly satisfactory “experience” – from start to finish. The new generation of information seekers now expects a seamless, multi-sensory, interactive – and enjoyable – search experience that is their benchmark for an acceptable information retrieval service. Indeed, their product loyalty and satisfaction are “driven by a different set of values that goes beyond content and extends to the experience of using that content.” They day will include four panels: “What Users Want”; The Search Interface; Current Search Technologies; and New and Emerging Technologies The list of speakers is excellent. They include: + Harold Hambrose, CEO/Founder, Electronic Ink + Loren Frant, Head of Health Information Products, National Library of Medicine + Academic Library Needs: Joseph Lucia, University Librarian, Villanova University + Jennifer Mayfield, Electronic Journals Manager, Optical Society of America + Chris Pooley, CEO, Intellidimension, Inc. + Federated Search: Peter Noerr, CTO, MuseGlobal, Inc. ...

Web of knowledge: the semantic web

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 03:41:31 +0100

Last week many Australian teachers & tech educators travelled to Melbourne to participate in the ACEC 2010 Conference Digital Diversity, an Australian biennial national ICT education conference. Much has been written since then about the challenges we encountered, the message of the keynote presentations, and the interesting experiences and conversations we all enjoyed. What struck me was the continued conversation about the same things – even the Keynote sessions offered no new insights into the future directions of learning, though there were some challenging messages thrown out to the participants as ‘take-aways’. For me the absolute highlight was the Keynote by Oscar award-winning Australian Adam Elliot. So refreshing to hear something beyond the usual Gary Stager message of gloom and doom which offered little in constructive strategies for the listeners. Thanks to Chris Betcher for his Keynote and reflections on Gary’s presentation too. I liked Chris’ presentation much more than I liked Gary’s – despite Gary’s apparent claim to fame. BUT where were the discussions about the future directions of the web? No keynotes that explored the synergy between virtual worlds, augmented reality, or the Semantic Web. Nothing that offered hands -on grass-roots understanding about information fluency and knowledge work in a globally connected semantic web. We have to stop working/thinking in silos!! It was the same at the Apple ITSC2010 conference, held over the last two days in Sydney. Nice stuff covered for sure, and fun hands-on workshops. But nothing that points the way forward. Nothing that deals with reading and literacy (our inescapable way of cognitive engagement with multimodal texts) on a variety of devices from paper to e-devices. Nothing that acknowledges the virtual, augmented, semantic mashup of connection with the world. ...

Library hi tech news -- call for papers

Sun, 11 Apr 2010 04:00:00 +0100

LIBRARY HI TECH NEWS -- Call for PapersLibrary Hi Tech News (LHTN, published by Emerald, is an established (1984+) print and online monthly journal that quickly publishes articles of interest on developments in library technology to our international readership. Although not formally peer reviewed, LHTN is indexed inLibrary and Information Science Abstracts (LISA), Library, Information Science and Technology Abstracts (LISTA), Scopus, INSPEC, Current Index to Journals in Education and others.For more information and sample articles, please see:http://info.emeraldinsight.com/products/journals/journals.htm?id=lhtnLHTN is interested in articles of varying lengths, reports from relevant conferences, and case studies. The editors will work with authors that are new to LIS publishing, and those who are seeking outlets for reporting on practical uses of IT in libraries. Publishing your article in LHTN can be a place to start, analogous to a poster session in print and does not preclude publishing a more fulsome piece in a peer-reviewed journal at a later date. Readers consider LHTN the source to hear whats coming next in terms of technology development for academic and public libraries. ...

Nrc-cisti transformation update

Sat, 10 Apr 2010 04:00:00 +0100

(This message was posted to the Federal Libraries list.)NRC-CISTI Transformation UpdateThe following is an update on the progress of NRC-CISTI’s transformation.We are now well into the implementation phase of the following key elements:Providing access to NRC-CISTI’s global scientific, technical and medical contentAs mentioned in my November update, one of the key elements of the new organization is our partnership with Infotrieve Canada, Inc to provide access to NRC-CISTI’s global scientific, technical and medical (STM) content. Infotrieve is now handling all aspects of registration, delivery, billing and customer service for our Australia and New Zealand clients, as well as registration, delivery and billing for our NRC clients. Starting April 1, they will be responsible for our M-55 on site services and all new client registration. Infotrieve is also working to transfer our US clients over by April 16, 2010, while our Canadian clients will be gradually moved over with all clients transitioned by the end of June 2010. During this transition period, Canadian clients can continue to order from CISTI and will be billed by CISTI until they have been advised that their implementation with Infotrieve is completed. In late April, Infotrieve will be in touch with migration details for all of NRC-CISTI’s Canadian customers.It is important to note that Infotrieve Canada, Inc provides its document delivery services from NRC-CISTI’s national library collection on our behalf, and as such, will be able to maintain CISTI’s copyright regime, including copyright exemptions for Canadians, as permitted by Canadian Copyright legislation, and reduced Access Copyright rates for commercial users.For more information about the NRC-CISTI and Infotrieve collaboration, see the question and answer guide at http://cisti-icist.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/ibp/cisti/faq/document-delivery/cisti-infotrieve-collaboration.html. ...

Top 5 search widgets: netvibes

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 04:00:00 +0100

Although I create my widgets with Widgetbox these days, the Netvibes widgets are still well used. In short my reasons for creating these: This way I can embed taylor-made search boxes in webpages ánd the hospital´s Intranet. This to compensate the fact that not all staff is allowed to install our Library Toolbar Users can choose WHERE to install them, take it away, share etc I can offer them in our Library Toolbox, a Public Netvibes Page Starting a direct search in one of these boxes, takes users direct into the native interface, to refine their search. The MultiSearch boxes show users there are more resources to use than just the one they are used to. Search via these boxes, is made possible via the Conduit Toolbars, and offer a top frame list of all other resources available to search HERE IS MY TOP 5 Top Search widget out of my list is BY FAR: MEDLINEPLUS, with 1581 installs GET IT HERE From the Largest Medical Library in the World! The PiCarta Widget (with RUG proxy) has been installed 133 times: http://bit.ly/b8oA1uGET IT HERE From the Libraries of the University of Groningen The PubMed & RuGLinks (our SFX linkresolver) Search widget has been installed 450 times according to Netvibes: From the Libraries of the University of Groningen Add to Netvibes Also available for: iGoogle Apple Dashboard Opera Windows Vista beta Windows Live beta The PubMed Search Widget for Netvibes, iGoogle, Apple dashboard, Vista & Live: 672 installs! http://bit.ly/aWQs0a #in #pubmed #widget GET IT HERE See more medical search widgets Add to Netvibes Also available for: iGoogle Apple Dashboard Opera Windows Vista beta Windows Live beta At least 120 people did install my NLM Search Widget in NEtvibes, iGoogle and beyond .. ...

Libx toolbar for curtin university library

Tue, 06 Apr 2010 07:53:17 +0100

Frustration is the mother of motivation for me today. I’m in the final stretches of my thesis and am doing a further literature review. I wanted a LibX toolbar to make my research quicker and easier, but the library at Curtin University where I am studying hadn’t built one. LibX is so magically, wonderfully useful to me as a researcher, that I took a couple of hours and used the LibX Edition Builder to create a LibX Toolbar that works for Curtin University Library. It is here, LibX Unendorsed Curtin University, Western Australia I needed to look carefully at the way the URLs were built for their SFX link resolver, their Ex Libris catalogue, and their authentication server, but once I had that figured out it was just a matter of plugging info into a few blanks and testing, testing, testing. THE “SO WHAT?” OF LIBX FOR ME With the LibX toolbar installed in Firefox, if I get to an article from the web on JSTOR or any other publication to which my uni library subscribes, I can just right click on the page, enter my student number and password and get to the full text. I can even click straight through to full text articles from the references in Wikipedia. LibX also: lets me search the library catalogue or federated search straight from the toolbar of my browser, without having to go to the library catalogue page. hotlinks ISBNs anywhere on any web page so that when I click on them, it will show the work in my library catalogue. inserts an icon when I browse Amazon.com that lets me click to see whether the item is in the library. For journal articles mentioned anywhere on a web page, it highlights the identifier, and I can click through to the link resolver (SFX) and go straight through to full text of the article if it is in the library. I can also drag and drop any text from any page that I am on into the catalogue search box or on to a Google Scholar search box and have it search for that text. ...

