[CODE4LIB] locator
We're considering to expand our service with a item locator. Mapping the library (http://mashedlibrary.com/wiki/index.php?title=Mapping_the_library) describes how to build this with Google maps. But is this really the way to go? Does anyone has any experience with this? Does anyone have some best practices for this kind of project knowing that we have about 20 buildings spread all over the town? Tom --- Tom Vanmechelen K.U.Leuven / LIBIS W. De Croylaan 54 bus 5592 BE-3001 Heverlee Tel +32 16 32 27 93
Re: [CODE4LIB] locator
One case study on this very topic was published in the recent Code4Lib Journal, it may be of use: http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/3072 From: Code for Libraries [code4...@listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Tom Vanmechelen [tom.vanmeche...@libis.kuleuven.be] Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2010 8:24 AM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: [CODE4LIB] locator We're considering to expand our service with a item locator. Mapping the library (http://mashedlibrary.com/wiki/index.php?title=Mapping_the_library) describes how to build this with Google maps. But is this really the way to go? Does anyone has any experience with this? Does anyone have some best practices for this kind of project knowing that we have about 20 buildings spread all over the town? Tom --- Tom Vanmechelen K.U.Leuven / LIBIS W. De Croylaan 54 bus 5592 BE-3001 Heverlee Tel +32 16 32 27 93
Re: [CODE4LIB] locator
Hi Tom, The mapping the library project started out (in my head) as simply using existing mapping tools to provide an interface to a map. The way the project went when we sat down and played for a day was slightly different, although still vaguely interesting :) The thinking behind using Google Maps (which would apply to other 'mapping' interfaces - e.g. OpenLayers) was simply you get a set of tools that are designed to help navigation round a physical space. You can dispense with the geographic representation and simply use your own floorplan images. Whether this is the way to go probably depends on your requirements - but you would get functions like the ability to drop markers etc. 'for free' as it were, and also a well documented approach as the GMaps etc APIs come with good documentation. However, more than once it has been suggested that this is a more complex approach than is required (I'm still not convinced by this - I think there are real strengths to this 'off the shelf' approach) Some other bits and pieces that may be of interest: My writeup of the day we worked on the Mapping the Library project http://www.meanboyfriend.com/overdue_ideas/2009/12/mashing-and-mapping/ A JISC funded project to look at producing 'item locator' service at the LSE http://findmylibrarybook.blogspot.com/ Owen Owen Stephens Owen Stephens Consulting Web: http://www.ostephens.com Email: o...@ostephens.com Telephone: 0121 288 6936 On 30 Jun 2010, at 13:24, Tom Vanmechelen wrote: We're considering to expand our service with a item locator. Mapping the library (http://mashedlibrary.com/wiki/index.php?title=Mapping_the_library) describes how to build this with Google maps. But is this really the way to go? Does anyone has any experience with this? Does anyone have some best practices for this kind of project knowing that we have about 20 buildings spread all over the town? Tom --- Tom Vanmechelen K.U.Leuven / LIBIS W. De Croylaan 54 bus 5592 BE-3001 Heverlee Tel +32 16 32 27 93
Re: [CODE4LIB] locator
Tom, Before spending too much time trying to integrate building floorplans with Google Maps, I would consider whether the maximum zoom level (currently 20, which is around 3 pixels per foot) will allow you to provide the detail needed for your floorplan. Although this might only be an issue if you want the floorplan to display as an overlay over the regular GMaps basemaps. Keith Keith Jenkins GIS/Geospatial Applications Librarian Mann Library, Cornell University Ithaca, New York 14853 On Wed, Jun 30, 2010 at 8:24 AM, Tom Vanmechelen tom.vanmeche...@libis.kuleuven.be wrote: We're considering to expand our service with a item locator. Mapping the library (http://mashedlibrary.com/wiki/index.php?title=Mapping_the_library) describes how to build this with Google maps. But is this really the way to go? Does anyone has any experience with this? Does anyone have some best practices for this kind of project knowing that we have about 20 buildings spread all over the town? Tom --- Tom Vanmechelen K.U.Leuven / LIBIS W. De Croylaan 54 bus 5592 BE-3001 Heverlee Tel +32 16 32 27 93
Re: [CODE4LIB] code4libb...@loc
