Re: [CODE4LIB] Vote for Code4lib 2016 location

[Sean Hannan]

Speaking from my own experience, I have almost always used the breakouts
blocks to decompress and do anything else but conferencey stuff. Including
going back to my room to take a nap. By that point in the day, I¹m so
wiped out and overloaded with ideas that the last thing I want to do is
pull people together to talk about it more. Maybe it¹s an
introvert/extrovert thing, but I¹m not sure that adding more
breakouts/time for breakouts solves the problem.

In practice, I¹ve pretty much always used the dinners to accomplish what
breakouts seem to do for others.

-Sean

On 2/23/15, 2:22 PM, "Schwartz, Raymond"  wrote:

>I definitely feel it is time for a hybrid.  My thoughts:  How about an
>hour's worth of breakouts sessions each day?  One idea.
>
>-Original Message-
>From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of
>Frumkin, Jeremy A - (frumkinj)
>Sent: Monday, February 23, 2015 2:18 PM
>To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
>Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Vote for Code4lib 2016 location
>
>A couple of thoughts:
>
>1) It takes a lot of effort to put these proposals together. Let's not
>lose sight that both proposals are good proposals, and that's why we have
>a vote. I'm sure there are various opinions on both proposals.
>
>2) Separate from either proposal, I was struck this year by a greater
>diversity in topic areas for code4lib than I have observed in the past.
>There definitely felt like there was interest in tracks that were not as
>code-focused (such as culture / community, management, etc.). With the
>conference growing to the size it has, I personally feel it might be
>interesting to try a hybrid of single / multi-track, to allow those
>attending an opportunity to have the ability to have some additional
>focus on some theme areas. When we started code4lib, the size of the
>conference was such that a single track made a lot of sense; as the event
>has grown, both in size and maturity, I'd like to suggest that it may be
>worth exploring having both single track sessions and multi-track
>sessions to allow deeper dives by different segments of the attendees.
>
>Just my $.02
>
>-- jaf
>
>---
>Jeremy Frumkin
>Assistant Dean / Chief Technology Strategist University of Arizona
>Libraries
>
>+1 520.626.7296
>j...@arizona.edu
>
>"A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new." - Albert
>Einstein
>
>
>
>
>On 2/23/15, 12:09 PM, "Riley Childs"  wrote:
>
>>I agree, the appeal of code4lib is the single track.
>>
>>Sent from my Windows Phone
>>
>>--
>>Riley Childs
>>Senior
>>Charlotte United Christian Academy
>>Library Services Administrator
>>IT Services Administrator
>>(704) 537-0331x101
>>(704) 497-2086
>>rileychilds.net
>>@rowdychildren
>>I use Lync (select External Contact on any XMPP chat client)
>>
>>CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE:  This email and any files transmitted with it
>>are the property of Charlotte United Christian Academy.  This e-mail,
>>and any attachments thereto, is intended only for use by the
>>addressee(s) named herein and may contain confidential information that
>>is privileged and/or exempt from disclosure under applicable law.  If
>>you are not one of the named original recipients or have received this
>>e-mail in error, please permanently delete the original and any copy of
>>any e-mail and any printout thereof. Thank you for your compliance.
>>This email is also subject to copyright. No part of it nor any
>>attachments may be reproduced, adapted, forwarded or transmitted
>>without the written consent of the copyright ow...@cucawarriors.com
>>
>>
>>From: Collier, Aaron
>>Sent: ?2/?23/?2015 2:08 PM
>>To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
>>Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Vote for Code4lib 2016 location
>>
>>In conjunction with the "distributed location" pre-conferences AND
>>multi-track the proposal is not very appealing.
>>
>>-Original Message-
>>From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of
>>Fox, Bobbi
>>Sent: Monday, February 23, 2015 10:51 AM
>>To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
>>Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Vote for Code4lib 2016 location
>>
>>Is there wiggle room on the Philadelphia "multiple track" proposal, or
>>do those of us who would prefer single track only have the [not]choice
>>of voting for L.A.?
>>
>>Best regards,
>>Bobbi
>>
>>
>>> > On Feb 22, 2015, at 8:48 PM, Francis Kayiwa  wrote:
>>> >
>>> > Hey All,
>>> >
>>> > Just wanted to make everyone aware of the two fantastic proposals
>>> > to
>>> host Code4lib 2016 that have been submitted. The cities of of Los
>>> Angeles and Philadelphia have submitted proposals which are now
>>> available at the official Code4lib Website
>>> >
>>> > http://code4lib.org/content/code4lib-2016-conference-proposals
>>> >
>>> > Voting will open tomorrow (UTC so probably already open if you are
>>> reading th

Re: [CODE4LIB] state of the art in virtual shelf browse?

[Sean Hannan]

For those investigating a shelf browse (and for those that have
implemented one), I have a few questions:

Where is the feature demand originating? Staff? Faculty? Students? Grad
students? Undergrad students? (Not to exclude publics or special
libraries, but this seems to be an academic catalog feature, when it shows
up.)

What is the level of familiarity with library/library services/library
systems for those that request this feature?

Is implementing shelf browse an attempt to work around some other catalog
deficiency (e.g. weak subject cataloging)?

Does the corpus have the cataloging data to support such a feature? (A lot
of ebook packages do not have call numbers, for example.) What¹s the
percentage? Is that reasonable?

How do you plan on tracking use of the feature? What would you consider to
be a success rate? 20% of sessions? 5%? 1%?

At what point do you sunset the feature? Expand upon it?

How long will the feature take to implement? How many staff will be
involved? What is the ROI?

Will all of your users understand the visual implementation on the page?
How do you plan on testing it?

Does the shelf metaphor still hold for your users? How do you know?

-Sean

On 1/28/15, 8:30 AM, "Darylyne Provost"  wrote:

>We're interested in implementing a virtual browse feature as well, so I
>was
>glad to find this post.
>
>Since we have a shared catalog and the feature is currently under
>discussion by our partner institutions, we're also considering
>implementing
>it for our installation of Summon first. I've seen U of Huddersfield, but
>am wondering if there are additional examples?
>
>Thanks,
>
>Darylyne
>
>**
>Darylyne Provost
>Assistant Director for Systems, Web, & Emerging Technologies
>Colby College
>207.859.5117
>dprov...@colby.edu
>
>On Tue, Jan 27, 2015 at 3:48 PM, Gerritsma, Wouter
>
>wrote:
>
>> Beautiful to see that the meticulously recorded book height is put into
>> use.
>>
>> -Original Message-
>> From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of
>> Harper, Cynthia
>> Sent: dinsdag 27 januari 2015 21:27
>> To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
>> Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] state of the art in virtual shelf browse?
>>
>> What testimony to what a difference presentation can make!  So much
>>better
>> than basically the same functionality, but in a text list, as shown in
>>our
>> old III Webpac.
>>
>> -Original Message-
>> From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of
>> Cole Hudson
>> Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2015 9:57 AM
>> To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
>> Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] state of the art in virtual shelf browse?
>>
>> Hi Jenn,
>>
>> Just to add one example more to the mix, we've built a shelf browser
>>based
>> on Harvard's Stackview/Stacklife project--adding to it a z39.50
>>connector
>> and organizing results by call number. This search works across all of
>> holdings, regardless of the books' locations. (Click the link, then
>>under
>> the Books and Media box, click See on Shelf to look at our shelf
>>browser.)
>>
>> http://library.wayne.edu/quicksearch/#q=the%20hobbit
>>
>> Also, our code is on Github: https://github.com/WSULib/SVCatConnector
>>
>> Cole
>>

Re: [CODE4LIB] what good books did you read in 2014?

[Sean Hannan]

This thread reminded me that there exists a code4lib Goodreads group:
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/72219-code4lib

-Sean

On 12/10/14, 9:10 AM, "Foster, Meredith"  wrote:

>Interesting post and responses.
>
>Books:
>Started the year by finishing up the Dresden Files (Jim Butcher) series.
>Also picked up Skin Game the day it was released.
>
>A local used bookstore opened up, so I ended up picking up a lot of
>classic sci-fi and fantasy.  A small selection...
>Ursula K. Le Guin - Left Hand of Darkness, Lathe of Heaven
>Isaac Asimov - Prelude to Foundation
>Marion Zimmer Bradley - Mists of Avalon
>Anne McCaffrey - Doona series, No One Noticed the Cat
>William Gibson - continued reading the "Sprawl" trilogy.
>Neal Stephenson - Snow Crash
>Mercades Lackey - Arrows trilogy
>Neil Gaiman - Anansi Boys, American Gods, Good Omens (with Terry
>Pratchett).
>
>Also reread Daniel Suarez's Daemon and Freedom(tm).
>
>For non-fiction, I haven't read Redefining Realness yet.  Janet Mock
>spoke at the university where I work.
>
>Video Games:
>Continuing Guild Wars 2.  Picked up Guild Wars 1 to play through all the
>original lore and get the linked rewards.  Quantum Conundrum (by Kim
>Swift, original designer of Portal).  Picked up Never Alone and Alice:
>Madness Returns but haven't had a chance to play them yet.
>
>Board/Tabletop Games:
>Played the aforementioned Lords of Waterdeep, which was quite enjoyable.
>Finished a two year Pathfinder campaign.  Pathfinder Card Game, but I
>didn't enjoy it as much as I hoped.  I no longer go to the local game
>store's board game night, so I doubt I will do much with board games any
>more.

Re: [CODE4LIB] Library community web standards (was: LibGuides v2 - Templates and Nav)

[Sean Hannan]

I'm just going to jump in here and question the need for it to be ALA or LITA 
affiliated. Plenty of stuff has been accomplished and respected (like, oh, hey, 
code4lib) without an attachment of ALA or LITA.