Re: question: use of tabbed search boxes on home page?

Fri, 02 Apr 2010 04:00:00 +0100

We have a 3-tab search box on all our web pages (see, for example, http://www.lib.umich.edu/ ). A single-search (labeled "MLibrary", which includes the catalog, our LibGuides, database metadata, online journals, etc.) is the default tab; separate tabs are for "Articles" (our federated search tool) and Catalog. The first, default, tab gets almost an order of magnitude more usage. For the past two weeks, on one of the 3 webservers running the site: 11,648 Tab 1 (default -- MLibrary searches) 1,620 Tab 2 (Articles searches) 352 Tab 3 (Catalog searches) Searching from the first tab displays results from many sources, including the catalog, so these number don't represent total catalog searches, just starting points. -- Ken Varnum Web Systems Manager E: varnum-63aXycvo3TyHXe+LvDLADg< at >public.gmane.org University of Michigan Library T: 734-615-3287 309 Hatcher Graduate Library F: 734-647-6897 Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1190 http://www.lib.umich.edu/ On 3/31/10 (Source: gmane.education.web4lib)

Futures dreaming at ark libraries 2.0 masterclass

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 11:02:01 +0100

The last exercise for the day today was a “Futures Dreaming” , where the group came up with some ideas about the library of 2020. We used the same questions as we used at Library Camp Perth 2009 in September – and it is interesting to compare the ideas from both groups. It is very clear that librarians need to be able to market, self-promote and get better with IT. As in September, the conversation leading up to each point going on the board was more interesting than the points that ended up there… The questions were: What would you do in your library if you had all the time, money and skills you needed? What will the library of 2020 look like? What skills will librarians need for the library of 2020? What will we need to drop as we move to 2020? Here are the answers. Feel free to click through to the images to leave a note on Flickr about points you agree or disagree with. What would you do in your library if you had all the time, money and skills you needed? ANSWERS: *Storytime every day *More social space/seating space * Electronic resources with remote access – all of them, no need to make a choice. * All archives digitised and mashable * Time/resources to build projects * Avatar to do things for us * Be embedded in users’ space, but not in their face * Be proactive not reactive * A federated search that intelligently refined the search before retrieving results * Maps and guides to the collection automatically downloaded to users’ mobile devices when they walked in * More personalisation for users – the automated system knows about them and serves them better using this * One library card for all libraries * More 24/7 services * Better translation and translation tools for searching * Staff to do marketing and budgeting and an IT developer *More IT people who live in the real world. ...

Google leaving china and other search engine news (march 28)

Sun, 28 Mar 2010 15:18:22 +0100

Here are this week’s headlines from the search engine scene. The main focus has been on Google leaving China. Google had said that it would leave China if the government did not allow it to publish uncensored search results. As we have argued repeatedly, the Chinese government cannot agree to this, as it desperately tries to keep its own citizens in the dark regarding its own political repression. When Google did announce the threat, they probably already understood that they would have to go. Google has now redirected its google.cn search traffic to google.com.hk, i’ts Hong Kong search engine. Yes, Hong Kong is formally a part of China, but has a different set of laws due to its British colonial past. The Chinese government is now filtering search results from google.com and google.com.hk. Microsoft and Bing has decided to stay in China. Baidu remains the main search engine in China, however. Articles on Google leaving China Google China: Congressional Praise; Microsoft Supports Tyranny & Google Eats Poo Cartoon But if the company wants to be a poster child for the world, why doesn’t it fully leave? (Danny Sullivan March 25 2010) Google’s Drummond on China Strategy Shift It wasn’t just the hacking incident, but also increasing pressure to censor more (Google Blogoscoped March 25 2010) Google to Send Warnings on Compromised Gmail Accounts This is in response to the increasing problem on Gmail abuse through various suspicious login activity (SE Journal March 24 2010) Google v. China? No, It’s Bigger Than That John Battelle March 24: Thanks to Google’s move, thousands, if not millions, of Chinese now understand the extend to which their own government has been duping them. Who’s Got Google’s Back? Google’s made its position on the Chinese government’s censorship policies clear, but most other major U.S. Web companies appear hesitant to follow suit. ...

Re: does anyone need a federated opac search?

Wed, 24 Mar 2010 04:00:00 +0100

Hi Peter, On Tue, Mar 23, 2010 at 9:09 PM, Peter Noerr <pnoerr-Hn4ao3hIyEiRq8AjE7tl8g< at >public.gmane.org> wrote: Those are actually two different thoughts: failings of federated search systems are inherent in the environment they exist in. No amount of imagination can create a reality where all fed. search targets return relevant, easily merge-able, timely results consistently both in service and metadata. That said, I think fed. search services have value -- they serve a space that needs to be addressed (it is the only way to search many of these resources at the same time) and need to be flexible enough to deal with the inconsistencies between providers. Where the failure of imagination lies, in my mind, is that we're talking about controlled and known sources -- sources that we can harvest and manipulate the data in any way we wish for very specific services: services much more personal than discovery. It is not a failure of any piece of technology: these are solutions that require humans thinking (Source: gmane.education.web4lib)

Uk: search engine collects historical resources

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 17:23:44 +0100

Sounds like some type of federated search tool is being developed for historians. Plus, it appears after reading a couple of sentences that databases developed/managed with some human intervention (perhaps a structured vocabulary as seems to be the case here) might also make for a more accurate and timely retrieval process. From the Article: A search engine is being created to help historians find useful sources. The Connected History project will link up currently separate databases of source materials. Once complete, it will give academics or members of the public a single site that lets them search all the collections. Once completed the search engine will index digitised books, newspapers, manuscripts, genealogical records, maps and images that date from 1500-1900. “There are a number of electronic resources that have been created by universities and by commercial providers,” said Professor Robert Shoemaker from the University of Sheffield which is heading the project. “They are all available, and all separate and some require subscriptions.” “We are creating a kind of sophisticated Google for those selected range of resources that we know are of high quality,” he said. Much of the work involved in the Connected Histories project will be tagging and annotating entries so classification systems are standardised. Source: BBC (Source: ResourceShelf)

Does anyone need a federated opac search?

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 04:00:00 +0100

Are there any libraries out there who could benefit from a search that combined two or more OPACs onto one page of results? I'm looking for people who want it, but aren't actually in the market for a gazillion-dollar "federated search" solution. I'm thinking there must be some libraries with reciprocal lending agreements with other libraries, but no easy unified catalog. I'd particularly like to find someone with a bunch of different catalogs from different vendors. This would be free for the life of the test and, if we make a sellable product, for at least a year after. Tim (Source: gmane.education.web4lib)

Re: does anyone need a federated opac search?

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 04:00:00 +0100

The thing that came to mind first was, just because you might be able to do a federated search of several systems at one doesn't mean you can place requests on items. If the library card barcodes are not in the system, you can't do anything except search. As a public librarian, I've searched neighboring library systems' opacs since pretty much everyone has an online catalog now. In a couple of places I worked we did have reciprocal agreements, meaning residents of one county could register to use the library in the next county, but items had to be checked out and back in at the location where they were borrowed from. There was no delivery system between counties. Also, there is worldcat.org, that searches libraries closest to you and then radiates out across the country. Not every library system is included, however, so results may be misleading if the user doesn't know that. ILL librarians generally have access to OCLC and can do more detailed searches and actually place requests for their patrons. T (Source: gmane.education.web4lib)

Re: does anyone need a federated opac search?