Love the soundtrack, Eric. :-) Stephen Little University of Notre Dame LinkedIn profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenmalittle On Wed, Jun 30, 2010 at 9:34 AM, Eric Lease Morgan emor...@nd.edu wrote: Movie of code4libb...@loc temporarily at: http://infomotions.com/tmp/loc/ Thanks guys. I had fun. -- Eric Morgan
[CODE4LIB] Innovative's Synergy
Hi All - III is touting their web-services based Synergy product as having the efficiency of a pre-indexed service and the timeliness of a just-in-time service. Does anyone know if the agreements they have made with database vendors to use these web services preclude an organization developing an open-source client to take advantage of those web services? Just curious. I suppose I should direct my question to EBSCO and Proquest directly. Cindy Harper, Systems Librarian Colgate University Libraries char...@colgate.edu 315-228-7363
Re: [CODE4LIB] locator
I do suggest you look at your locations carefully before you dive in. For the reserved stock held in boxes the location is in the box, the box has its own location. Moving the box to a new shelf in another room becomes a simple single update to the boxes location. Some contain other items in the sleeve or pocket so a location is in an item and its ID. And people like to move shelves around but thats covered in the code4lib article. I am implementing barcodes so I can stock check and update the locations of books on a shelf or box etc, I put the barcode on the spines and on the loose contents of a book (as the loose contents were in a book the shelf check will assume they are still in the book) so its just a few seconds to check, this also sets any book that was supposed to be there to a missing state. Dave Caroline
Re: [CODE4LIB] Innovative's Synergy
Hi Cindy, Both the Ebsco and Proquest APIs are definitely available to customers. We're using the Ebsco one in our Xerxes application, for example. ( I'll send you a link off-list, Cindy.) --Dave == David Walker Library Web Services Manager California State University http://xerxes.calstate.edu From: Code for Libraries [code4...@listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Cindy Harper [char...@colgate.edu] Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2010 9:11 AM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: [CODE4LIB] Innovative's Synergy Hi All - III is touting their web-services based Synergy product as having the efficiency of a pre-indexed service and the timeliness of a just-in-time service. Does anyone know if the agreements they have made with database vendors to use these web services preclude an organization developing an open-source client to take advantage of those web services? Just curious. I suppose I should direct my question to EBSCO and Proquest directly. Cindy Harper, Systems Librarian Colgate University Libraries char...@colgate.edu 315-228-7363
[CODE4LIB] DIY aggregate index
You know, this leads into something I've been wondering about. You'll all have to pardon my ignorance, as I've never worked in a library with functioning management of e-resources. Do libraries opt for these commercial 'pre-indexed' services simply because they're a good value proposition compared to all the work of indexing multiple resources from multiple vendors into one local index, or is it that companies like iii and Ex Libris are the only ones with enough clout to negotiate access to otherwise-unavailable database vendors' content? Can I assume that if a database vendor has exposed their content to me as a subscriber, whether via z39.50 or a web service or whatever, that I'm free to cache and index all that metadata locally if I so choose? Is this something to be negotiated on a vendor-by-vendor basis, or is it an impossibility? Cory On 6/30/2010 12:37 PM, Walker, David wrote: Hi Cindy, Both the Ebsco and Proquest APIs are definitely available to customers. We're using the Ebsco one in our Xerxes application, for example. ( I'll send you a link off-list, Cindy.) --Dave == David Walker Library Web Services Manager California State University http://xerxes.calstate.edu From: Code for Libraries [code4...@listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Cindy Harper [char...@colgate.edu] Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2010 9:11 AM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: [CODE4LIB] Innovative's Synergy Hi All - III is touting their web-services based Synergy product as having the efficiency of a pre-indexed service and the timeliness of a just-in-time service. Does anyone know if the agreements they have made with database vendors to use these web services preclude an organization developing an open-source client to take advantage of those web services? Just curious. I suppose I should direct my question to EBSCO and Proquest directly. Cindy Harper, Systems Librarian Colgate University Libraries char...@colgate.edu 315-228-7363 --- [This E-mail scanned for viruses by Declude Virus] -- Cory Rockliff Technical Services Librarian Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture 18 West 86th Street New York, NY 10024 T: (212) 501-3037 rockl...@bgc.bard.edu --- [This E-mail scanned for viruses by Declude Virus]