Ad...discuss.

-Sean

From: Code for Libraries [CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] on behalf of Joshua Welker 
[wel...@ucmo.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2014 3:19 PM
To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Library community web standards (was: LibGuides v2 - 
Templates and Nav)

Bohyun,

That sounds like it could be a great fit.

There would be two final products for what I have in mind:

1. A wiki site (ideally attached to an ALA-affiliated domain name) where we
can collaborate and break all this down at the topic level. This is the
source that would be used by the boots-on-the-ground librarians who are
actually doing UX work and need practical information. It would be
continually updated. The content would be curated, and there would be a very
basic approval process for creating new editor accounts.

2. An annually-revised document (again, attached to an ALA-affiliated domain
name) that compiles everything from the wiki together in a format that can
easily be presented to other librarians and administrators. In my
experience, a bureaucratically approved document carries a lot more weight
in libraries than a website, at least in academic libraries.

Topics that would be addressed:

1. Accessibility
2. Layout patterns
3. Typography and readability
4. Best practices for specific library web platforms
5. Recommendations for how libraries should implement the guidelines at a
management level (non-technical)

Josh Welker


-Original Message-
From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Kim,
Bohyun
Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2014 1:42 PM
To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Library community web standards (was: LibGuides v2 -
Templates and Nav)

Jumping into this discussion late. Just wanted to let everyone know that
LITA UX IG would be more than happy to provide a venue for this type of
discussion since it would fit the interest of UX IG perfectly. (I am
chairing the IG this year; ping me if that sounds interesting and if there
is anything LITA UX IG can help.) LITA IGs are super flexible.

Cheers,
Bohyun


--
Bohyun Kim, MA, MSLIS
Associate Director for Library Applications and Knowledge Systems University
of Maryland, Baltimore Health Sciences and Human Services Library


-Original Message-
From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of
Megan O'Neill Kudzia
Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2014 1:24 PM
To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Library community web standards (was: LibGuides v2 -
Templates and Nav)

I've been following with interest, and I think some really important points
are coming out here.

John, what you said about Tomcat vs. Jetty really resonated with me - maybe
this is *yet another* place where we could split this thread, but I think
for those of us straddling the gap between web design and web development,
something like a reference guide for what the questions to ask even are,
would be extremely helpful.

As you said, the answer to many many questions is, "it depends," and
knowledge of those topics comes with experience. However, maybe (and I
volunteer to help with this project, inasmuch as I can) a sort of expansion
of the Guide for the Perplexed would be really useful for those of us who
are no longer total beginners, but are sort of struggling to level up?

That is, those of us with some experience of various projects could
contribute anything public-share-able from our post mortem project
conversations, relevant to each type of project? It's something I've been
thinking about for some time, and I'm still not sure what an optimal
structure would be, but I keep thinking it would be a really worthwhile
project.

I will also say that everything I've found on alistapart and libux has been
incredibly useful!

On Tue, Sep 30, 2014 at 11:05 AM, Joshua Welker  wrote:

> How many folks following this discussion are LITA members? Would
> anyone be willing to join LITA to be a part of an interest group on
> this subject? I will renew my membership in LITA if that is the best route
> to take.
>
> Josh Welker
>
>
> -Original Message-
> From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf
> Of Cindi Blyberg
> Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2014 9:46 AM
> To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
> Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Library community web standards (was:
> LibGuides v2
> -
> Templates and Nav)
>
> Oh, and if UX doesn't fit, y'all can establish the LITA Web Standards
> IG, or the LITA Code4Lib Web Best Practices IG, or whatever you want
> to call it.
> You need 10 LITA Member signatures:
>
>
> http://www.ala.org/lita/sites/ala.org.lita/files/content/about/manual/
> forms/e5-igformation.pdf
>
>
> http://www.ala.org/lita/about/igs
>
>

Re: [CODE4LIB] LibGuides v2 - Templates and Nav

[Sean Hannan]

On 9/16/14, 7:15 PM, "Michael Schofield"  wrote:

>
>Q4. No nav?
>Okay, nobody actually brought this up, but users don¹t tend to look at
>sidebars at all. Most libraries have a top menu in the header. If this is
>the case, consider dropping sidebars entirely and positioning your single
>column of content with equal margins. Why? Well, white-space. People like
>white-space. Too much stuff on the page--stuff, by the way, people won't
>look at anyway--increases cognitive load, which might just put your
>patrons in a grumpy mood when looking for simple content. Also consider
>that libraries--like every industry--will eventually have their mobile
>moment. For some of us it might be pretty far away, but eventually mobile
>traffic will eclipse traditional desktop traffic (charts!
>http://talks.ns4lib.com/patrons-on-performance/images/mobile-web-usage.png
> and 
>http://talks.ns4lib.com/patrons-on-performance/images/mobilemoment.png ).
>
>Removing sidebar content also forces your design committee / content
>creators to think harder about the quality of their content and be a
>little bit more choosy about screen real estate.
>
>If you're interested in trying the no-sidebar thing, you may consider
>customizing the template so that the "side nav" appears as good old
>fashioned links at the top of your content, like--well--a table of
>contents. This isn't the best example, but it's an idea:
>http://public.library.nova.edu/help/#content.

On this front, our analytics repeatedly show that users do not use the nav
within libguides. They do not browse around between pages within the
guides. Most of the entries to secondary pages come from Google searches
using keywords directly related to their information. Non-search entry
points are only the ŒHome¹ (first) page of the guide and those come from
librarians showing the guide in instruction sessions or from the list of
guides displayed on our homepage[1].

Now, this could be because the nav in LG1 is terrible, tabs with
overlapping drop-downs are a horrible idea, and the design lends itself
more towards users ignoring the nav section than engaging with it. YMMV.
>From other research we¹ve done, we know that our users are quick to
google, have pointed questions that demand pointed answers. They¹re not
much into exploring the breadth of information gathering techniques for
their discipline/topic (e.g. Someone looking for the registration
information for SciFinder isn¹t going to suddenly going to see the
ŒUndergraduate Labs¹ link and feel the need to check it out.).

[1] http://www.library.jhu.edu

-Sean

Re: [CODE4LIB] Hiring strategy for a library programmer with tight budget - thoughts?

[Sean Hannan]

Would it be possible to re-write this position as a project-based contract?

Such a position is more appealing for short-term (part-time) gig-type work
and telework types. Also, it helps you out in that if the telework thing
doesn¹t work for various reasons, you¹re done with it at the end of the
contract. You could always offer an opportunity to renew the contract for
a new projects if it does seem to work for the both of you.

-Sean

On 8/15/14, 12:44 PM, "Kim, Bohyun"  wrote:

>I am in a situation in which a university has a set salary guideline for
>programmer position classifications and if I want to hire an entry-lever
>dev, the salary is too low to be competitive and if I want to hire a more
>experienced dev in a higher classification, the competitive salary amount
>exceeds what my library cannot afford. So as a compromise I am thinking
>about going the route of posting a half-time position in a higher
>classification so that the salary would be at least competitive. It will
>get full-time benefits on a pro-rated basis. But I am wondering if this
>strategy would be viable or not.
>
>Also anyone has a experience in hiring a developer to telework completely
>from another state when you do not have previous experience working with
>her/him? This seems a bit risky strategy to me but I am wondering if it
>may attract more candidates particularly when the position is half time.
>
>As a current/past/future library programmer or hiring manager in IT or
>both, if you have any thoughts, experience, or ideas, I would really
>appreciate it.
>
>Thanks,
>Bohyun

Re: [CODE4LIB] Community anti-harassment policy

[Sean Hannan]

Pull requests welcome.

From: Code for Libraries [CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] on behalf of Andreas 
Orphanides [akorp...@ncsu.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2014 9:33 PM
To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Community anti-harassment policy

In particular, we'd need to think about how to shape the sanctions section,
including things like:

   - What's an appropriate sanction in non-conference setting X?
   - Who is empowered to enact sanctions?
   - If a participant feels they have been harassed, who do they contact
   and how?
   - possibly other stuff?

I think the conflict resolution part is in better shape, though it would
need a little cleanup for more universal (i.e., not conference-specific)
language.


On Wed, Jul 2, 2014 at 9:19 PM, Andreas Orphanides 
wrote:

> My cursory web search came up with the one that was developed for the most
> recent conference, but it's not clear to me what the breadth of the
> document is supposed to include. I think it was applied to the IRC channel
> during the conference, but if it was written specifically as a conference
> policy, it's probably worth revisiting to ensure that it covers everything
> needed community-wide outside of conference time as well.
>
>
> On Wed, Jul 2, 2014 at 8:54 PM, Coral Sheldon-Hess  > wrote:
>
>> I was under the impression that we had a code of conduct/anti-harassment
>> policy in place for IRC and the mailing lists. Was this an incorrect
>> impression?
>>
>> I am definitely in favor of adopting one, if there isn't one in place!
>>
>> Logistically, Geek Feminism is also not a formal organization--they were
>> recently described as an anarchist collective--so I think we could follow
>> their lead pretty easily. We could make a mail alias that goes to a
>> ROTATING team/committee (this is very important; people burn out, dealing
>> with these things for too long), for reporting purposes. IRC aliases are a
>> thing, too, right?
>>
>> -coral
>>
>
>

Re: [CODE4LIB] Any good "introduction to SPARQL" workshops out there?

[Sean Hannan]

That source seems, shall we say, less than legitimate.

-Sean

From: Code for Libraries [CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] on behalf of Daron Dierkes 
[daron.dier...@gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, May 02, 2014 2:23 PM
To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Any good "introduction to SPARQL" workshops out there?