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 04:00:00 +0100

Ahhh...reminds me of the good old days. My book "Linked Systems for Resource Sharing" was published 20 years ago this spring, in 1990. Bernie Sloan --- On Tue, 3/23/10, Tim Spalding <tim-6c8tSettBfPPIjl8wruziA< at >public.gmane.org> wrote: From: Tim Spalding <tim-6c8tSettBfPPIjl8wruziA< at >public.gmane.org> Subject: [Web4lib] Does anyone need a federated OPAC search? To: web4lib-Lfqs8nn97uZKgiwHgTXaBw< at >public.gmane.org Date: Tuesday, March 23, 2010, 11:25 AM Are there any libraries out there who could benefit from a search that combined two or more OPACs onto one page of results? I'm looking for people who want it, but aren't actually in the market for a gazillion-dollar "federated search" solution. I'm thinking there must be some libraries with reciprocal lending agreements with other libraries, but no easy unified catalog. I'd particularly like to find someone with a bunch of different catalogs from different vendors. This would be free for the life of the test and, if we make a sellable product, for at (Source: gmane.education.web4lib)

New from serial solutions: the debut of a database recommender

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 18:25:52 +0100

If it really works, this could be one amazingly useful tool for both info pros and end users. In some cases you not only get a list of databases to try but also actual answers. It would ultra useful if the database subscriber could add-in local databases that were not included in the main package. Perhaps a local database from a nearby state with campaign finance and lobbying data. After reading the announcement it sounds like Summon does offer something close to this. We’ll have to give them a call and get a yes or no answer. From the Announcement: The Summon service’s new Database Recommender points users to not only the indexed content in a library’s collection, but also to valuable, targeted research tools that are rarely captured by any discovery service – all within the context of a single search. Now, a user’s Summon search will return the specific books and articles that are relevant along with a list of recommended databases to consult for additional pertinent information. “Database Recommender addresses an issue that plagues all discovery solutions, whether it’s web-scale discovery or federated search or something in between: the inability to access all of the electronic content a library holds in a single search,” said Jane Burke, senior vice-president, Serials Solutions. “This database discovery function points users to specialized resources that can assist their research, whether they’re indexed by Summon or not. By highlighting these sources for researchers, Summon is able to provide the best search experience possible, inspiring users to return to the library for every research task.” This latest feature of the Summon service showcases sources that don’t lend themselves to be indexed by any service—such as dynamic or statistical databases – but make the library so well fitted to its academic community. ...

Google gadgets for igoogle

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 04:00:00 +0100

'Adding Google Gadgets to Your OPAC by John Wohlers.' The title really should have been about creating Google gadgets that bring your OPAC, Federated Search and other resources to iGoogle. It was a tech and jargon heavy session that could be very useful. Check out his webpages at:The Library: http://library.waubonsee.edu/The Google Gadgets he has made: http://library.waubonsee.edu/engine/102His techy blog: http://library.waubonsee.edu/technology/His presentation is available for download from the AKLA wiki at: http://aklaconference2010.pbworks.com/%E2%81%AFAdding-Google-Gadgets-to-Your-OPACProgram Abstract: John Wohlers will demonstrate how libraries can create Google Gadgets that make it possible to integrate the library catalog into patrons’ iGoogle pages. He will demonstrate other gadget possibilities, including the real time display of a patron’s account via SIP2. (Source: Library Banter)

Altsearchengines.com is no more

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 11:07:04 +0100

The AltSearchEngines site on alternative search engines will no longer be updated. The editor, Charles Knight, managed to cover some 4000 search engines in its three year long life. To Federated Search Blog he says that AltSearchEngines had reached a plateau: “There are only so many people interested in a daily dose of niche search engines. Not only that, but after 4,000 posts, I really felt that we had found most of them.” He is now blogging about search over at the Next Web, a new blog devoted to search and search engines. By the way: Charles Knight’s favorite alternative search engine is the very advanced German Tag Galaxy SMX West: March 2-4Go to California! (Source: Pandia Search Engine News)

Open access plus

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0100

The Fourth Rail of the Digital Revolution in Legal MaterialsMuch good work is being done to insure that as the internet develops and digital information becomes the norm, it remains freely accessible to all citizens. After all, how can citizens participate in their government if they can't have access to their own laws? Efforts by AALL, PublicResource.org and NCCUSL and others are focused primarily on making sure that all government and primary legal materials are free, reliable and that they are authentic. Again, how can citizens participate in their government if cost limits their access and they can't be assured that what they are accessing is the real thing? Law.gov, NCCUSL and AALL's Washington Affairs Office are working hard on all fronts, known collectively as "access, authentication and preservation."I want to discuss the all but overlooked aspect of the digital revolution in legal materials: meaningful access to the the law. If we think of access, authentication and preservation as three legs upon which the ideals of "open access" stand, meaningful access as described below would constitute the fourth leg of the equation, without which all the access in the world may not be enough to truly address the needs of American citizens.We librarians know good and well that the key to efficient, effective legal research is not finding cases and statutes. Rather, a skilled researcher knows which tools lead you to the right statutes and cases, and, preferably, especially if you're new to the subject, tools that also explain what is the 'law' of that subject. In this context, the 'law' is not merely a rule, but, a series of calculations and interpretations about what all the cases and statutes (and politicians and society in general?) say, and standards of practice or behavior that result, about the subject. The debate, therefore, about free, unfettered access to primary legal materials is, therefore, something of a red herring. ...

100 time-saving search engines for serious scholars

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0100

Online Universities has done a great job of bringing together a list of 100 search engines that can be of use to anyone doing reasearch, whether your an undergraduate, postgraduate or academic.These range from General resources such as BUBL Link , Meta search engines like Dogpile, archives from the British Library.The list includes a range of subject specific resources such as Chem BioFinder for Chemistry and ZMATH Online Database for Mathematics.Diarmuid (Source: Science @ UCD Library)

Nfais: emerging technologies for faster and more effective information access

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 20:14:59 +0100

Del Sattertwhaite was up next talking about “Emerging Technologies for Faster and More Effective Information Access.” The focus of the talk was how do you get faster results from a software perspective to our searches. All of the improvements in search speed has been in response to hardware upgrades up till now. Del gave us an example for how search engines work – how do you find the 6 smallest female salmon in a pond. Traditionally search engines grab all the fish. First they throw out the fish that are not salmon, then they throw out all of the male salmon, and finally they sort the females by size and pull the 6 smallest. The future model of search works like this: implant each fish with a chip with their vital stats and then radio the fish and have the smallest female salmon come to you. Next we looked at federated search problems. Right now the issues include the fact that you’re checking multiple sources with multiple indexing methodologies. In the next gen model you pull content from all the sources so the query is consistent, apply a simple ranking algorithm for all the data and provide structured and unstructured queries from the same interface. One real life example that Del gave us was the World Vital Records database. They had 12,000+ databases with 1.5 billion names. With the traditional approach a single query took 5 seconds but the index took 42 days to rebuild. With the new model it takes ~150 milliseconds to query and only 1.5 days to rebuild! Freeing up this processing power will allow us to have power left over to increase understanding of search results and lower costs. Technorati Tags: nfais (Source: What I Learned Today...)

Nfais: multi-lingual federated search

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 19:52:02 +0100

Abe Lederman from Deep Web Technologies was up next with his talk entitled: “Federated Search: Breaking Down the Language Barrier.” Abe talked to us about his new multi-lingual federated search tool. This will help non-English speakers to find content and it will also introduce English speakers to diverse perspectives from researchers in other countries. The translation tool they created is called Explorit. Basically to use this tool a user will enter their search term in their native language and Explorit will submit the query to translation services and that service will translate it into the language needed by the sources being searched. Results are returned in the databases native language. At this point Explorit translates the results into the user’s native language, ranks them and then displays them for the user. This sounds pretty darn cool – I’d like to see it in action to see how fast results can be retuned with all of this translation and ranking going on behind the scenes. For now we’ll all have to wait until June when WordWideScience.org will launch a multi-lingual search for the site. Abe’s slides can be found online at : deepwebtech.com/talks/NFAIS.pdf Technorati Tags: nfais (Source: What I Learned Today...)

