Yahoo! Discontinuing Delicious?

Some of you have probably heard that Delicious is possibly going to be turned off by Yahoo!. One of my favorite mashups examples is using Delicious to create ‘link rolls.’ In fact link rolls power the links pages on both this and my other book site. So the question now is what the heck do I do?

Well, first I’m all for petitioning Yahoo! to open source Delicious so that it can not online live on, but probably get more development attention than Yahoo! ever gave it. If you like this idea you can try to get that to happen by participating in this petition (click the flame to the right or this link).

Next, I recommend that you backup your links now and regularly while we wait to see what is going to happen to Delicious.

Finally, some colleagues have already switched to Diigo, a tool that I tried a while ago but ended up leaving to return to Delicious. It looks like I’ll be giving it another shot now that it might be my only option. For this post I did a search on Diigo to see if I could use it for my mashups still and have found that I can. Diigo offers linkrolls just like Delicious did. I haven’t tested them at all, but this is promising to say the least.

Library Mashups Workshop at CIL2011

The program is out and I’ll be giving two pre-conference sessions at Computers in Libraries 2011 in Washington, D.C. The first of which I’ll be giving with fellow author Brian Herzog where we will show you how to put mashups on your library site. Make sure you register early!!

• W7 – Library Mashups: Exploring New Ways to Deliver Library Data
  Sunday, March 20, 2011 :: 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
  Nicole C. Engard, Director of Open Source Education, ByWater Solutions
  Brian Herzog, Head of Reference, Chelmsford Public Library

  This workshop explains what mashups are, how they can be used, and shares examples from libraries around the world. In the first half of this workshop, attendees will learn about some of the tools they can use to mash up library data with content from the web to reach more patrons. Examples include using maps to enhance library data, using Flickr for digital collections, and creating library websites with data from several information sources. After learning the basics and seeing examples from other libraries around the world, attendees will have a chance to create a website pulling data from several sources on the web. After attending this talk, librarians will be able to define what a mashup is and identify mashups on library sites and the web; find tools and APIs to gather data for their own library sites; and pull data from other sites into a website

• W15 – Practical Open Source Software for Libraries
  Sunday, March 20, 2011 :: 1:30 PM – 4:30 PM
  Nicole C. Engard, Director of Open Source Education, ByWater Solutions

  The commonly accepted definition of open source software is software that is distributed with human readable source code in order to allow the user freedom to run, review, alter, enhance, and modify the code for any purpose. But open source is about so much more than just the code behind the software, it’s about community, collaboration, and innovation. The library community is abuzz about open source software, but many librarians have no idea what open source software actually is or what it means to use the software and participate in the community around open source. This workshop provides the 101 for using open sources in libraries: What will open source mean to our libraries? Why would I choose source? How do I get started? Do I need more staff? Will the transition be hard? Are there open source applications for my library? Engard provides facts, dispels myths, emphasizes what open source means for libraries, and shares a toolbox of at least 50 freely available open source products to use in your library. Includes demos, discussions, and more.

Registration is available online at InfoToday.com.

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