For those with a lot of time on their hands, there's a site out there with
loads of free ebooks on such things including the SPARQL text mentioned
above.  Here: http://it-ebooks-search.info/search?q=sparkql




On Fri, May 2, 2014 at 10:39 AM, Hutt, Arwen  wrote:

> Thanks to both Owen and Deb!
> These are some great resources I'm going to explore them more.  I really
> appreciate the help!
> Arwen
>
> -Original Message-
> From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of
> Debra Shapiro
> Sent: Thursday, May 01, 2014 9:33 AM
> To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
> Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Any good "introduction to SPARQL" workshops out
> there?
>
> I organized a SPARQL webinar that LITA put on in February. The instructor
> was Bob DuCharme, who also wrote an O'Reilly book -
> http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/752976161
>
> You may be able to view it at the link below; I expect DuCharme would be
> willing to contract with UCSD to tailor something for you -
>
> HTH,
> deb
>
> > Thank you for participating in today's LITA webinar "SKOS, SPARQL, and
> vocabulary management" part three of a three part series of webinars on
> Linked Data.
> >
> > You may access the recording of today's session here:
> > http://ala.adobeconnect.com/p1n8obr32vd/
>
> On May 1, 2014, at 11:23 AM, "Hutt, Arwen"  wrote:
>
> > We're interested in an introduction to SPARQL workshop for a smallish
> group of staff.  Specifically an introduction for fairly tech comfortable
> non-programmers (in our case metadata librarians), as well as a refresher
> for programmers who aren't using it regularly.
> >
> > Ideally (depending on cost) we'd like to bring the workshop to our
> staff, since it'll allow more people to attend, but any recommendations for
> good introductory workshops or tutorials would be welcome!
> >
> > Thanks!
> > Arwen
> >
> > 
> > Arwen Hutt
> > Head, Digital Object Metadata Management Unit Metadata Services,
> > Geisel Library University of California, San Diego
> > 
>
> dsshap...@wisc.edu
> Debra Shapiro
> UW-Madison SLIS
> Helen C. White Hall, Rm. 4282
> 600 N. Park St.
> Madison WI 53706
> 608 262 9195
> mobile 608 712 6368
> FAX 608 263 4849
>

Re: [CODE4LIB] Transcription services

[Sean Hannan]

We¹ve had good experience with just using our student employees. They get
quite fast at it and become content experts at the same time, which comes
in really handy if the content is user research and the like.

-Sean

On 4/25/14, 9:24 AM, "Rachel Shaevel"  wrote:

>Piggybacking on the topic...what about transcription services for .wav
>files?  Same companies/services as video or different?  We have a
>collection of about 40 interviews and I think it would be a bonus to
>include transcripts when we upload them to our web site.
>
>Rachel Shaevel
>Electronic Resources Cataloger
>Technical Services/Catalog Department
>Chicago Public Library
>Harold Washington Library Center
>400 S. State St.
>Chicago, IL 60605
>P: (312) 747-4660
>rshae...@chipublib.org
>
>
>-Original Message-
>From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of
>Amy Vecchione
>Sent: Thursday, April 24, 2014 6:58 PM
>To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
>Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Transcription services
>
>I highly recommend 3playmedia.
>
>For short in house self made videos we use YouTube and then clean it up.
>
>Amy
>
>> On Apr 24, 2014, at 5:25 PM, Ahniwa Ferrari  wrote:
>> 
>> We have hired services in the past but I always felt they were
>> overpriced and the quality wasn't great. We started doing our own for
>> certain projects (you can add your own transcriptions in YouTube,
>> which is handy, and then it will automatically provide translated
>> versions for you). I always wanted to try putting them up on Amazon
>> Turk and seeing if we could get some good transcriptions on the cheap.
>> 
>> 
>> On Thu, Apr 24, 2014 at 3:01 PM, Wilhelmina Randtke
>>wrote:
>> 
>>> Has anyone used a transcription service to do captioning for a video,
>>> or anything similar?
>>> 
>>> There are many transcription services that charge a per minute fee.
>>> I'd like to get a recommendation on one that worked well for someone.
>>> 
>>> -Wilhelmina Randtke
>>> 

Re: [CODE4LIB] distributed responsibility for web content

[Sean Hannan]

What¹s worked for us is education. I¹ve moaned about trying to implement
publishing workflows and other automation-type solutions, but there are
always edge cases (³This needs to go up RIGHT NOW!²) that break such
things or turn it into such a bottleneck that everyone starts looking for
ways around it.

We gave our content folks 3 heuristics to gauge their work:

1. The Magic Number Seven
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magical_Number_Seven,_Plus_or_Minus_Two)
2. Optimize for F-shaped content scanning
(http://www.nngroup.com/articles/f-shaped-pattern-reading-web-content/)
3. Understand above/below the fold

You may notice that these heuristics have a lot to do with content
prioritization and layout. That¹s not an accident. It turns out, when you
get content creators to think about re-arranging their content, they are
less inclined to do things like litter the page with bold and colors and
exclamation marks, because they have better ways of drawing the users¹
attention to the content (generally, by sticking it up top).  It also gets
them to think about content as a whole. Are you miffed that no one is
seeing your very important blinking rainbow text near the end of the page?
Maybe it would be better suited on its own page with similar content that
is of a more digestible length. That sort of thing.

-Sean

---
Sean Hannan
Senior Web Developer
Sheridan Libraries
Johns Hopkins University

On 4/17/14, 7:42 PM, "Simon LeFranc"  wrote:

>My organization has recently adopted an enterprise Content Management
>System. For the first time, staff across 8 divisions became web authors,
>given responsibility for their division's web pages. Training on the
>software, which has a WYSIWYG interface for editing, is available and
>with practice, all are capable of mastering the basic tools. Some simple
>style decisions were made for them, however, it is extremely difficult to
>get these folks not to elaborate on or improvise new styles.  Examples:
>
>making text red or another color in the belief that color will draw
>readers' attentionmaking text bold and/or italic and/or the size of a
>war-is-declared headline (see 1);using images that are too small to
>be effectiveadding a few more images that are too small to be
>effectiveattempting to emphasize statements using ! or !! or !
>writing in a too-informal tone ("Come on in outta the rain!") [We are a
>research organization and museum.]feeling compelled to ornament pages
>with clipart, curlicues, et al.centering everything
>There is no one person in the organization with the time or authority to
>act as editorial overseer. What are some techniques for ensuring that the
>site maintains a clean, professional appearance?
>
>Simon
>
> 

Re: [CODE4LIB] Usability resources

[Sean Hannan]

OptimalWorkshop.com

-Sean

From: Code for Libraries [CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] on behalf of Coral 
Sheldon-Hess [co...@sheldon-hess.org]
Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2014 9:48 AM
To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: [CODE4LIB] Usability resources

Here is one Sumana mentioned:
UserTesting.com

What else is out there?

- Coral


--
--
Coral Sheldon-Hess
http://sheldon-hess.org/coral
@web_kunoichi

Re: [CODE4LIB] A ticketing system for internal troubleshooting purpose

[Sean Hannan]

Reporting staff are somewhat indifferent. It’s a bit of a hassle and the
native interface makes no sense for help desk ticketing (it’s very clear
that it’s for development). Staff that respond to issues are trained on it
and it works for them, but it’s still not ideal.

I would not recommend JIRA as a help desk solution. There are
better/cheaper options out there. As a bugtracking/development system?
Maybe. And for the love of all that is holy, if you go with JIRA for any
reason, do not run it locally.

-Sean

On 3/24/14, 2:32 PM, "McHale, Nina"  wrote:

>Just curious, those of you using JIRA: my experience with it is limited
>and outside of libraries (working in a web development firm) and it
>struck me as something that would be overly complicated for a simple
>ticketing system for non-IT staff reporting issues.
>
>Do staff...like it? :)
>
>Best,
>
>Nina
>
>Nina McHale | Digital Experience Consultant | Colorado State Library -
>Colorado Department of Education | 201 E. Colfax Ave., Denver, CO 80203 |
>tel 303.866.6906 | www.cde.state.co.us/cdelib
>
>
>
>
>-Original Message-
>From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of
>Lisa Gayhart
>Sent: Monday, March 24, 2014 12:24 PM
>To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
>Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] A ticketing system for internal troubleshooting
>purpose
>
>Here at UofT library IT, we also use the JIRA/Confluence bundle. Started
>last year and so far it has worked out quite well for us. Since it¹s
>web-based, we can easily access our information anywhere, which is great
>when it comes to the content we store in Confluence. The package is quite
>flexible and I¹m finding that the more we use it, the more we learn. I
>would recommend both tools.
>
>Lisa Gayhart | Digital Communications Services Librarian| University of
>Toronto Libraries | Information Technology Services |
>lisa.gayh...@utoronto.ca| 416-946-0959
>
>
>
>>
>>On Mon, Mar 24, 2014 at 11:43 AM, Jenny Jing 
>>wrote:
>>
>>> Hi, All:
>>>
>>> We are in the process of replacing our internal ticketing system. We
>>>need  it to be web-based, and staff can attach screenshots when they
>>>report an  issue, and we can run reports to get the usage statistics.
>>>
>>> We also want to use it as a reference question knowledge base in the
>>> future if the system is flexible for us to customize.
>>> For example, users can send us questions and we can keep track of
>>> what kind of questions we get, who is working on it, etc.
>>>
>>> It could be an open source or commercial tool.
>>>
>>> Does anyone know of something which is good to use?
>>>
>>> Thanks.
>>>
>>> Jenny
>>>
>>> Jenny Jing
>>> Information Systems Librarian
>>> Discovery Systems
>>> Queen's University Library
>>> Kingston ON, K7L 5C4
>>> jenny.j...@queensu.ca
>>> 613-533-6000 x 75302
>>>

Re: [CODE4LIB] Screencasting Usability Studies

[Sean Hannan]

I¹ve used Silverback & Camtasia. Silverback is pretty dead simple and nice
and cheap. Camtasia needs a bit more configuration, but it works just as
well.