Position opening: integrated library system (ils) projectmanager (2-year appointment)

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0100

Linda Hall Library is seeking qualified applicants for an Integrated Library System Project Manager. Position Title: Integrated Library System (ILS) Project Manager (2-year appointment) Scope and Role: The ILS Project manager is responsible for coordinating the on-site day-to-day operations associated with the migration of the Linda Hall Library's Integrated Library System from the SirsiDynix Horizon platform to the Ex Libris Voyager platform. Additional support and discovery services including open URL resolution, federated search, and digital asset management systems are included in this implementation. Position works with an off-site consultant retained by the Library on the implementation of discovery-based web services, and reports directly to the President of the Linda Hall Library. Responsibilities: 1. Provides leadership and coordination for the implementation of the Library's new ILS. 2. Leads the ILS Implementation Team through all aspects of the implementation from syst (Source: gmane.education.web4lib)

A new issue of ariadne (#62) is now available

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:30:08 +0100

Access Issue #62 of Ariadne (January, 2010) is Now Online Articles Include Editorial: The Wisdom of Communities Towards a Toolkit for Implementing Application Profiles Talat Chaudhri, Julian Cheal, Richard Jones, Mahendra Mahey and Emma Tonkin propose a user-driven methodology for the iterative development, testing and implementation of Dublin Core Application Profiles in diverse repository software environments. ‘An attack on professionalism and scholarship’?: Democratising Archives and the Production of Knowledge Andrew Flinn describes some recent developments in democratising the archive and asks whether these developments really deserve to be viewed as a threat to professional and academic standards. Get Tooled Up: Xerxes at Royal Holloway, University of London Anna Grigson, Peter Kiely, Graham Seaman and Tim Wales describe the implementation of an open source front end to the MetaLib federated search tool. Uncovering User Perceptions of Research Activity Data Cecilia Loureiro-Koechlin discusses the outcomes and lessons learned from user tests performed on the Oxford Blue Pages, a tool designed to display information about researchers and their activities at the University of Oxford. A Research Revolution: The Impact of Digital Technologies Dicky Maidment-Otlet and Judy Redfearn describe a new JISC activity to highlight how digital technologies are changing research. Abstract Modelling of Digital Identifiers Nick Nicholas, Nigel Ward and Kerry Blinco present an information model of digital identifiers, to help bring clarity to the vocabulary debates from which this field has suffered. eBooks: Tipping or Vanishing Point? Emma Tonkin investigates ebooks and takes a look at recent technological and business developments in this area. Intranet Management: Divine Comedy or Strategic Imperative? Martin White suggests that a failure to recognise the value of intranets is a symptom of a failure to recognise information as a strategic asset. ...

Integrated library system project manager at linda hall library

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 05:00:00 +0100

The Linda Hall Library is recruiting an Integrated Library System Project Manager (2-year appointment). Here's an excerpt from the ad: The ILS Project manager is responsible for coordinating the on-site day-to-day operations associated with the migration of the Linda Hall Library's Integrated Library System from the SirsiDynix Horizon platform to the Ex Libris Voyager platform. Additional support and discovery services including open URL resolution, federated search, and digital asset management systems are included in this implementation. The position reports directly to the President of the Linda Hall Library. Related Posts Library Application and Database Manager/Developer at Princeton Senior Program Developer, Library Technology at Lehigh University Library Systems Manager at the New School Systems Librarian/Library Technology Manager at Illinois Institute of Technology Director, Integrated Library Systems at University of Southern California (Source: DigitalKoans)

Integrated library system project manager at linda hall library

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 03:02:13 +0100

The Linda Hall Library is recruiting an Integrated Library System Project Manager (2-year appointment). Here's an excerpt from the ad: The ILS Project manager is responsible for coordinating the on-site day-to-day operations associated with the migration of the Linda Hall Library's Integrated Library System from the SirsiDynix Horizon platform to the Ex Libris Voyager platform. Additional support and discovery services including open URL resolution, federated search, and digital asset management systems are included in this implementation. The position reports directly to the President of the Linda Hall Library. Related Posts Library Systems Manager at the New School University Library Systems Manager at Tufts Head, Library Technology Services at University of Tennessee Library Systems Manager at University of Maine ILS and Discovery Systems Specialist at New York University (Source: DigitalKoans)

Integrated library system project manager (linda hall library)

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 01:20:02 +0100

Integrated Library System Project Manager (Linda Hall Library, Missouri) Position Title: Integrated Library System (ILS) Project Manager (2-year appointment) The Linda Hall Library for Science, Engineering, and Technology seeks an exceptional project manager to lead the Library’s implementation of its new Integrated Library System. This individual will join the Library’s Senior Management Team and assist in the creation of related policies and procedures. Scope and Role: The ILS Project manager coordinates the on-site day-to-day operations associated with the migration of the Linda Hall Library’s Integrated Library System from the SirsiDynix Horizon platform to the Ex Libris Voyager platform. ...

National library of medicine creates haiti earthquake people locator, also acts as a meta-search engine of other registries

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 22:47:01 +0100

From the Announcement: The National Library of Medicine (NLM), the world’s largest medical library and an arm of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), announces the release of the Haiti Earthquake People Locator (HEPL), a new system that can assist in the reunification of family members and loved ones during the ongoing relief efforts in Haiti. HEPL consists of an interactive Web site that provides information about people who have been found in Haiti or who are still missing after the devastating earthquake of January 12, 2010. The site allows members of the public to search for people who have been located by medical staff and other relief workers in Haiti as well as to voluntarily post information about people who are still missing. Medical and relief personnel in the region can submit photographs and descriptive information about located people via computer, cell phone, or a specialized “Found in Haiti” iPhone application that was developed by the NLM. Using data from this app, the site can even show the GPS coordinates of the spot where he was found. The HEPL system also has a meta-search engine, allowing it to simultaneously search multiple sites set up by CNN, Google and the International Red Cross. Access Haiti Earthquake People Locator Source: NLM (Source: ResourceShelf)

Network of the supreme courts of the european union

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 05:00:00 +0100

"The meta-search engine of National Case Law was created by the Network of the Presidents of the European Supreme Courts.... (Source: beSpacific)

Collection distribution by publication date

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 21:12:11 +0100

At my place of work, we’re just beginning a massive weeding project as a part of the larger new library building project. We are hoping to weed the entire collection for, effectively, the first time in the history of the library. Needless to say, it’s kind of going to own our lives for the next 18 months. As a part of this, my awesome co-worker Andrea created this chart showing the distribution of publication dates for our collection. The massive amount of 1800’s is from our Early English Books Online collection, but the rest of it shows a pretty great distribution of “when did the library have funding” over the decades. Similar Posts: IL2009 in Wordle form Folksonomies and flat hierarchies The Perils of Strong Copyright How broken is copyright in the US? Metasearch aka Federated Search aka The Mind Killer (Source: Pattern Recognition)

One search box to rule them all

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 05:00:00 +0100

This guest post by Amy Fry, Electronic Resources Coordinator at Bowling Green State University’s Jerome Library, is a timely reflection on Midwinter and on current events that have us all wondering how to strike a balance between convenient access and dependence on a few powerful vendors. ====== Discovery services, as you can imagine, were a big topic at ALA Midwinter this year. EBSCO discussed their new product at both the LITA Electronic Resources Management Interest Group on Friday night and at their own Academic Lunch on Saturday; Cal State Web Services Librarian David Walker discussed them at the LITA Top Tech Trends forum on Sunday, and my own ALA committee, the RUSA MARS Local Systems & Services Committee, hosted a discussion forum about them on Sunday afternoon. These services were born in response to librarians’ exasperation with isolated content and disappointment with federated search technology, as well as the continued realization that our students want the library to work like Google. But according to Senator Joe Lieberman, libraries are not alone: the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs not only recognizes a similar problem in intelligence databases, but is saying the same thing: Why doesn’t it work like Google? Wednesday, January 20, 2010, on NPR’s Morning Edition, Lieberman told Renee Montagne what librarians have been telling each other about students for years. “I’m concerned that they [employees of the National Counterterrorism Center, in this case] don’t have the easy ability to draw linkages between the various databases.” He continued: “when we go into Google…Google immediately searches an enormous number of databases. It’s not clear to me that, at the National Counter Terrorism Center today, if you put in the name ‘Umar Farouk’ or even Nigerian it will automatically cross-search all the intelligence and law enforcement databases it has. ...