Re: [CODE4LIB] DIY aggregate index
Cory Rockliff wrote: Do libraries opt for these commercial 'pre-indexed' services simply because they're a good value proposition compared to all the work of indexing multiple resources from multiple vendors into one local index, or is it that companies like iii and Ex Libris are the only ones with enough clout to negotiate access to otherwise-unavailable database vendors' content? A little bit of both, I think. A library probably _could_ negotiate access to that content... but it would be a heck of a lot of work. When the staff time to negotiations come in, it becomes a good value proposition, regardless of how much the licensing would cost you. And yeah, then the staff time to actually ingest and normalize and troubleshoot data-flows for all that stuff on the regular basis -- I've heard stories of libraries that tried to do that in the early 90s and it was nightmarish. So, actually, I guess i've arrived at convincing myself it's mostly good value proposition, in that a library probably can't afford to do that on their own, with or without licensing issues. But I'd really love to see you try anyway, maybe I'm wrong. :) Can I assume that if a database vendor has exposed their content to me as a subscriber, whether via z39.50 or a web service or whatever, that I'm free to cache and index all that metadata locally if I so choose? Is this something to be negotiated on a vendor-by-vendor basis, or is it an impossibility? I doubt you can assume that. I don't think it's an impossibility. Jonathan
Re: [CODE4LIB] DIY aggregate index
You might also need to factor in an extra server or three (in the cloud or otherwise) into that equation, given that we're talking 100s of millions of records that will need to be indexed. companies like iii and Ex Libris are the only ones with enough clout to negotiate access I don't think III is doing any kind of aggregated indexing, hence their decision to try and leverage APIs. I could be wrong. --Dave == David Walker Library Web Services Manager California State University http://xerxes.calstate.edu From: Code for Libraries [code4...@listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Jonathan Rochkind [rochk...@jhu.edu] Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2010 1:15 PM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] DIY aggregate index Cory Rockliff wrote: Do libraries opt for these commercial 'pre-indexed' services simply because they're a good value proposition compared to all the work of indexing multiple resources from multiple vendors into one local index, or is it that companies like iii and Ex Libris are the only ones with enough clout to negotiate access to otherwise-unavailable database vendors' content? A little bit of both, I think. A library probably _could_ negotiate access to that content... but it would be a heck of a lot of work. When the staff time to negotiations come in, it becomes a good value proposition, regardless of how much the licensing would cost you. And yeah, then the staff time to actually ingest and normalize and troubleshoot data-flows for all that stuff on the regular basis -- I've heard stories of libraries that tried to do that in the early 90s and it was nightmarish. So, actually, I guess i've arrived at convincing myself it's mostly good value proposition, in that a library probably can't afford to do that on their own, with or without licensing issues. But I'd really love to see you try anyway, maybe I'm wrong. :) Can I assume that if a database vendor has exposed their content to me as a subscriber, whether via z39.50 or a web service or whatever, that I'm free to cache and index all that metadata locally if I so choose? Is this something to be negotiated on a vendor-by-vendor basis, or is it an impossibility? I doubt you can assume that. I don't think it's an impossibility. Jonathan
Re: [CODE4LIB] DIY aggregate index