The one issue that I did not expect to run into using Silverback is how
many users (students, especially, oddly enough) were unfamiliar with using
a Mac. It made usability testing a bit tricky, since they were
apprehensive about even using the trackpad. ³How do I go back?² ³You press
the back button, just as you would in Firefox on a PC.² That kind of
thing. I definitely didn¹t expect that.

-Sean

‹
Sean Hannan
Senior Web Developer
Sheridan Libraries
Johns Hopkins University

On 2/27/14, 1:06 PM, "Mary E. Hanlin"  wrote:

>Hi All,
>
>Sorry if this has been discussed before. (I'm new to the list.)  But, has
>anyone conducted usability studies using screencast software?  If so,
>what software works well? (Morae is too pricey; I'm thinking along the
>lines of Camtasia, Silverback, etc.)
>
>Also, do you have any anecdotal advice regarding what worked and what
>didn't?  Thanks in advance.
>
>Mary Hanlin
>Electronic Resources and Web Librarian
>Reynolds Community College
>Richmond, VA
>Phone:804.523.5323
>Email: mhan...@reynolds.edu<mailto:mhan...@reynolds.edu>

Re: [CODE4LIB] Publishing an RSS feed on a Confluence page

[Sean Hannan]

You need the Confluence HTML Macros plugin installed.

-Sean

(Who hates Confluence with the passion of a thousand suns.)

On 2/21/14, 11:12 AM, "Kimberly Silk" 
wrote:

>Thanks, Christina and Dre --- I've tried these macros, to no avail. I'm
>wondering if it's blocked in the hosted version. Grr.
>
>
>
>-Original Message-
>From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of
>Pikas, Christina K.
>Sent: February-21-14 11:02 AM
>To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
>Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Publishing an RSS feed on a Confluence page
>
>Oh Oh One I know how to answer!
>In our version, if you go to edit in Wiki Markup you'll see a link to a
>scroll type icon - that opens up a list of macros and you can pick it off
>there. Otherwise you can use {rss:url=test}
>
>Maybe you have a different version of Confluence? We host our own so is
>it blocked for hosted?
>
>Christina
>
>--
>Christina K. Pikas
>Librarian
>The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
>Baltimore: 443.778.4812
>D.C.: 240.228.4812
>christina.pi...@jhuapl.edu
>
>
>
>-Original Message-
>From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of
>Kimberly Silk
>Sent: Friday, February 21, 2014 10:42 AM
>To: CODE4LIB@listserv.nd.edu
>Subject: [CODE4LIB] Publishing an RSS feed on a Confluence page
>
>Hi Everyone,
>
>I'm stumped on this one, and hoping you brilliant folk can help out.
>
>I am using a hosted Confluence wiki as a knowledge base for my research
>team. I want to be able to embed RSS feeds from various journals into the
>confluence page, so that the current tables of contents are listed on the
>wiki page. I've looked for an RSS widget for Confluence, but no luck.
>
>It seems to me that this should be doable - any hints??
>
>Thanks!
>Kim
>
>PS: GO TEAM CANADA #PlayLikeAGirl
>
>-
>Kimberly Silk, MLS
>Data Librarian, Martin Prosperity Institute Rotman School of Management
>at the University of Toronto
>105 St. George Street, Suite 9000
>Toronto, ON M5S 3E6
>
>Past President, SLA Toronto Chapter (2013)
>
>Office: 416-946-7032
>Mobile: 416-721-8955
>kimberly.s...@rotman.utoronto.ca
>@kimberlysilk
>
>www.martinprosperity.org
>Twitter: @MartinProsperit

Re: [CODE4LIB] Lorem Ipsum metadata? Is there such a thing?

[Sean Hannan]

In ruby, there's the ffaker gem (https://github.com/EmmanuelOga/ffaker), which 
itself is a port of Perl's Data::Faker. 

-Sean

From: Code for Libraries [CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] on behalf of Pottinger, 
Hardy J. [pottinge...@missouri.edu]
Sent: Saturday, December 07, 2013 11:51 PM
To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: [CODE4LIB] Lorem Ipsum metadata? Is there such a thing?

Hi, I asked this on Google Plus earlier today, but I figured I'd better
take this question here: my brain is trying to tell me that there's a
service or app that makes "fake" metadata, kind of like "Lorem Ipsum" but
you feed it your fields and it gives you nonsense metadata back. But, it
looks right enough for testing. Yesterday, I had to make up about 50 rows
of fake metadata to test some code that handles paging in a UI, and I had
to make it all up by hand. This hurts my soul. Someone please tell me such
a service exists, and link me to it, so I never have to do this again. Or
else, I may just make such a service, to save us all. But I don't want to
go coding some new service if it already exists, because that sort of
thing is for chumps.


--
HARDY POTTINGER 
University of Missouri Library Systems
http://lso.umsystem.edu/~pottingerhj/
https://MOspace.umsystem.edu/
"Making things that are beautiful is real fun." --Lou Reed

Re: [CODE4LIB] calibr: a simple opening hours calendar

[Sean Hannan]

I¹d argue that library hours are nothing but edge cases.

Staying open past midnight is actually a common one. But how do you deal
with multiple library locations? Multiple service points at multiple
library locations? Service points that are Œby appointment only¹ during
certain days/weeks/months of the year? Physical service points that are
under renovation (and therefore closed) but their service is being carried
out from another location?

When you have these edge cases sorted out, how do you display it to users
in a way that makes any kind of sense? How do you get beyond shoehorning
this massive amount of data into outmoded visual paradigms into something
that is easily scanned and processed by users? How do you make this data
visualization work on tablets and phones?

The data side of calendaring is one thing (and for as standard and
developed as the are, iCal and Google Calendar¹s data formats don¹t get it
100% correct as far as I¹m concerned). Designing the interaction is wholly
another.

It took me a good two or three weeks to design the interaction for our new
hours page (http://www.library.jhu.edu/hours.html) over the summer. There
were lots of iterations, lots of feedback, lots of user testing. ³User
testing? Just for an hours page?² Yes. It¹s one of our most highly sought
pieces of information on our website (and yours too, probably). Getting it
right pays off dividends.

I don¹t know if you¹d find it useful (our use cases are not necessarily
your use cases), but I ended up writing up the whole process as a blog
post 
(http://blogs.library.jhu.edu/wordpress/2013/07/anatomy-of-an-hours-page/).

-Sean

‹ 
Sean Hannan
Senior Web Developer
Sheridan Libraries
Johns Hopkins University

On 11/26/13, 6:41 PM, "Barnes, Hugh"  wrote:

>Great edge case, thanks for sharing that one!
>
>I think currently that could only be _encoded_ as a separate opening in
>the CSV file for loading into the database, which won't work because of
>my assumption. There simply isn't a way to express it. The relevant
>fields for the load file are startdate, enddate, opentime, and closetime,
>the last two being formatted as only "hh:mm", so it's assumed they relate
>to each single day in the range.
>
>However, I edited a "closes" field value directly in the test database,
>and to my surprise it rendered sensibly. I would have thought it would be
>rejected by a validity test I have which checks that the day portion of
>the start and closing datestamps are the same [1].
>
>I can't justify spending time on this in the near future, since it's a
>use case we are unlikely to need here. However, I'll log an issue, or you
>may. Thanks again.
>
>Cheers
>Hugh
>
>[1] https://github.com/LincolnUniLTL/calibr/blob/master/lib/app.php#L113
>
>-Original Message-
>From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of
>Bohyun Kim
>Sent: Wednesday, 27 November 2013 11:28 a.m.
>To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
>Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] calibr: a simple opening hours calendar
>
>Hugh,
>
>Thanks for sharing. A quick question. If a library opens past midnight,
>does that count more than one opening a day or no?
>
>~Bohyun
>
>
>On Nov 26, 2013, at 5:04 PM, "Barnes, Hugh" 
>wrote:
>
>> Hi folks
>> 
>> I took a calendar script posted to this list by Andrew Darby some time
>>ago and made some changes. I don't think there is any of Andrew's code
>>left, so I've rebranded it with an acknowledgement. (If I had my time
>>again, I might have coded it from scratch rather than built it over
>>Andrew's script, but that's somewhat academic.)
>> 
>> The whole scoop is in the readme on Github:
>>http://github.com/LincolnUniLTL/calibr
>> 
>> TLDR: With PHP, MySQL, some fiddling and data entry, you can publish a
>>library opening hours calendar on your website in more than one language
>>if you wish. It's a little quicker to enter common period patterns than
>>it used to be in Google Calendar. The output is more accessible,
>>customisable, multilingual, semantic, and hopefully more extensible
>>(iCal etc) than previously.
>> 
>> Here's a branded reference implementation:
>>http://library2.lincoln.ac.nz/hours - it won't necessarily reflect the
>>latest version.
>> 
>> Use it, improve it, feed back, or log issues right there on Github if
>>that works for you.
>> 
>> Many thanks to Andrew for providing the foundation!
>> 
>> Cheers
>> 
>> Hugh Barnes
>> Digital Access Coordinator
>> Library, Teaching and Learning
>> Lincoln University
>> Christchurch
>> New Zealand
>> p +64 3 423 0357
>> 
>

Re: [CODE4LIB] Code4Lib Conference Registration

[Sean Hannan]

Did someone say colors?

http://dysinterested.com/rainbows.html

-Sean

From: Code for Libraries [CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] on behalf of Doran, Michael 
D [do...@uta.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2013 4:55 PM
To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Code4Lib Conference Registration

> I wish the website was a little more ... put together



What!  Then they would make us surrender our colors.



