This is a tiny bit of MyLibrary news.
Database-driven website
Rob Fox of here at Notre Dame has written a number of object oriented Perl modules which are essentially MyLibrary 3.0. These modules form the backbone of our current library website. Because of these modules we are able to do the database-driven website thing with relative ease. They allow us to import data from MARC records as well as create MyLibrary records by hand.
Facets/Terms
The use of the facet/term approach to "cataloging" has proven very useful. The system allows hosting institutions to create as many "facets" as they desire. We have created facets such as Subjects, Formats, and Reference Tools. Other facets could include Audiences, Time Periods, Geographic Regions, etc. "Terms" are examples of facets. So we have terms such as Mathematics, Art, Philosophy, Books, Journals, Microfiche, Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, and Indexes. When we "catalog" a resource it is assigned one more more facet/term combinations as well as Dublin Core elements.
Sample code
We are currently spending time writing sample code against the OOP as well as beefing up the documentation. Here are four links allowing you to manage facets and terms, do simple (SRU) searches, and edit records. The vast majority of the code behind the scripts implements user interface, but they can begin to give you a feel of what you can do with MyLibrary:
http://dewey.library.nd.edu/morgan/nsdl/cgi-bin/facets.cgi http://dewey.library.nd.edu/morgan/nsdl/cgi-bin/terms.cgi http://dewey.library.nd.edu/morgan/nsdl/cgi-bin/sru.cgi http://dewey.library.nd.edu/morgan/nsdl/cgi-bin/resources.cgi
We have also been spending time writing terminal-based applications that do the same things with much less user interface. All of this stuff is in the CVS repository.
Unexpected benefit
The older version of MyLibrary was pretty much a turnkey application. This had advantages and disadvantages. The OOP implementation allows for more flexibility (as well as more responsibility), and one of the unexpected benefits of the newer version of MyLibrary is the integration with other applications. For example, I have been able to write a relatively short application that harvests OAI repository data and imports it into a MyLibrary database. The data can then be indexed and searched. The OOP nature of MyLibrary also lends itself to better syndication of content to things like our campus portal or RSS feeds. Because of these sorts of things, I expect MyLibrary to support OAI as well as SRU as output protocols.
First day of Spring
We are working now on packaging up the distribution and enhancing the documentation. We hope to have version 3.0 ready by the first day of Spring, but you can still get the code as it currently exists. See:
http://dewey.library.nd.edu/mylibrary/cvs/
-- Eric Lease Morgan University Libraries of Notre Dame
(574) 631-8604