Lita top technology trends

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 19:17:37 +0100

Last Sunday in between putting up cabinet doors and breaking up out of control light saber fights, I tried to sit down and listen to the live broadcast of LITA’s Top Technology Trends at ALA Midwinter. The librarian Twitterverse was in the house tweeting about the broadcast and the speakers ideas. It was interesting to hear what the other side of librarianship is doing. I will do my best to sum it up. If any of you listened to the broadcast, were there, or if any of the panelists find any of this information incorrect, please let me know and I will correct it. As I mentioned I was called away from the computer every so often. -Sorry David Walker was the first panelist and he spoke primarily about discovery systems. Basically it is sort of like federated search but vamped up. These systems take advantage of library collections and open them up to the users. According to David their impact and emergence has been small and slow but that is due mainly to the economy. But he sees discovery systems possibly replacing federated search. If the idea of a discovery system is a little confusing (due to my poor coverage of the meeting) and still sounds like federated searching here is an article I found about it in libraries, The Evolution of Library Discovery Systems in the Web Environment. Lorcan Dempsy also has a short blog post with links about them, Institutional Discovery Systems. In David’s presentation and discussion, he wondered why there aren’t more library consortiums out there coming together to build discovery systems. Personally, I think it is because there just aren’t enough librarians who do real programming to do this sort of stuff. Many middle to large libraries have one systems librarian who has to balance the operations of the library with everything else techie. ...

Calls for papers – access 2010 and online 2011

Sat, 02 Jan 2010 08:34:25 +0100

Just in case you have missed them, whilst you are busy preparing to attend VALA in Melbourne in just over a month, the call for papers for the other two big library conferences in Australia is open. ALIA’s 2010 biennial conference was going to be IFLA Brisbane, but with the global financial crisis seeing that event moved back to Europe, they have returned to an ALIA conference, still to be held in Brisbane. The call is out for papers for Access 2010 – to be submitted by 11th February (whilst you’re recovering from VALA). Submissions are being sought on: Information literacy and web 2.0 New Graduates – What next? Hidden Treasure: Finding the GOLD in Professional Development Public Libraries: A Surprise on Every Page Collective Wealth… Global Sharing, Global Resources More details are available at the Access 2010 Call for Abstracts. Information Online 2011 The call has also gone out for papers for the Online Conference, to be held in Sydney in 2011. ...

Serials solutions releases new and improved 360 search

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 12:42:49 +0100

"Serials Solutions has announced the launch of the new and improved 360 Search federated search service. The new service combines the best features of the Serials Solutions 360 Search and WebFeat platforms with new and improved capabilities that give users the power to control their search and librarians the power to deliver the best results" (Source: Peter Scott's Library Blog)

The future of research is here - cch intelliconnect

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 05:00:00 +0100

IntelliConnect™ is CCH Online's revolutionary new platform that will transform the way that you do research.CCH, with the help of tax and accounting professionals, have developed a familiar and intuitive user interface that offers the same ease of use found in today’s most popular consumer Web search engines.The biggest change is the "federated search" box at the top which will search everything on CCH at once. You do not have to know what practice book or even what subject you want to search. Users can simply type in search terms to quickly access CCH's world-class online tax content.Filters and browse functions let users locate and view exactly what they need. If you are looking for a specific topic, click on Browse in the upper left hand corner. Clicking on Browse will also take you to the indexes, which are great finding tools.Functions of this flexible new platform include:Google® like search function with filters to easily narrow results Multiple tab searching to retrieve relevant results faster than before Print and email PDF's with active links to content Save searches and create research folders with notes View and retrieve your search history for past 60 days Intuitive layout complete with extensive ‘in context’ help resources Individual user customisation (Source: Your Library@CSU)

Systems librarian / library technology manager

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 08:50:02 +0100

State: Illinois Paul V. Galvin Library of Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, IL, invites applicants to apply for the position of Systems Librarian / Library Technology Manager. For complete details on the position, and the application process please go to: http://www.iitri.iit.edu/applicants/Central?quickFind=51117 Systems Librarian/Library Technology Manager Position Paul V. Galvin Library Illinois Institute of Technology GENERAL DESCRIPTION Design, implement, and manage a broad range of information technology-based systems and services for the Galvin Library, three branch libraries, and IIT Archives. Collaborate with library staff on the development of technology-supported services in support of teaching, learning, and research. Key Responsibilities (1) Responsibility for the ongoing administration of the library network, servers, and related information technology to ensure 24/7 accessibility, functionality, and stability of these resources. Provide technology support for web accessible digital collections and services, including the library's federated search system and library supported institutional repository. (2) Routinely monitor the overall performance and security of information technology, systems, and network resources, identifying and implementing system modifications as needed to optimize overall performance and security. Maintain server backup systems and comprehensive data recovery plans and procedures. (3) Primary responsibility for gathering, compiling, and reporting statistics on the use of library supported information technology including library web sites and digital collections on a monthly basis as well as upon request. (4) Collaborate with library staff on the development and delivery of user-centered, technology supported collections and services. ...

Just a few days left for submissions to federated search blog writing contest

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 21:46:42 +0100

From a Blog Post: Submissions are due by December 15 for the second annual writing contest launched by the Federated Search Blog. [Snip] The 2010 contest challenges participants to creatively describe the most impressive federated search application they’ve ever seen or imagined. Submissions can be in the form of poetry (any style), essay, video, web-site mockup or other creative expression. An independent team of judges will choose first, second and third prize winners, who will earn cash prizes of $1000, $500 and $250 from Deep Web Technologies, sponsor of the Blog. Additionally, the winning submission will be featured in CIL Magazine and the top winner will participate in a panel at the CIL Conference in Spring 2010. Travel expenses will be paid by Deep Web Technologies. Complete Contest Rules and Particulars Deep Web Technologies powers several federated search sites on the web including Science.gov, Biznar, and WorldWideScience.org (Source: ResourceShelf)

Widening your nets, decentralizing your web services

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 14:00:23 +0100

Last summer while at ALA’s annual conference in the Chicago area, a couple friends and I were eating lunch at the Corner Bakery Cafe and saw this ad on one of the tables. The interesting thing about the ad wasn’t so much the content itself (though I’m sure it’s good stuff). We got all geeked out over the URL associated with the ad. Why? Because they didn’t point to their website. Instead, they pointed directly to their Facebook Page. Think about that for a sec, because there are some pretty large implications for library web services. I know that many of us have worked for years to centralize all our websites, tools, and services into one place – preferably at www.mylibrarysnamegoeshere.org …. some of us have worked hard to get federated search tools to work on that library website, and have even integrated some of our library catalog content into our websites, as well. But people aren’t visiting our websites (well, not in droves, anyway). They are going to other places, like Facebook (and YouTube, and Google, and …). And of course we should be active in some of those social sites. But what about pointing directly to those social sites … in an ad? That’s taking it one step further, isn’t it? Pointing directly AWAY from our website … to some social tool like Facebook? This could work for libraries. If you have a Facebook Page, check out your Page demographics (Facebook provides some basic stats on Facebook Page visitors). Who’s your main audience in Facebook? Doing anything for that group of patrons already? If so, you might think of taking it one step further, and pointing them directly to the Facebook Page. Why? This group already uses Facebook Your Facebook Page comes ready-made for interaction – comments, discussions, and likes. it can have an easy-to-remember URL (i.e., ours is facebook. ...

Got thoughts on federated search? win $1,000!