[cid:image003.jpg@01CEE608.F2CCD4C0]



-- Michael



> -Original Message-

> From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of John

> Blair

> Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2013 2:52 PM

> To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU

> Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Code4Lib Conference Registration

>

> Thanks.

>

> As much as I love arguments about https and comparing notes on various pet-

> projects, I wish the website was a little more ... put together. This list has

> added about 30-40+ mails per day to my inbox, and I'm only really looking

> for one bit of information.

>

> I might have written "Hotel reservations will be able to be made after you

> register (sometime early-mid Janueary 2014)

> using the information provided in your registration confirmation."

>

> I'm hard to please. ;)

>

> -JLB

>

>

> On Nov 20, 2013, at 1:53 PM, Cynthia Ng 
> mailto:cynthia.s...@gmail.com>> wrote:

>

> > Registration hasn't opened yet. My guess is sometime in January which is

> > when the program will be set. If you're subscribed to the list, it'll be

> > hard to miss!

> >

> >

> > On Wed, Nov 20, 2013 at 9:45 AM, John Blair 
> > mailto:john.bl...@usm.edu>> wrote:

> >

> >> Per the website (bolding mine):

> >>

> >> "Finally, the hotel has the capacity to host all of the attendees, and

> >> we've negotiated a rate of $159/night that includes wireless access in

> the

> >> hotel rooms. Hotel reservations will be able to be made after you

> register

> >> using the information provided in your registration confirmation. We will

> >> be publishing more details as they become available."

> >>

> >> Where? When? How? Or does registration fall under "...more details...?"

> >>

> >>

> >> -John Blair

> >>

Re: [CODE4LIB] MARC field lengths

[Sean Hannan]

That sounds like a request for Roy to fire up the ole OCLC Hadoop.

-Sean



On 10/16/13 1:06 PM, "Karen Coyle"  wrote:

>Anybody have data for the average length of specific MARC fields in some
>reasonably representative database? I mainly need 100, 245, 6xx.
>
>Thanks,
>kc
>
>-- 
>Karen Coyle
>kco...@kcoyle.net http://kcoyle.net
>m: 1-510-435-8234
>skype: kcoylenet

Re: [CODE4LIB] edUi Discount

[Sean Hannan]

Hey, that's me! Come see me talk!

It's a good conference. I've gone the last two years. Cheapest
design-thinking conference you'll ever see.

-Sean

On 10/14/13 8:24 AM, "EdUI Conference"  wrote:

>This is how you do digital collections in
>2013n-2013/>

Re: [CODE4LIB] pdf2txt

[Sean Hannan]

Very cool.

But, why only for a limited period of time?

-Sean

On 10/11/13 11:16 AM, "Eric Lease Morgan"  wrote:

>
>For a limited period of time I am making publicly available a Web-based
>program called PDF2TXT -- http://bit.ly/1bJRyh8
>
>PDF2TXT extracts the text from an OCRed PDF document and then does some
>rudimentary "distant reading" against the text in the form of word
>clouds, readability scores, concordance features, and "maps" (histograms)
>illustrating where terms appear in a text.
>
>Here is the idea behind the application:
>
>  1. In the Libraries I see people scanning, scanning, and
> scanning. I suppose these people then go home and read the
> document. They might even print it. These documents are long.
> Moreover, I'll bet they have multiple documents.
>
>  2. Text mining requires digitized text, but PDF documents are
> frequently full of formatting. At the same time, they often
> have the text underneath. Our scanning software does OCR.
>
>  3. By extracting the text from PDF documents, I can facilitate
> a different -- additional -- type of analysis against sets of
> one or more documents. PDF2TXT is the first step in this
> process.
>
>What is really cool is that PDF2TXT works for many of the articles
>downloadable from the Libraries's article indexes. Search an article
>index. Download a full text, PDF version of the article. Feed it to
>PDF2TXT. Get more out of your article.
>
>PDF2TXT currently has "creeping featuritis" -- meaning that it is growing
>in weird directions. Your feedback is more than welcome. (I know. The
>output is ugly.) Also, please be gentle with it because it does not
>process things the size of the Bible.
>
>--
>[cid:116F6092-2AB6-4E95-8199-25639542726A]
>
>Eric Lease Morgan
>Digital Initiatives Librarian
>
>University of Notre Dame
>Room 131, Hesburgh Libraries
>Notre Dame, IN 46556
>o: 574-631-8604
>e: emor...@nd.edu
>
>[cid:8DBE3E66-AAD0-40A0-A626-745EEEA175E5]
>

Re: [CODE4LIB] Separate library CMS systems vs Campus-wide CMS systems (was [CODE4LIB] LibGuides: I don't get it)

[Sean Hannan]

Not really that I can see. Since I maintain the API, I maintain the API
responses and I only return what is necessary for display and interaction.

For example, our Service & Location Hours
(http://www.library.jhu.edu/hours.html) are all managed in separate Google
Calendar calendars. The GCal API response for a week's worth of opening and
closing times is around 9k (per calendar). With 10 services/locations, that
would be 100k in JSON alone being sent every time the hours page loads. So,
the Gcal API response is processed on the server side so that I only send
about 600 bytes to the user (per calendar). My API also sits behind varnish
so the responses are cached and served up super quick. I <3 varnish.

We're not currently in the central CMS. It's just a locally hosted Apache
site. But, we have a branch campus (https://www.sais-jhu.edu/library) that
is hosted within their centralized (and rather locked-down) Drupal install
that makes use of some of the same API components (the list of libguides and
databases).

And really, your data backend could be anything. It could be a "dark"
Wordpress install from which you grab ATOM feeds from for content. We use a
mixture of Google Calendar, Google Docs, LibGuides, Wordpress, Twitter, and
locally-generated XML.

-Sean


On 8/14/13 10:37 AM, "Josh Welker"  wrote:

> That's an interesting idea. Do you run into performance issues with the
> abundance of DOM updates with the javascript? Also, how much control do you
> have over the content of library pages on the CMS?
> 
> Josh Welker
> 
> On Aug 14, 2013, at 8:35 AM, Sean Hannan  wrote:
> 
>> You could do something like what I did and run your own data backend and use
>> whatever you need to/have to to display content.
>> 
>> Our website is just static HTML, CSS, and Javascript. Everything
>> dynamic/data-powered is javascript that is pulling from a centralized API
>> (written using grape: http://intridea.github.io/grape/). We can move the
>> website to some cloud provider, into a central IT-managed system, or
>> elsewhere and it won't break.
>> 
>> I originally presented the concept at code4lib 2011 (slides:
>> http://www.slideshare.net/MrDys/lets-get-small-a-microservices-approach-to-l
>> ibrary-websites), but it's in production now.
>> 
>> -Sean
>> 
>> On 8/14/13 9:21 AM, "Joshua Welker"  wrote:
>> 
>>> Does anyone have any suggestions as to where the library should or should
>>> not compromise when it comes to using an institutional CMS rather than a
>>> custom library one? We are going through this process right now. Our web
>>> pages are currently all in static HTML and LibGuides. I am wanting to move
>>> to Drupal, and campus IT wants us to move to their Adobe Contribute
>>> platform. AFAIK, Contribute does not allow for any server-side scripting
>>> and does not have any sort of plugin system, and I am very concerned that
>>> Contribute would harm the library's ability to effectively integrate its
>>> online resources into a single web portal (server-side caching, indexes,
>>> scheduled tasks, etc).
>>> 
>>> I know the answer to this question is "it depends," but I am hoping others
>>> can share the fruits of their experience.
>>> 
>>> Thoughts?
>>> 
>>> Josh Welker
>>> Information Technology Librarian
>>> James C. Kirkpatrick Library
>>> University of Central Missouri
>>> Warrensburg, MO 64093
>>> JCKL 2260
>>> 660.543.8022
>>> 
>>> 
>>> -Original Message-
>>> From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of
>>> Jimmy Ghaphery
>>> Sent: Tuesday, August 13, 2013 5:49 PM
>>> To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
>>> Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] LibGuides: I don't get it
>>> 
>>> I have followed this thread with great interest. In 2011 Erin White and I
>>> researched many of the issues the group has been hitting on, demonstrating
>>> the popularity of LibGuides in ARL libraries, the locus of control outside
>>> of systems' departments, and the state of content policies.[1]
>>> 
>>> Our most challenging statement in the article to the library tech
>>> community (which was watered down a bit in the peer review process) was
>>> "The popularity of LibGuides, at its heart a specialized content
>>> management system, also calls into question the vitality and/or
>>> adaptability of local content management system implementations in
>>> libraries."
>>> 
>>> One of the bigges

Re: [CODE4LIB] Separate library CMS systems vs Campus-wide CMS systems (was [CODE4LIB] LibGuides: I don't get it)

[Sean Hannan]

You could do something like what I did and run your own data backend and use
whatever you need to/have to to display content.

Our website is just static HTML, CSS, and Javascript. Everything
dynamic/data-powered is javascript that is pulling from a centralized API
(written using grape: http://intridea.github.io/grape/). We can move the
website to some cloud provider, into a central IT-managed system, or
elsewhere and it won't break.

I originally presented the concept at code4lib 2011 (slides:
http://www.slideshare.net/MrDys/lets-get-small-a-microservices-approach-to-l
ibrary-websites), but it's in production now.

