It is my pleasure to announce that Issue 15 of the Code4Lib Journal has been
published. Please go to http://journal.code4lib.org/issues/issue-15 for these
excellent articles:
Editorial Introduction
by Tod A. Olson
http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/5989
This Hallowe’en finds our contributors working away like (benign) mad
scientists, assembling and deploying their creations to bring services and
information in novel ways to their patrons and staff, approaching their work
with a vital sprit of invention and discovery.
Controlled Terms or Free Terms? A JavaScript Library to Utilize Subject
Headings and Thesauri on the Web
by Shun Nagaya, Yutaka Hayashi, Shuhei Otani and Keizo Itabashi
http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/5994
There are two types of keywords used as metadata: controlled terms and free
terms. Free terms have the advantage that metadata creators can freely select
keywords, but there also exists a disadvantage that the information retrieval
recall ratio might be reduced. The recall ratio can be improved by using
controlled terms. But creating and maintaining controlled vocabularies has an
enormous cost. In addition, many existing controlled vocabularies are published
in formats less suitable for programming. We introduce a JavaScript library
called “covo.js” that enables us to make use of controlled vocabularies as
metadata for the organization of web pages.
Best Practices for a University Laptop Lending Program
by Pamela Buzzard and Travis Teetor
http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/5876
The University of Arizona Libraries currently circulates over three hundred
pieces of equipment including laptops, netbooks, projectors and iPads. This
article describes the best practices and workflows we have developed since 2003
to create a laptop/equipment lending program that is efficient and mindful of
financial resources and that our student body loves and continues to support.
Using Amazon Mechanical Turk to Transcribe Historical Handwritten Documents
by Andrew S.I.D. Lang and Joshua Rio-Ross
http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/6004
The developing “information age” is continually unraveling new ways of
discovering, presenting and sharing information. Most new academic material is
digitally formatted upon its creation and is thus easy to find and query.
However, there remains a good deal of material from times prior to the
“information age” that has yet to be converted to digital form. Much of this
material can be found in library collections—whether academic, public or
private—and thus remains available only to a limited number of locals or
willing-and-able sojourners. Using OCR technology, most typeset documents can
be digitized and made available online; and there are several projects underway
to do exactly this. However, there remains little to be done for handwritten
materials. Those who own collections of handwritten documents are increasingly
wanting to make the content thereof available to the general public.
Unfortunately, traditional transcription models typically prove to be expensive
or ineff!
icient and pdf snapshots are not searchable. We have developed a model for
digital transcription using Google Docs and Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Using
this model, one can use an online workforce to efficiently transcribe
handwritten texts and perform quality control at a cost much lower than
professional transcription services. To illustrate the model we used Amazon’s
Mechanical Turk to transcribe and then proofread the Frederick Douglass Diary
which we have made available on a public searchable wiki. The total cost of
transcription and proofreading for the 72 page diary was less than $25.00 with
some pages being transcribed and proofread for as little as $0.04. Our results
show that using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk holds great promise for providing an
affordable transcription method for hand-written historical documents making
them easily sharable and fully searchable.
Lessons in Public Touchscreen Development
by Andreas K. Orphanides
http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/5832
In October 2010, the NCSU Libraries debuted its first public touchscreen
information kiosk, designed to provide on-demand access to useful and commonly
consulted real-time displays of library information. This article presents a
description of the hardware and software development process, as well as the
rationale behind a variety of design and implementation decisions. This article
also provides an analysis of usage of the touchscreen since its debut,
including a numerical analysis of most popular content areas, and a
heatmap-based analysis of user interaction patterns with the kiosk's interface
components.
An Android/LAMP Mobile In/Out Board Based on Wi-Fi Fingerprinting
by Keith Kelley, Karlis Kaugars, Scott Garrison
http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/5859
Library technology and other professionals with diverse skills must be able to
locate each other during the workday, in order to most responsively serve their
clients. While staff often carry cellular phones, contact can be especially
challenging given the constant, highly mobile nature of library work,
especially on larger campuses with variable cellular phone service. Western
Michigan University (WMU) Libraries has developed an Android/LAMP application
that library staff may use on their increasingly prevalent Wi-Fi enabled mobile
devices to “check in” at various locations where they do work, so that their
colleagues may locate them as needed. The application takes advantage of WMU’s
widespread Wi-Fi network, a set of free platform and software development tools
and open standards, and methods from the computer science literature, and
overcomes GPS and telephony limitations. This article describes the
application, which is based on Wi-Fi fingerprinting, and suggests how ot!
her developers could use it and new methods from the computer science
literature as starting points to create their own applications.
Open Access Publishing with Drupal
by Nina McHale
http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/5913
In January 2009, the Colorado Association of Libraries (CAL) suspended
publication of its print quarterly journal, Colorado Libraries, as a
cost-saving measure in a time of fiscal uncertainty. Printing and mailing the
journal to its 1300 members cost CAL more than $26,000 per year. Publication of
the journal was placed on an indefinite hiatus until the editorial staff
proposed an online, open access format a year later. The benefits to migrating
to open access included: significantly lower costs; a green platform; instant
availability of content; a greater level of access to users with disabilities;
and a higher level of visibility of the journal and the association. The
editorial staff chose Drupal, including the E-journal module, and while Drupal
is notorious for its steep learning curve—which exacerbated delays to content
that had been created before the publishing hiatus—the fourth electronic issue
was published recently at coloradolibrariesjournal.org. This article will!
discuss both the benefits and challenges of transitioning to an open access
model and the choice Drupal as a platform over other more established journal
software options.
Tod Olson
Coordinating Editor, Issue 15
Code4Lib Journal