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 05:00:00 +0100

Deep Web Technologies is sponsoring another contest in which you "Tell us about the most impressive federated search application you've ever seen, or about one you've dreamed up. How innovative can federated search be? What unique problems can it solve?" What's kind of neat about this one is that it's not just an essay contest - they're accepting any form of submission; video, audio, written, etc. The winner will receive $1,000 and a trip to Computers in Libraries 2010. Check all the details at the Federated Search Blog, and keep in mind that entries must be received by Dec 15, 2009. (Source: The Distant Librarian)

Got thoughts on federated search? win $1,000!

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 05:00:00 +0100

Ebsco acquires database from elsevier & partners with eos international

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 18:23:07 +0100

+ Deal is Complete: EBSCO Acquires World of Textiles Database from Elsevier EBSCO Publishing has completed the acquisition of World Textiles from Elsevier, a world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. The database contains data from 1970 to the present, providing researchers with international coverage of scientific, trade, technical and economic publications. Selection for content in World Textiles utilizes a unique classification scheme designed to adapt coverage to current research trends. + EOS International Partners with EBSCO Publishing EOS International is proud to announce its newly established partnership with EBSCO Publishing provider of EBSCOhost Integrated Search (EHIS). Contracts were signed during the first week of November to establish the new business partnership that allows EOS International to offer EBSCOhost Integrated Search as the Federated Search component of the EOS.Web solution. The EOS.Web / EBSCOhost Integrated Search partnership provides EOS International with a brand new federated searching technology that is anticipated to further perfect and streamline the database search process. With EHIS, patrons can simultaneously search their Web OPAC and EBSCOhost® databases, as well as other electronic resources, including those from other database aggregators. Sources: EBSCO, EOS (Source: ResourceShelf)

Head, library technology services at university of tennessee

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 05:00:00 +0100

The University of Tennessee Libraries are recruiting a Head, Library Technology Services. Here's an excerpt from the ad: An experienced, innovative, and visionary leader, the successful candidate will provide oversight and programmatic guidance for 3 faculty and 10 staff responsible for information technology and digital services at the university's flagship campus. LTS supports a wide range of digital systems and services, encompassing an integrated library system, link resolver and federated search software, next generation search and discovery services, library web development, interlibrary loan system, proxy server, and staff desktop support. Currently, the Libraries is involved in a number of initiatives including extension of next generation discovery services, development of mobile technologies, consideration of electronic resource management systems, development of a campus digital repository, and expansion of digitization and media streaming services. Reporting to the Executive Associate Dean, the ideal candidate possesses in-depth knowledge of technology practices and trends in libraries. He/she serves as an effective advocate for the libraries in building and sustaining collaborative relationships with a variety of constituencies, especially campus technology stakeholders. Related Posts Head, Resource Sharing and Repository Services at University of Maryland Baltimore Head of Library Systems at Johns Hopkins Digital Library Systems Specialist at Singapore Management University Interim Head Librarian of Systems and Technical Services at St. Olaf College Digital Library Manager at Northeastern University (Source: DigitalKoans)

Hla 2009: save me money! – a new ils for the hawaii state archives

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 22:30:25 +0100

The below summary is of a presentation given a few weeks ago at the Hawaii Library Association. Sorry I’m so late in getting around to posting it. Save Me Money! – A New ILS for the Hawaii State Archives Presenter: Whitney Ross Ross looked at new ILSs for the Hawaii State Archives. They looked at Koha and Evergreen and compared the two. They decided to go with Koha because it seemed more user-friendly. She talked about Koha’s and Evergreen’s active online communities, which helped her with her initial research. Koha Standards include Unicode 3.0, Z39.50 client/server, SRU/W client/server, MARC21, ISO 2709, Dublin Core, MODS, OAI-PMH, and Z39.71. They use the OPAC & cataloging features of Koha. There are also full circluation features, acquisitions, serials control, and a web-based librarian interface. She also mentioned the Amazon book jacket display feature, that you can have RSS delivery of search results, and a federated search tool within Koha. She showed the librarian interface, a simply web interface. They did a lot of customization to the user interface, but left the librarian interface alone as it was quite easy to use. You can import MARC records or create a record from scratch yourself. The cataloging interface uses multiple tabs, which took some librarians time to get used to. Their migration was done using MARCedit to combine all the records. They created a very simple interface for the catalog – a “Google-esque” interface. They also added links to their additional resources like digital collections, etc. She did say that the search engine in Koha seems slow, though it is anticipated that version 3.0 will fix that problem. There is no phrase searching in Koha, and there is no browsing of items (which is availble in Evergreen). Also, there are no cataloging templates (at least not that Ross can find). (Source: LibrarianInBlack)

Connected histories: sources for building british history, 1500-1900

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 18:51:15 +0100

"Connected Histories will create a federated search facility for a wide range of distributed electronic resources relating to early modern and nineteenth-century British History. Through a combination of web crawling and the application of Natural Language Processing methodology the project will create a non-intrusive, distanced tagging of the data within those distributed sources to facilitate more sophisticated and structured searching" (Source: Peter Scott's Library Blog)

Ideas for home grown db authentification pages

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 05:00:00 +0100

Hi! I’m crossposting to PubLib& Web4Lib, so forgive any duplication. I appreciate the wisdom of both audiences. Have you set up your own authentification schemes for database access on your web pages? I’d like to visit your websites to get ideas. For a variety of reasons, my library has decided to drop our federated search engine vendor and create our own home-grown database access page. We’re pretty much beginners in this area and I sure would appreciate suggestions or mentoring. No one currently on staff has worked with authentication except me, and I was using our previous vendor’s template. We have access via our local library consortium to Dynix RPA to authenticate our borrowers, but we’re not sure how we keep patrons from bookmarking an authenticated page and going there directly in the future. We’re also interested in having patrons only authenticate once, not each time they switch to another database. I know our vendors will agree to a referral URL from out authentication pa (Source: gmane.education.web4lib)

Advanced library research methods for grad students

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 05:00:00 +0100

Take your library research skills to the next level. This session will provide an overview of traditional journal databases, federated search engines (including open access portals to research/institutional depositories) and cited reference searching. An advanced RefWorks presentation will also be included. This session is highly recommended for graduate students who are planning to complete a major research paper (MRP) or thesis. A basic knowledge of Library research and RefWorks is required.The session will take place on Thursday, November 26th from 1:00-3:00 p.m. in the ILC Lab on the main floor.Please register online. (Source: Ryerson Library News)

Library news & notes 11/13/09

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:10:38 +0100

Rowland Institute at Harvard Library News & Notes November 13, 2009 “A black cat crossing your path signifies that the animal is going somewhere” – Groucho Marx (Source: Cassandra Eckhof) Internet Sites of the Week Books/eBooks Hate reading text online? There IS a better way… How to Purchase Books Online for Less (Source: hrouda) Kindle readers beware – big Amazon is watching you read 1984 (Source: Liz Bryson) Publishers and Booksellers Rally to Support eBooks and eReaders (Source: Peter Scott) Push-Button Books The Second Generation of e-Book Readers is on the Way (Source: Library Web) Computers and Internet The Age of the Informavore (Source: Liz Bryson) Clicker launches for all–watch it Online video and TV directory (Source: raduboncea) Copyright overreach takes a world tour (Source: lapsedluddite) See also: A Call for Copyright Rebellion Google Dashboard: Its unintended uses (and abuses) Google: Free Wifi at Logan, other airports Google Wave: Better than Twitter for Conference Chatter? (Sources: Library Web; Ellyssa Kroski) See also: Uncovering the meaning of Google Wave for publishers (Source: TheOccasional) A glut of Google can give you a virtual fever Harvard’s Web Ecology Project Part 1 and Part 2 (Source: BoraZ) How to Read 622 RSS Feeds It’s All Semantics: Searching for an Intuitive Internet That Knows What Is Said–And Meant See also: The Rapid Evolution of Search (Source: asu132 Maggwire “Experience magazines online” (Source: Bernie Sloan) Marissa Mayer: The Visionary (Source: NYT Technology Journalists) Open and Save DOCX Files Without an Upgrade QOTD: protocol-based time travel for the web Rev The Engines: Bing Video Pulls In Hulu And YouTube U.S. ...