-Sean

On 8/14/13 9:21 AM, "Joshua Welker"  wrote:

> Does anyone have any suggestions as to where the library should or should
> not compromise when it comes to using an institutional CMS rather than a
> custom library one? We are going through this process right now. Our web
> pages are currently all in static HTML and LibGuides. I am wanting to move
> to Drupal, and campus IT wants us to move to their Adobe Contribute
> platform. AFAIK, Contribute does not allow for any server-side scripting
> and does not have any sort of plugin system, and I am very concerned that
> Contribute would harm the library's ability to effectively integrate its
> online resources into a single web portal (server-side caching, indexes,
> scheduled tasks, etc).
> 
> I know the answer to this question is "it depends," but I am hoping others
> can share the fruits of their experience.
> 
> Thoughts?
> 
> Josh Welker
> Information Technology Librarian
> James C. Kirkpatrick Library
> University of Central Missouri
> Warrensburg, MO 64093
> JCKL 2260
> 660.543.8022
> 
> 
> -Original Message-
> From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of
> Jimmy Ghaphery
> Sent: Tuesday, August 13, 2013 5:49 PM
> To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
> Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] LibGuides: I don't get it
> 
> I have followed this thread with great interest. In 2011 Erin White and I
> researched many of the issues the group has been hitting on, demonstrating
> the popularity of LibGuides in ARL libraries, the locus of control outside
> of systems' departments, and the state of content policies.[1]
> 
> Our most challenging statement in the article to the library tech
> community (which was watered down a bit in the peer review process) was
> "The popularity of LibGuides, at its heart a specialized content
> management system, also calls into question the vitality and/or
> adaptability of local content management system implementations in
> libraries."
> 
> One of the biggest challenges I see toward creating a non-commercial
> alternative is that the library code community is so dispersed in the
> various institutions that it makes it difficult to get away from the
> download tar.gz model. Are our institutions ready to collaborate across
> themselves such that there could be a shared SaaS model (of anything
> really) that libraries could subscribe/contribute to? The barriers here
> certainly aren't technological, but more along the lines of policy,
> governance, etc.
> 
> As for Research Guides in general, I see a very clear divide in the
> public/tech communities not only on platform but more philosophical. From
> the tech side once it is all boiled down, heck why do you even need a
> third party system; catalog the databases with some type of local genres
> and push out an api/xml feeds to various disciplines. From the public side
> there is a long lineage of individually curated guides that goes to the
> core of value of professionally knowing one's community and serving it.
> 
> [1] https://ejournals.bc.edu/ojs/index.php/ital/article/view/1830
> 
> best,
> 
> Jimmy
> 
> 
> 
> On Tue, Aug 13, 2013 at 11:13 AM, Galen Charlton 
> wrote:
> 
>> Hi,
>> 
>> On Tue, Aug 13, 2013 at 6:53 AM, Wilhelmina Randtke >> wrote:
>> 
>>> There's not a lock-in issue with LibGuides, because it's used to
>>> host pathfinders.  Those are supposed to be periodically revisited.
>>> One of
>> the
>>> big problems is that librarians will start a guide and never finish,
>>> or make one then never maintain it.  Periodically deleting
>>> everything is a good thing for pathfinders and subject guides, and
>>> people should do it anyway.  No one's talking about tools for
>>> digital archives, which have
>> lock
>>> in issues and are way more expensive.
>>> 
>> 
>> Lock-in doesn't have to be absolute to be effective, it just has to
>> has raise the bar sufficiently high to make users think twice about
>> migrating away.
>> 
>> This applies even if the data to be moved is transitory and constantly
>> changing.   For example, if a library has been diligently updating their
>> pathfinders, but wants to switch platforms, if there were no way to
>> export them to load into the successor system, the effort of redoing
>> them or doing a lot of copy-and-pasting could be prohibitive.
>> 
>> As a general statement -- and I know that this battle has been

Re: [CODE4LIB] LibGuides: I don't get it

[Sean Hannan]

Again, this not a technical issue. It's a content strategy issue.

Believe me, I was where you were. I was using all kinds of javascript and
CSS hacks to try to prevent people from getting creative with color. I was
getting to the point of setting up Capybara tests to run against the guides
to alert me to abusive uses of bold and italics.

The folks creating guides are content people, not web people. Take the web
out of it. Focus on the content. Pick a couple heuristics to educate them on
(we picked 7 +/- 2, above the fold/below the fold, and F-shaped reading
patterns). Above all, show them statistics. And not the built-in LibGuides
stats, either.

New vs. returning. Average time on page. Pageviews over the course of a
year. Very, very, very quickly our librarians realized what content is
important, what content is superfluous, and that the time the spend
carefully manicuring and maintaining their guides would (and could) be
better spent elsewhere.

-Sean

On 8/12/13 9:35 AM, "Joshua Welker"  wrote:

> I just have to say I have been thinking the exact same thing about LibGuides
> for the two years I've been using it. I feel vindicated knowing others feel
> the same way.
> 
> At UCMO, we will be migrating to Drupal in the next several months, and I am
> hoping very much that I can convince people to use less LibGuides.
> 
> LibGuides is great in its ease of use, but fails on just about every design
> principle I can think of. There have been several studies on "tab blindness"
> in LibGuides, and don't get me started on the sub-tab links that are hiding
> and require the user to mouse over a tab to even see what is there. I've
> tried telling people so many times to have just a few tabs and always to use
> a table of contents for the main page, but they rarely do. And it becomes
> just about impossible to have a consistent look and feel across your website
> when LibGuides allows guide creators to modify every element on the page as
> they see fit. People will do crazy things like putting page content in a
> sidebar element, something you'd never ever ever see on any website on the
> Internet. I tried to enforce uniform colors and column sizes across all the
> guides, but I was told to let it go because my coworkers wanted to be able
> to decide those things on a guide-by-guide basis.
> 
> I've worked at two institutions that use LibGuides, and what inevitably
> happens is that librarians create one Uber Guide for entire subject areas
> (biology, religion, etc) and then create sub-pages for all the dozens of
> specific disciplines within those subject areas. And then, assuming the user
> somehow manages to find these pages, they are typically not much more than a
> list of links that could have easily been included on the main library
> website.
> 
> Okay, sorry for the rant. It has been building up for several years and
> never had a chance to voice out.
> 
> Josh Welker
> Information Technology Librarian
> James C. Kirkpatrick Library
> University of Central Missouri
> Warrensburg, MO 64093
> JCKL 2260
> 660.543.8022
> 
> -Original Message-
> From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of
> Robert Sebek
> Sent: Sunday, August 11, 2013 11:21 AM
> To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
> Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] LibGuides: I don't get it
> 
> On Sun, Aug 11, 2013 at 9:54 AM, Heather Rayl <23e...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> I have to say that I loathe LibGuides. My library makes extensive use
>> of them, too. Need a web solution? The first thing out of someone's
>> mouth is "Let's put it in a LibGuide!"
>> 
>> Shudder
>> 
>> This fall, I'll be moving our main site over to Drupal, and I'm hoping
>> that eventually I can convince people to re-invent their LibGuides
>> there. I can use the "saving money" card, and the "content silos are
>> bad" card and
>> *maybe* I will be successful.
>> 
>> Anyone fought this particular battle before?
>> 
>> ~heather
>> 
>> I'm fighting that battle right now. We have an excellent CMS into
>> which I
> have set up all our database URLs, descriptions, etc.Anytime we need to
> refer to a database on a page, we use one of those entries. That database
> just changed platforms? No problem. I change the URL in one place and
> everything automatically updates (hooray CMSs!).
> 
> All of our subject guides (http://www.lib.vt.edu/subject-guides/) are in the
> CMS using the exact same database entries. I converted from our failing,
> home-grown system into the CMS and then gave training on how to maintain
> from there (remove an entry, add an entry, create a parallel course
> guide)--using the same skills as maintaining any other web page that
> librarian is responsible for. But apparently that's too hard.
> 
> So we have a trial of LibGuides. NO ONE here has created a guide from
> scratch yet,  but they all say this is going to be easy. No one will admit
> that someone will have to recreate all those database entries (literally
> hundreds) and then maintain those entri

Re: [CODE4LIB] LibGuides: I don't get it

[Sean Hannan]

All of this, plus SpringShare has great support. Like, the best of any library 
vendor I've dealt with. I've had them implement features within an hour of me 
sending the email suggesting it.

The big downside of LibGuides is that it's ease of use (and ease if reuse) 
leads to content sprawl like you wouldn't believe. The new version has a 
publishing workflow that can help mitigate this, but it's better to go into a 
LibGuides project with a content strategy firmly in place.

-Sean

From: Code for Libraries [CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] on behalf of Sullivan, Mark 
V [mars...@uflib.ufl.edu]
Sent: Saturday, August 10, 2013 9:44 PM
To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] LibGuides: I don't get it

First, SpringShare has great marketing.

Secondly, it is a very simple CMS that was offered at a time that many 
libraries were not getting good web support from IT.  LibGuides became the 
easiest way to edit web pages for many people.  It is certainly true at my 
institution, where we have had whole departments and units move their official 
website to LibGuides, rather than deal with Adobe Contribute and loose HTML 
files.  I am now in the midst of trying to fix that problem by rolling out an 
enterprise-level web cms, but I am finding many pages that have quietly moved 
to LibGuides.

There IS the one compelling thing about sharing a module between different 
institutions on LibGuides.  If one of our faculty members generates a list of 
special resources for a topic, another faculty member in another institution 
can just insert that module into their page.  Of course, the worldwide web 
solved pretty much the same problems ages ago with the invention of links, so 
I'm not sure that is really that compelling anymore.

Just my two cents..

Mark


From: Code for Libraries [CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] on behalf of davesgonechina 
[davesgonech...@gmail.com]
Sent: Saturday, August 10, 2013 9:23 PM
To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: [CODE4LIB] LibGuides: I don't get it

I've not had an opportunity to use LibGuides, but I've seen a few and read
the features list on the SpringShare. All I see is a less flexible
WordPress at a higher price point. What advantages am I not seeing? If
there aren't any, is it the case that once signed up, migration to an open
source platform is just not worth it for most institutions?

