Archive for the ‘Book News’ Category

Don’t miss the book signing

Tonight at Computers in Libraries 2010 at the opening reception in the Exhibit Hall at 5pm. I’ll be at the InfoToday booth signing copies of Library Mashups.

Mashups Booksigning Sign

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Digesting the contents of Library Mashups

Mosby has decided that the best way to digest all of the content in Library Mashups he needed to take a big bite.


Original found on Flickr

Mashups on Longshots Podcast

I recently talked to Sarah Long of Longshots about how libraries can use Mashups. This podcast has now been released on Library Beat.

OpenKapow Service Change

In Chapter 2 Bonaria mentions OpenKapow as a tool for creating mashups, so I wanted to let you all know about this change to the OpenKapow service.

Based on feedback from the openkapow user community, Kapow Technologies and StrikeIron recently launched a new commercial service for creating and delivering custom web data services. This new service, which utilizes the Jolt Award-winning Kapow OnDemand ™, establishes Kapow Technologies as the premier provider of SaaS-based solutions for rapidly accessing web data.

With the ever-increasing need for businesses of all sizes to eliminate the barriers to accessing valuable web data, openkapow users wanted a commercial version of the service, capable of running unlimited Kapow robots on a pay-per-use basis. Our number one priority is to ensure the maximum success of our customers, and we are confident that our joint offering with StrikeIron is the next step in delivering on this vision. We will continue to invest in delivering more offerings in the cloud.

With the new Kapow/StrikeIron service now in production, we will close down the openkapow beta servers on December 11th, 2009 at 6pm Eastern Time.

This means that the openkapow beta servers will no longer be able to execute Kapow robots after that time. If you are interested in using openkapow functionality for commercial use, then I encourage you to sign up for a free trial at http:/www.strikeiron.com/kapow, where you will also find additional information about the service, including pricing.

The link to OpenKapow will still work, so I am retaining that link on the Chapter 2 page, but it is important to note that it is no longer a free service.

Library Mashups Book Signing

Last night was the opening reception at Internet Librarian and that means Information Today book signing.

Signing my book
See on Flickr

I met a lot of great people and shared lots of info about mashups with them. Keep an eye out for my slides from tomorrow’s talk at Internet Librarian which will cover even more about Mashups!

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Library Mashups Reviews

I have added a page for reviews of Library Mashups to this site. If you know of or have written a review, share it with me and I’ll be sure to link to it from this new page.

Library 2.0 Gang Mashups Contest Winners

To celebrate the Library Mashups theme of the July 2009 Gang, we launched the Library Mashup Idea Competition. The rules were simple:

To enter you need to send in your idea for a library mashup. It can be as simple or complex as you like. The only restriction being that it must include library data or functionality somewhere within it.

Each of the three winners will receive a copy of the Library Mashups book edited by Gang regular Nicole Engard.

And the three lucky winners are:

  • David Bigwood – Lunar and Planetary Institute
  • Deirdre Wilson – Duke University Libraries
  • Janice Painter – Princeton Public Library (NJ)

Here are extracts from their submissions:

David Bigwood

I’d like to see the information in field 034 d, e, f, and g used with Google Maps to graphically depict the areas covered by maps in a collection. The 650a or 052 could be used to provide facets to narrow the selection perhaps.

Deirdre Wilson

I work at Duke Libraries in Collection Development. I would like to suggest a mashup for creating a READING THE CAMPUS Tour Map.

I propose to build upon the existing map work of Duke’s ISIS (Information Science + Informatin Studies) Program. They have constructed a new campus map and made it interactive with various highlights . I would like to take this theme further by integrating library holdings (books, e-resources, special collections, digital collections, etc.) pertaining to Duke University buildings, landmarks, people, and historic happenings into the map. I think I could use the Mirlynapi to a certain degree to query MARC subject headings pertaining to Duke University. For example, this title link could connect with several buildings/areas on the campus map. With this said, I would suggest that a group of related links get connected to any one building/area on campus.

I don’t have the expertise, but I work in the same building as the ISIS program, and there is also a Duke junior who has recently created a mobile app for Duke called “Places”, not to mention Duke Libraries own wonderful Digital Projects Department. I think I would need to finesse the subject headings considerably to get unique results for holdings to be mapped to the appropriate campus entities. The READING THE CAMPUS Tour Map would benefit many different patrons of Duke University, particularly first year students and their parents. I think this library mashup would be engaging for:

  • highlighting the collections
  • providing talking points to anyone interested in Duke
  • underscoring faculty offerings (by mapping Duke Authors titles)
  • providing a new interactive method of accessing Duke’s historical nature (especially for Alumni)

Janice Painter

My mashup idea is about travel and travel resources. My public library has a pretty darn good print travel colllection, which is used well. My community travels and continues to do so in the downturned economy. I’d love to offer a mashup that links what they’re borrowing in the collection with various online resources– I can see the NYT 36 hours in series and travel sections, the eatshop guides, Travel and Leisure reviews, the online versions of our guides, together with quirkier independent travel review sites; photo resources like Flickr, Picassa, and Panoramio; the obvious map mashes; flight price tracking like Yapta; and lodging brokers like Untours, Vacationrentals, Spafinder; add in phone apps available for on-the-go… and then have some graphical way of plotting who’s borrowed/travelled to/armchair travelled to which locations in the world as the gateway into and beyond the physical library collection. Seems like the travel collection Dewey numbers are granular enough to focus in on geographic regions. Mash that with borrowing patterns and resources and I think you’d have an interesting application.

[originally posted on the Library 2.0 Gang Site]

Book Errata: Page 127

I haven’t read through the entire book yet, but I did notice that on page 127 there is a screenshot error. The printers have been informed and future printings will be correct, but for those of you who got the first batch of books here is the correct screenshot.

fig9.06: Example Blacklight Record

The book has arrived!

That’s right folks, the book has arrived on my doorstep!! It should be winging it’s way to yours soon too!!

Unpacking My First Book

Library Mashups Published in the UK

UK - Library Mashups

A new announcement about the book!! Library Mashups is available to order in the United Kingdom, Europe or British Commonwealth (excl. Canada) from Facet Publishing. To order from these territories please visit www.facetpublishing.co.uk/title.php?id=703-6 or call +44 (0)1235 827702.

You can pre-order your copy today either via Facet or Information Today (based on your location). We’re getting very very close to the publication date!! :)