What’s new 11 november 2009

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:00:00 +0100

Game-Making Development Kit – Free Ever wanted to make a game, but didn’t know where to start? Here’s one way -download the Unreal Developer Kit from NVIDIA [http://developer.nvidia.com/object/udk.html]. Why not look into it as a school holiday activity for your teens? More from their site: NVIDIA now offers the Unreal® Development Kit, a free version of the award-winning Unreal® Engine 3, the software development framework used to create computer and video games, 3D simulations, TV shows, films and more. Anyone can download UDK and work with the same game development tools used to create blockbuster games, architectural walkthroughs and digital movies. Google Answering Math Questions Did you know that Google has the ability to answer maths questions? It’s handy when you need to do some quick division and subtraction. Take a look at this screenshot, showing a division problem. Vuidoo - Video Meta Search Engine Vuidoo [http://www.vuidoo.com/] is a meta search engine covering YouTube, Google cideo, Break, Livevideo, Dailymotion, and a dozen more. Google Unveils Tool to Annotate Web Sites Google has rolled out a new service that allows users to post notes alongside Web sites that can be read by other users. The service, called Sidewiki [http://www.google.com/sidewiki/intl/en/], is a new feature of the Google Toolbar, a popular browser add-on. Sidewiki users can, for example, provide an account of their own travel recommendations for Goondiwindi next to a travel Web page for that town. Other users visiting that page will see that there are comments on a thin left-hand sidebar and click on it to read them. Google says Sidewiki has some unique features. For instance, it uses a complex ranking algorithm to evaluate the quality of comments using “what we know about the author, and user-contributed signals such as voting and flagging.” Only highly rated comments will be shown. ...

Search the real time web with leapfish

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:01:40 +0100

Would you have more value for SEO based search results or human conversation driven results? If you knew that there were 6 conversations that provided a fantastic account of a design firm you were considering would that be more valuable to you than the top 3 links on your current search engine results? Ben Behrouzi, Founder and CEO of LeapFish asks these questions in a recent blogpost. LeapFish used to be a regular meta search engine. Last week, the new LeapFish was unveiled: A multi-media and real-time search, communication, and sharing platform. How it works The core functionality of LeapFish is still search, but the search box now has two buttons: “Real Time” and “Search Web”. The second button gives you standard search engine results. If your query has news relevance, news results will top the list of results. Google is default search engine, but you can easily toggle between Google, Bing and Yahoo. The “Real Time” button leads to a mosaic of real time results: News, trending topics, relevant top stories on Digg, fresh tweets and video results. In spite of the large amount of information, the search results are easy to navigate. Each item in the search results can be shared. When you point your mouse to a particular item, “Share” and “Like” buttons appear. Clicking the “Like” button will give input to LeapFish’s ranking algorithm. The “Share” button lets you post the item to Facebook, Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon, Mixx, Reddit, Delicious, Technorati, Yahoo Buzz and Kaboodle. In addition to the search features, the new LeapFish lets you personalize the home page. If you sign up for a LeapFish account, you can sign in to Facebook and Twitter to monitor the activity and post updates from the LeapFish home page. You can also add news sources and widgets like dictionary and thesaurus. ...

Drupal now the "cool thing to do"?

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:02:23 +0100

It's nice to see Drupal mentioned in the context of "cool thing to do" but I don't think Cindi Trainor in her piece on Sacred Cows in Library IT gets exactly what you can do with it: Experimenting with low-cost or no-cost tools like Twitter will only cost staff time, but implementing expensive (think federated search) or complex-but-free technologies (think Drupal) because it's the cool thing to do can be a very costly lesson for a library to learn, in terms of budget, staff time, morale and user satisfaction. First, there's no impediment to 'experimenting' with Drupal any more than there is to experimenting with Twitter. The first implementation I ever dealt with was on my own laptop. I didn't even need a network connection! Also, as far as complexity goes, what are we comparing it to? I mean, you can't run a website on Twitter so that's not an option. It just so happens that an institution's website is a fairly complex organism. It's going to involve a considerable investment no matter how you choose to go about it. The fact that Drupal can potentially make it less costly in terms of budget, staff time, etc. -- while being far more effective as a tool -- that's what makes it "cool" and why people choose it. Not the other way around. P.S. It's kind of ironic that the above quote fell under the Sacred Cow, "Cutting-edge is better; bleeding-edge is best" -- considering that the piece grew out of a discussion on the oh-so-bleeding-edge "Google Wave". read more (Source: Chicago Librarian - Design, Techology & Culture from a Librarian living in Chicago)

Google adds page previews feature

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:53:46 +0100

Over on Search Engine Land, Barry Schwartz points out that Google has added a “page preview” feature that allows the searcher to see what a page looks like before clicking on the link. Barry’s post includes screenshots. However, Google previews are easy to access (assuming they’re available). Run any Google Search expand the “Show Options” link right below the search box. At the very bottom of list you should spot “page previews.” Click the link and now, if available (at this point, page previews are not available for every page), a static image of the page should appear to the right of the title, snippet, and link. The Search Engine Land post mentions that page previews are far from a new phenomenon. Ask.com used to offer them and Clusty continues to provide previews. In fact, they were available even before Vivisimo’s meta search tool was rebranded as Clusty. We still think they are a very powerful tool. run a Clusty search, next to each result title notice the magnifying glass, click it and a live version (you can actually click the links) of the result is embedded directly into the results set. Click it again, and it’s gone. Exalead continues to offer to page previews. It’s something they have been doing for years. First, you can add “previews” of your favorite pages on Exalead home page and each result also contains a preview image. Here’s an example. Last Friday, we mentioned a new beta of a metasearch tool from the National Institutes of Health Library. This database from Web4Lib also provides the embedded page preview option. As Barry Schwartz points there have been and continue to be several add-on tools that offer page previews/thumbnails. Two add-ons for Firefox that are still available Better Search and SearchPreview (works for Bing, Yahoo, and Google). ...

The sacred cows of library technologists

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:22:06 +0100

Hearing Rick Anderson's recent KLA talk, titled "The Five Sacred Cows of Librarianship: Why They No Longer Matter, and Why Two of Them Never Did," made me wonder what "sacred cows" exist in the field of library technology. I posed the question, "What are the sacred cows of library technology?" in Google Wave. What followed was a discussion about digital technology among library technologists that generated many ideas and was a great way to try out this new communication tool. Some of the ideas offered up were "sacred cows" to those in the field, but others challenged ideas held more widely in librarianship. "Our users haven't asked for that." Some libraries do not experiment with offering services and resources digitally because the patrons in the building say that they do not want them. Matt Hamilton writes, "When I asked our Reference staff if they'd consider IM reference I was told 'Well, our patrons haven't asked for that.' However the university up the hill actually tried it--and it was so popular they had to readjust staffing for it." A good way to estimate whether a digital service will be successful is to ask users of your website, though even users of your digital spaces may not know right away whether they would use a service if offered digitally. For example, users might tell you now that they are not interested in asking information questions via Twitter or SMS, but when those same people get into Twitter because their friends do, your library will be there to met their needs. "A question is a question is a question," writes David Lee King, "in-person services should not be weighted as more important than using a similar service digitally." "Library technology=Windows or Mac." While the majority of the use of digital library services and resources takes place via desktop or laptop computers, mobile use is rapidly increasing. ...