Re: [CODE4LIB] MARC record model to be inserted in mongodb

[Sean Hannan]

Also, I'm sure you have your reasons for wanting (or needing) to use
mongodb, but you might want to take a look at this presentation:
http://thebuild.com/presentations/pg-as-nosql-pgday-fosdem-2013.pdf and the
benchmarks in the latter half of it.

-Sean


On 7/5/13 5:47 AM, "dasos ili"  wrote:

> Could you please give us any suggestions on a data model example regarding a
> MARC record? The goal is to be able to store it in mongodb, in an efficient
> way so as to get results with the appropriate queries.
> 
> thank you in advance
> 

Re: [CODE4LIB] File based CMSes

[Sean Hannan]

I'm a big fan of middleman (http://middlemanapp.com). It's more coder-oriented, 
but you're not locked into the horrible UI of a wiki product. Once it's set up, 
it's good to go. There's lots of nice extensions for it, including a WYSIWYG 
blog post manager/editor, and it's simple to code for.

-Sean


From: Code for Libraries [CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] on behalf of Ian Walls 
[iwa...@library.umass.edu]
Sent: Monday, April 29, 2013 12:06 PM
To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] File based CMSes

I'd like to throw in another recommendation on Dokuwiki.  Out of the box, I'd 
call it about 80% of a solution, as there are some things I've wanted to do 
with it that have proven really difficult with existing modules strung 
together, but overall, it has the potential to do the job of a CMS well for 
many use cases.  If you're willing to invest the time in developing custom 
themes and plugins, it can do just about anything.


-Ian

-Original Message-
From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Tom 
Keays
Sent: Monday, April 29, 2013 12:02 PM
To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] File based CMSes

I've used DokuWiki as a CMS for several website projects. The default theme is 
no great shakes, but you can theme it to look like anything and there are 
hundreds of plugins. I think the syntax it uses is much friendlier than that 
used by Mediapress.

http://dokuwiki.org/

I've also been curious about Octopress. Nominally a blogging layer for Jekyll, 
with the new version I think it can probably work as a CMS. It uses Markdown as 
the syntax.

http://octopress.org/


On Mon, Apr 29, 2013 at 11:22 AM, Wilhelmina Randtke wrote:

> Has anyone worked with file based CMSes,and do you have a
> recommendation for one with simple backend?
>
> One of the issues with the CMS is that databases don't make sense to
> people without background in them.  I want to look at static file
> based CMSes with the goal of finding something that is easier to write
> instructions on doing maintenance and backups for than is a database based 
> CMS.
>
> -Wilhelmina Randtke
>

Re: [CODE4LIB] ADVICE: Applied Computing Program at Tulane

[Sean Hannan]

Honestly, if you're interested in and looking to focus on Content Strategy and 
UX, the only course there that comes close is Human-Computer Interaction.

If those are really your interests, I'd look at a strictly HCI program (they're 
out there) or something that leans more towards Knowledge Management or plain 
old Design.

-Sean


From: Code for Libraries [CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] on behalf of Phil Suda 
[ps...@neworleanspubliclibrary.org]
Sent: Monday, April 22, 2013 11:31 AM
To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: [CODE4LIB] ADVICE: Applied Computing Program at Tulane

Good morning,

 I have been working in public libraries since 2006, as a 
cataloger, collection development librarian, serials librarian, and various 
other roles (thinking of business card with Fixer as job title). I am very 
interested in Structured Data, Semantic Web, Metadata, and more importantly 
Content Strategy and User Experience/Interface Design. I am considering 
entering the Applied Computing Program at Tulane University. I have listed the 
courses below. What advice do the Code4Libs have with regard to Programming 
Courses via a University (as well as the courses below)? I really want to get 
into Content Strategy and User Experience Design. What advice do you have for 
someone that is a librarian with a pretty extensive knowledge of 
metadata/structured data, is interested in programming/coding as a career, and 
just wants to improve his lot/career? Thank you for any and all advice on the 
matter.


Thanks,

Phil


Major Core Courses   Credits
CPST 1200 Fundamentals of Information Systems and Information Technology
CPST 2200 Programming Fundamentals
CPST 2300 Database Fundamentals
CPST 3600 IT Hardware and Software Fundamentals
CPST 3700 Networking Fundamentals
CPST 3900 Fundamentals of Information Security and Assurance

In addition to the major core courses above, Applied Computing majors must 
select 6 additional courses from one of the 3 following concentration options:

Option 1: Integrated Application Development Concentration
Credits
Select one course:
CPST 3220 O-O Programming with Java
CPST 3230 Programming in C++
CPST 3400 Website Development with XML/XHTML
CPST 3410 Website Development with JavaScript
CPST 3430 Website Development with ASP
CPST 3310 Relational Database Design and Development
CPST 3250 Human-Computer Interaction
CPST 3550 Systems Analysis and Design
CPST 4250 Integrated Application Development
One CPST Elective (2000 level or above)

Re: [CODE4LIB] A Responsibility to Encourage Better Browsers ( ? )

[Sean Hannan]

Let's not forget that Google has a business case for dropping IE8 support.
Alerting folks to their old browser could (in SEO terms) turn into Chrome
conversions.

-Sean


On 2/19/13 12:22 PM, "Eric Phetteplace"  wrote:

> I guess my general philosophy is that, for any browser with a decent market
> share (>1% ish), it's my responsibility that the website *works*. It is not
> my responsibility to make it look the same or run as fast in every browser,
> which means IE 8 can get flat colors instead of gradients or a fallback if
> it's not too time-intensive to write.
> 
> Google's web apps are dropping IE 8 support; visit Google Docs in IE 8 or
> even an older Firefox and you'll see a warning. AFAIK, Google Search works
> fine in almost any browser.
> 
> And the jQuery thing is true but the versions are off; 2.0 will drop oldIE
> support, 1.9 will be the maintained branch that keeps IE support. See their
> announcement:
> http://blog.jquery.com/2013/01/15/jquery-1-9-final-jquery-2-0-beta-migrate-fin
> al-released/
> 
> 
> Best,
> Eric
> 
> 
> On Tue, Feb 19, 2013 at 12:14 PM, Bill Dueber  wrote:
> 
>> Keep in mind that many old-IE users are there because their corporate/gov
>> entity requires it. Our entire univeristy health/hospital complex, for
>> example, was on IE6 until...last year, maybe?... because they had several
>> critical pieces of software written as active-x components that only ran in
>> IE6. Which, sure, you can say that's dumb (because it is), but at the same
>> time we couldn't have a setup that made it hard for the doctors
>> and researchers use the library.
>> 
>> 
>> On Tue, Feb 19, 2013 at 10:22 AM, Michael Schofield >> wrote:
>> 
>>> Hi everyone,
>>> 
>>> I'm having a change of heart.
>>> 
>>> It is kind of sacrilegious, especially if you-like me-evangelize
>>> mobile-first, progressively enhanced web design, to  throw alerts when
>>> users hit your site using IE7 / IE8 that encourage upgrading or changing
>>> browsers. Especially in libraries which are legally and morally mandated
>> to
>>> be the pinnacle of accessibility, your website should - er, ideally - be
>>> functional in every browser. That's certainly what I say when I give a
>> talk.
>>> 
>>> But you know what? I'm kind of starting to not care. I understand that
>>> patrons blah blah might not blah blah have access to anything but IE7 or
>>> IE8 - but, you know, if they're on anything other than Windows 95 that
>>> isn't true.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> * Using Old IE makes you REALLY vulnerable to malicious software.
>>> 
>>> * Spriting IEs that don't support gradients, background size, CSS
>>> shapes, etc. and spinning-up IE friendly stylesheets (which, admittedly,
>> is
>>> REALLY easy to do with Modernizr and SASS) can be a time-sink, which I am
>>> starting to think is more of a disservice to the tax- and tuition-payers
>>> that pad my wallet.
>>> 
>>> I ensure that web services are 100% functional for deprecated browsers,
>>> and there is lingering pressure-especially from the public wing of our
>>> institution (which I totally understand and, in the past, sympathized
>> with)
>>> to present identical experiences across browsers. But you know what I did
>>> today? I sinned. From our global script, if modernizr detects that the
>>> browser is lt-ie9, it appends just below the navbar a subtle notice: "Did
>>> you know that your version of Internet Explorer is several years old? Why
>>> not give Firefox, Google Chrome, or Safari a try?"*
>>> 
>>> In most circles this is considered the most heinous practice. But, you
>>> know, I can no longer passively stand by and see IE8 rank above the
>> others
>>> when I give the analytics report to our web committee. Nope. The first
>> step
>>> in this process was dropping all support for IE7 / Compatibility Mode a
>> few
>>> months ago. Now that Google, jQuery, and others will soon drop support
>> for
>>> IE8 - its time to politely join-in and make luddite patrons aware. IMHO,
>>> anyway.
>>> 
>>> Already, old IE users get the raw end of the bargain because just viewing
>>> our website makes several additional server requests to pull additional
>> CSS
>>> and JS bloat, not to mention all the images graphics they don't support.
>>> Thankfully, IE8 is cool with icon fonts, otherwise I'd be weeping at my
>>> desk.
>>> 
>>> Now, why haven't I extended this behavior to browsers with limited
>> support
>>> for, say, css gradients? That's trickier. A user might have the latest
>> HTC
>>> phone but opt to surf in Opera Mini. There are too many variables and too
>>> many webkits (etc.). With old IE you can infer that a.) the user has a
>> lap-
>>> or desktop, and [more importantly] b.) that old IE will never be a phone.
>>> 
>>> Anyway,
>>> 
>>> This is a really small-potatoes rant / action, but in a culture of all
>>> accessibility / never pressuring the user / whatever, it feels
>> momentous. I
>>> kind of feel stupid getting all high and mighty about it. What do you
>> think?
>>> 
>>> M

Re: [CODE4LIB] Stand Up Desks

[Sean Hannan]

I'm a big fan of just having an obscenely large monitor. I can work on the
other side of the room. Standing, sitting, whatevs.

http://instagram.com/p/RqaKH0DRQN/

-Sean


On 2/7/13 2:37 PM, "Peter Murray"  wrote:

> I don't have a standing desk, but I'm a big fan of using PVC pipe to put
> equipment at a proper ergonomic level. In this case, laptop and monitor
> stands. 
> 

Re: [CODE4LIB] Rdio playlist

[Sean Hannan]

A bit of a tangent, but this post (as well as the Layar one, and others) is
exactly why I love code4lib. It really has nothing to do with code nor
libraries and it wasn't handed down by conference organizers. Someone (Bill,
in this case) thought it was a good idea, others would be interested, and
just threw it out there.