Well, this is the thing: we're a small, highly-specialized collection, so I'm not talking about indexing the whole range of content which a university like JHU or even a small liberal arts college would need to--it's really a matter of a few key databases in our field(s). Don't get me wrong, it's still a slightly crazy idea, but I'm dissatisfied enough with existing solutions that I'd like to try it. On 6/30/2010 4:15 PM, Jonathan Rochkind wrote: A little bit of both, I think. A library probably _could_ negotiate access to that content... but it would be a heck of a lot of work. When the staff time to negotiations come in, it becomes a good value proposition, regardless of how much the licensing would cost you. And yeah, then the staff time to actually ingest and normalize and troubleshoot data-flows for all that stuff on the regular basis -- I've heard stories of libraries that tried to do that in the early 90s and it was nightmarish. I wonder if they would, in fact, demand licensing fees. I mean, we're already paying a subscription, and they're already exposing their content as a target for federated search applications (which probably do some caching for performance)... So, actually, I guess i've arrived at convincing myself it's mostly good value proposition, in that a library probably can't afford to do that on their own, with or without licensing issues. -- Cory Rockliff Technical Services Librarian Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture 18 West 86th Street New York, NY 10024 T: (212) 501-3037 rockl...@bgc.bard.edu --- [This E-mail scanned for viruses by Declude Virus]
Re: [CODE4LIB] DIY aggregate index
We're looking at an infrastructure based on Marklogic running on Amazon EC2, so the scale of data to be indexed shouldn't actually be that big of an issue. Also, as I said to Jonathan, I only see myself indexing a handful of highly-relevant resources, so we're talking millions, rather than 100s of millions, of records. On 6/30/2010 4:22 PM, Walker, David wrote: You might also need to factor in an extra server or three (in the cloud or otherwise) into that equation, given that we're talking 100s of millions of records that will need to be indexed. companies like iii and Ex Libris are the only ones with enough clout to negotiate access I don't think III is doing any kind of aggregated indexing, hence their decision to try and leverage APIs. I could be wrong. --Dave == David Walker Library Web Services Manager California State University http://xerxes.calstate.edu From: Code for Libraries [code4...@listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Jonathan Rochkind [rochk...@jhu.edu] Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2010 1:15 PM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] DIY aggregate index Cory Rockliff wrote: Do libraries opt for these commercial 'pre-indexed' services simply because they're a good value proposition compared to all the work of indexing multiple resources from multiple vendors into one local index, or is it that companies like iii and Ex Libris are the only ones with enough clout to negotiate access to otherwise-unavailable database vendors' content? A little bit of both, I think. A library probably _could_ negotiate access to that content... but it would be a heck of a lot of work. When the staff time to negotiations come in, it becomes a good value proposition, regardless of how much the licensing would cost you. And yeah, then the staff time to actually ingest and normalize and troubleshoot data-flows for all that stuff on the regular basis -- I've heard stories of libraries that tried to do that in the early 90s and it was nightmarish. So, actually, I guess i've arrived at convincing myself it's mostly good value proposition, in that a library probably can't afford to do that on their own, with or without licensing issues. But I'd really love to see you try anyway, maybe I'm wrong. :) Can I assume that if a database vendor has exposed their content to me as a subscriber, whether via z39.50 or a web service or whatever, that I'm free to cache and index all that metadata locally if I so choose? Is this something to be negotiated on a vendor-by-vendor basis, or is it an impossibility? I doubt you can assume that. I don't think it's an impossibility. Jonathan --- [This E-mail scanned for viruses by Declude Virus] -- Cory Rockliff Technical Services Librarian Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture 18 West 86th Street New York, NY 10024 T: (212) 501-3037 rockl...@bgc.bard.edu --- [This E-mail scanned for viruses by Declude Virus]
Re: [CODE4LIB] DIY aggregate index