Il2009: library website improvement face-off

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:31:59 +0100

IL2009: Library Website Improvement Face-Off Speakers: David Lee King, Amanda Etches-Johnson, Aaron Schmidt, Jeff Wisniewski This panel talk was focused on usability and user-centered experiences on library websites. I liked this presentation as it has some very practical, common-sense takeaways that we can now take back to our libraries and colleagues and say “hey — somebody with authority & expertise said we should do this.” Maybe that’s the way you can finally get some of this common sense website change done! Hey…whatever works Amanda Etches-Johnson’s Talk Amanda started by discussing search boxes. We’re doing a pretty good job of putting catalog searches on our homepages. Amanda wants to see more of is to put search boxes on pages other than our homepages. On Florida State University’s subject guide for English has the search box front & center at the top of the page. The Articles tab should also be there – you can put search boxes up for databases you already subscribe too. Why not add a search box for the most relevant database along with the catalog search on other subject-based pages. Collingswood Public Library used to have a massive search box right in the middle of the page. The search box also includes a phrase of what is in the search capability – “books, movies, etc.” Amanda did a great job improving when her presentation exploded and she could not see her slide. The lack of a QuickTime compressor on the presentation machine caused a problem (good note for future computer configurations). She also says to be human and be whimsical – think about how we write & present things on our websites. She gave an example of some language describing a change to the interlibrary loan policy at her library. ...

Il2009: growing & grown-up digital: next-gen speaks

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:24:47 +0100

Facilitator: Stephen Abram Panel: two high-school students, a college student, and the teen services librarian from the local public library Abrams has asked that folks blogging or tweeting to not use the name of the teen participants, as some are under-age and we should act responsibly when creating a digital trail for them. First question is about music. The college student likes classical, one high school student still likes vinyl and cassette tapes (no iPod), and the other puts music on her USB stick to take with her (along with her iPod). The college student started with illegal downloads, but gained a respect for the musicians, so now he buys music via iTunes. The iPod-weilding high school student has an iTunes account that she uses sometimes, but mostly shares music with friends. The vinyl student buys the physical medium rather than making copies. What’s in your bag? Surprisingly, two of them carry USB sticks, which I almost never see with the college students at my library. Is brand important? Yes, if it’s indicative of the quality, which is more important. (Ugg boots and short-shorts = "the Escaho") How do you use your phone? Keep in contact with family and friends around the world, mostly via text. One high school student uses her phone mainly to take photos and videos. "Facebook, Myspace, and phone are good places to keep in touch with people, but Twitter is kind of dead." Ouch — I guess it’s all about where your community exists. Do you create content? The college student writes music and records it, but hasn’t posted it yet. Do you expect the same or better standard of living than your parents? Everything seems better/easier now. If we use it the right way, everything will be exponentially easier. There are more options available now for careers, and the internet has opened doors of awareness of what could be. ...

Il2009 d101: digital library network -- roy tennant

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:19:36 +0100

Unfiltered notes from Roy Tennant's talk on Digital Library Network: Perceptions report -- libraries = books Libraries were once center of information universe. Many online catalogs are simply card catalogs on screen. Libraries were built around the idea of scarcity. World today is not this way. Even in developing world -- form of internet access is cell phone (more ubiquitous than computer). Tablet devices are on the way, and soon. Epaper is comings oon, too. Users built workflow around libraries. Now, we need to build ourselves around users. Massively centralized services not possible. Now, this may be our only salvation. Quotes General Shinseki: if you dislike change, you're going to dislike irrelvance even more. We need to put libraries at the network level of web scale. We need to be an essential part of the new ecology. Whole publishing indusry uses Onix standard for bibliographic data. Libraries use MARC. Does anyone find this funny? Libraries don't just process metadata. We add value, put in more data based on what we know about books. What is going to save our bacon? It's not what we've been doing for last century. Research process is broken -- messy desktops (virtual and real). Libraries have metadata to help researchers organize and find the information they need. We have to help people with their problems. Libraries need to be the solution. Take a look at CDL's escholarship.org. Changed their IR into something more dynamic. Now a publishing tool for faculty. IT's not an IR anymore -- it's a publishing service. IR is the backend, nobody cares. It's all about publication and citation. CDL is also archiving state government sites. See what the world looked like around pivotol events. Crawls state government sites twice a year, some more frequently. Also make tools available to others. Make sure your site is indexed by Googl, etc. Your site must make its content available. ...

Harvester 42: integrating meta search engines

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 04:00:00 +0100

Harvester 42: integrating meta search engines. Straightforward multi search engine, covering about 50 different resources divided into 16 different categories. Results are inframe, so you just scroll down the page to see the next frame. (Source: Phil Bradley)

Library news & notes 10/16/09

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 20:22:26 +0100

Rowland Institute at Harvard Library News & Notes October 16, 2009 Quote of the week: “Keep your options open, baby! Don’t say yes, don’t say no, if you can say maybe.” – Edwin H. Land Internet Sites of the Week Books/eBooks ALPSP Survey on Scholarly Book Publishing Practice – ‘First Findings’ (Source: SPARC Open Access Forum) Amazon.com Introduces Same-Day Delivery Books: Get Them While They’re Hot Does the Brain Like E-Books? (Source: Steve Silberman) Does Your Library Have a Vision on e-Books? Five NEW Feminist Books Not to Be Missed http://girlwpen.com/?p=1745 From Blogs to Books – A History of the Web in Print – Timeline (Source: Publish2Technology NYT) He not busy being born is busy dying (Source: John Dupuis) New E-Book Company to Focus on Older Titles A Novel in a Year pt. 1 pt. 2 pt. 3 pt. 4 (Source: inkyelbows) Rare books from China to be digitized (Source: Harvard in the News) Remixing the Book (Source: Open Access Tracking Project) The slow rise of e-books (Source: srharris19) Subject: Our Marketing Plan (Source: Steve Silberman) Top 10 First Novels: 2009 Top 10 First Novels for Youth: 2009 Weird Kindle tricks: screensavers, screenshots, and games Computers and Internet Apps on my iPhone (Source: Librarians Matter) See also: 25 Items the iPhone Has Rendered Useless (Source: digg tech_news) Battle Of The Augmented Reality Apps: Urbanspoon, Layar, Wikitude, WhereMark & More (Source: Danny Sullivan) Berners-Lee ’sorry’ for slashes The Complete Guide to Video Blogging (Source: Library Web) Computers Faster Only for 75 More Years Consumer Groups: Tell the Truth on Cell Phone, Internet Bills Disinformation.com Renovates for Web 2. ...

Technology trends: waxing and waning

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 23:48:35 +0100

In Iowa I’m giving a talk which feels almost too up-close and personal to me: “perspectives on present and future library trends.” Care to chime in? I’m feeling a little blurry, between packing and trying to finish my slides before I hit the road. I thought rather than simply labeling something a trend, I’d talk about what’s waxing and what’s waning. There’s a nifty angle to this where I provide “their potential impact on libraries and library services.” I’m trying to stay big picture… so that when I talk about “potential impact,” I can discuss broader themes. Here’s what I have so far: Waxing: Centralized mass storage (paper and digital) Ubiquitous computing Cloud-based applications User experience (focus on, thereof) Large-scale cloud catalogs Open software/standards/access Social engagement Service integration (such as discovery layers that tie together different formats; FRBR; federated search) Waning: Paper production (literally) The locally-installed standalone catalog Waxing and waning: Print circulation (depending on the type library) …. I think I know where I’m headed with my suggestions… the “experience library,” flexible and user-focused, with loads of examples of what this library looks like/feels like, what we need to be/do to provide these services. Still mulling over the big issues. I have 90 minutes. Bookmark to: (Source: Free Range Librarian)

Vuidoo - video search engine - search video on youtube ,dailymotion , metacafe ,myspace and more

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 04:00:00 +0100

Vuidoo. is a meta search engine covering YouTube, Google cideo, Break, Livevideo, Dailymotion, and a dozen more. It works well enough, with decent results but it's let down by silly things. For example, once a search has been run and the results are displayed there's no search box to carry on searching - it's necessary to back to the home page. If you want a video metasearch engine, my advice is go to Trooker, which allows you to keep your own folders of videos. (Source: Phil Bradley)

Electronic resources and serials manager, digital library programs ...

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 07:00:24 +0100

Develops accurate serials and monographic service records in federated search, openURL, and data services (ie managing SFX, Metalib, MARCIt, and othe (Source: pligg - all)