We are one of those institutions that did this -negotiated for lots of content YEARS ago (before the providers really knew what they or we were in for.) We have locally loaded records from the ISI databases, INSPEC, BIOSIS, and the Department of Energy (as well as from full-text publishers, but that is another story and system entirely.) Aside from the contracts, I can also attest to the major amount of work it has been. We have 95M bibliographic records, stored in 75TB of disk, and counting. Its all running on SOLR, with a local interface and the distributed aDORe repository on backend. ~ 2 FTE keep it running in production now. Over the 15 years we've been loading this, we've had to migrate it 3 times, and deal with all the dirty metadata, duplication, and other difficult issues around scale and lack of content provider interest in supporting the few of us who do this kind of stuff. We believe we have now achieved a standardized format (MPEG-21 DIDL and MARCXML with some other standards mixed in) and accessible through protocol-based services (OpenURL, REST, OAI-PMH), etc. so that we hope we won't have to mess with the data records again and can move on to other more interesting things. It is nice to have, very fast - very much beats federated search - and allows us (finally) to begin to build neat services (for licensed users only!) Data mining? Of course a goal, but talk about sticky areas of contract negotiation. And in the end, you never have everything someone needs when they want all content about something specific. And yes, local loading is expensive, for a lot of reasons. Ex Libris, Summon, etc. are now getting into the game from this angle. We will so feel their pain, but I hope technology and content provider engagement have improved to make it a bit easier for them! And it definitely adds a level of usability much improved over federated search. My .02, Miriam Blake Los Alamos National Laboratory Research Library On 6/30/10 3:20 PM, Rosalyn Metz rosalynm...@gmail.com wrote: i know that there are institutions that have negotiated contracts for just the content, sans interface. But those that I know of have TONS of money and are using a 3rd party interface that ingests the data for them. I'm not sure what the terms of that contract were or how they get the data, but it can be done. On Wed, Jun 30, 2010 at 5:07 PM, Cory Rockliff rockl...@bgc.bard.eduwrote: We're looking at an infrastructure based on Marklogic running on Amazon EC2, so the scale of data to be indexed shouldn't actually be that big of an issue. Also, as I said to Jonathan, I only see myself indexing a handful of highly-relevant resources, so we're talking millions, rather than 100s of millions, of records. On 6/30/2010 4:22 PM, Walker, David wrote: You might also need to factor in an extra server or three (in the cloud or otherwise) into that equation, given that we're talking 100s of millions of records that will need to be indexed. companies like iii and Ex Libris are the only ones with enough clout to negotiate access I don't think III is doing any kind of aggregated indexing, hence their decision to try and leverage APIs. I could be wrong. --Dave == David Walker Library Web Services Manager California State University http://xerxes.calstate.edu From: Code for Libraries [code4...@listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Jonathan Rochkind [rochk...@jhu.edu] Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2010 1:15 PM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] DIY aggregate index Cory Rockliff wrote: Do libraries opt for these commercial 'pre-indexed' services simply because they're a good value proposition compared to all the work of indexing multiple resources from multiple vendors into one local index, or is it that companies like iii and Ex Libris are the only ones with enough clout to negotiate access to otherwise-unavailable database vendors' content? A little bit of both, I think. A library probably _could_ negotiate access to that content... but it would be a heck of a lot of work. When the staff time to negotiations come in, it becomes a good value proposition, regardless of how much the licensing would cost you. And yeah, then the staff time to actually ingest and normalize and troubleshoot data-flows for all that stuff on the regular basis -- I've heard stories of libraries that tried to do that in the early 90s and it was nightmarish. So, actually, I guess i've arrived at convincing myself it's mostly good value proposition, in that a library probably can't afford to do that on their own, with or without licensing issues. But I'd really love to see you try anyway, maybe I'm wrong. :) Can I assume that if a database vendor has exposed their content to me as a subscriber, whether via z39.50 or a web service or whatever, that I'm free to cache and index all that