Great stuff.

-Sean


On 2/3/13 10:44 PM, "William Denton"  wrote:

> Do you ever put together a playlist or some situationally appropriate
> music when you're taking a trip?  Do you ever do this when you're going to
> a conference?  If you answered yes to either, and you're on Rdio, pitch in
> and add some stuff to a Code4Lib Chicago playlist:
> 
> http://www.rdio.com/people/wdenton/playlists/2229053/Code4Lib_2013_in_Chicago/
> 
> I reckon we should be able to collaboratively edit the perfect playlist
> for use by hundreds of librarians and coders descending on Chicago in
> February, useful when either a) drinking local beers, b) hacking, c)
> walking through the Art Institute of Chicago, or d) all of the above.
> 
> Bill

Re: [CODE4LIB] usability testing software

[Sean Hannan]

On that front, I highly recommend the book Remote Research by Nate Bolt.

http://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/remote-research/

-Sean

From: Code for Libraries [CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] on behalf of Taylor, 
Nicholas A. [n...@loc.gov]
Sent: Friday, February 01, 2013 10:51 AM
To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] usability testing software

Hi Nate (et al), on the server side, you might also take a look at the open 
source ClickHeat [1], which creates a visual heatmap of clicks on an HTML page.

~Nicholas
__

Nicholas Taylor
Data Specialist
Library of Congress Web Archiving
http://www.loc.gov/webarchiving/
n...@loc.gov

[1] http://www.labsmedia.com/clickheat/index.html

Re: [CODE4LIB] Code4LibCon 2013 T-Shirt Contest Winner

[Sean Hannan]

Or just black ink on a black T-shirt.  You know, The Black Album style.

-Sean


On 1/16/13 12:19 PM, "Suchy, Daniel"  wrote:

> I vote that the code4lib 2013 portion be added in backlight ink.
> 
> \m/
> 
> -Dan
> 
> On 1/16/13 8:55 AM, "Cynthia Ng"  wrote:
> 
>> Curious, is code4lib 2013 going to be added to that design? Seems a
>> bit ... odd that it's for c4l13 but doesn't say that anywhere.
>> 
>> On Wed, Jan 16, 2013 at 10:57 AM, Shaun Ellis 
>> wrote:
>>> On behalf of the T-Shirt Committee, I'm pleased to announce the winner
>>> of
>>> the t-shirt design contest is Joshua Gomez, with "Metadata":
>>> 
>>> http://wiki.code4lib.org/index.php/Image:Metadata.jpg
>>> 
>>> Rock on, Josh! \m/ \m/
>>> 
>>> It was a tight race this year, and the winner was decided by a single
>>> vote.
>>> We want to thank everyone for all the great submissions, votes, help,
>>> and
>>> participation.
>>> 
>>> See you in Chicago,
>>> Shaun
>>> 
>>> --
>>> Shaun Ellis
>>> User Interace Developer, Digital Initiatives
>>> Princeton University Library

Re: [CODE4LIB] project management system

[Sean Hannan]

As someone that's had to fight with maintaining a Jira system for the last 6
years, I'm going to have to steer people away from it. It's a giant pain in
the ass (in my experience).

If you go with Jira, at the very least, go with a hosted solution. You don't
want Jira's blood on your hands. It smells bad. And it glows green.

-Sean


On 1/14/13 3:06 PM, "Kaile Zhu"  wrote:

> We can keep adding to the list.  Since there are so many choices,  I see the
> strong reason to use open source software.  Here is my recommendation: Jira
> (project management/bug reporting system used by professional software
> development companies, like apache.org), spiceworks, etc.  - Kelly
> 
> -Original Message-
> From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Mau,
> Trish
> Sent: 2013年1月14日 13:53
> To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
> Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] project management system
> 
> I also like Basecamp but for really simple projects Minigroup might do the
> job: https://minigroup.com/. It's a hosted solution with plans starting at
> $3/year. There's no ticketing system or whiteboards, but you can communicate
> with your team, create and assign tasks, and post events/deadlines.
> 
> Trish
> 
> Trish Mau, librarian/web coordinator
> Burnaby Public Library, 6100 Willingdon Avenue, Burnaby BC, V5H 4N5 tel. 604
> 436 5425  fax 604 436 9087
>  
> The contents of this message may not necessarily reflect the position of
> Burnaby Public Library. If you have any concerns about this message, please
> e-mail b...@bpl.bc.ca.
> -Original Message-
> From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Cary
> Gordon
> Sent: Monday, January 14, 2013 11:11 AM
> To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
> Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] project management system
> 
> I agree with Rosalyn that the key is what you mean by project management. I
> get the impression that you aren't looking for a ticketing system.
> 
> For lists and communication, we use (and like) Basecamp, but there are lots of
> good alternatives. PBWorks is another good hosted system. If you can host
> yourself, MediaWiki, which powers the code4lib wiki, has a huge community, is
> widely used in the library world, and ramps up relatively quickly.
> 
> We use Unfuddle for most of our ticketing, and they have a new planning
> product called Alchemy, which is in beta.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Cary
> 
> 
> On Jan 14, 2013, at 10:52 AM, Rosalyn Metz  wrote:
> 
>> Hi Kun,
>> 
>> I guess the first question I would ask is what do you mean by project
>> management -- its kind of a big space.  Are you looking for something
>> more like a ticketing system?  Is your primary concern keeping up
>> communication on projects?  Or are you looking to create a project
>> list that you can keep track of?  Are you trying to just outline what it is
>> that your projects are?
>> 
>> If you're looking for a ticketing system I like GitHub Ticketing --
>> its free and easy to use.  If you're primarily worried about keeping
>> up communication with a different groups, google groups can suffice 9 times
>> out of 10.   If you're just looking to keep track of a list of projects,
>> you might be able to get away with something simple like a Google Form
>> that submits to a spreadsheet.  If you're just outlining what your
>> projects are you could just start off by creating project one pagers
>> (ala Tito 
>> Sierra
>> ).
>> 
>> My recommendation would be to start off small (and free).  After a few
>> months, re-evaluate and see where you are.  Maybe you'll realize you
>> need something more robust (Unfuddle instead of GitHub Ticketing;
>> Basecamp instead of Google Groups; time management planning instead of
>> lists of projects; formal project plans instead of one pagers;).
>> 
>> Rosalyn
>> 
>> 
>> On Mon, Jan 14, 2013 at 1:27 PM, Lin, Kun  wrote:
>> 
>>> Hi all,
>>> 
>>> Our library is looking for a project management system. Does anyone
>>> has any suggestions on which one to choose? We only have a very small
>>> team and our main focus is to guide our librarians to submit their
>>> ideas and for record tacking purposes.
>>> 
>>> Thanks
>>> Kun
>>> 

Re: [CODE4LIB] preconf ideas

[Sean Hannan]

Slight derail, but for everyone considering a workshoppy preconf, you might
consider using something like http://showterm.io so that people can follow
along.

-Sean


On 11/8/12 8:16 PM, "Heidi P Frank"  wrote:

> Hi Jason,
> I'd definitely be interested in the Ruby workshop.  I know a little
> bit about programming (PHP, Javascript, Python), but would be a
> complete beginner on Ruby and would love a bit of hands-on to get my
> feet wet.
> heidi
> 
> Heidi Frank
> Electronic Resources & Special Formats Cataloger
> New York University Libraries
> Knowledge Access & Resources Management Services
> 20 Cooper Square, 3rd Floor
> New York, NY  10003
> 212-998-2499 (office)
> 212-995-4366 (fax)
> h...@nyu.edu
> Skype: hfrank71
> 
> 
> On Thu, Nov 8, 2012 at 2:45 PM, Wilhelmina Randtke  wrote:
>> HTML5 video seems better suited to a regular presentation slot than to a
>> half-day workshop.  I just don't think there is enough content there to
>> fill the half day.  It would have to be combined with something else (video
>> editing? video delivery and usability? something else?).
>> 
>> -Wilhelmina Randtke
>> 
>> 
>> On Thu, Nov 8, 2012 at 12:58 PM, Shaun Ellis  wrote:
>> 
>>> Jason,
>>> I think both ideas are excellent.
>>> 
>>> As for the Ruby on Rails intro, the RailsBridge Curriculum mentions an
>>> "install-fest" happening the night before.  In the interest of time, I
>>> would recommend distributing a VM with all the required software
>>> pre-loaded.  While part of programming involves setting up one's
>>> environment, it will be more inspiring to get right to the "fun".
>>> 
>>> -Shaun
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On 11/8/12 10:12 AM, Jason Ronallo wrote:
>>> 
 I have a couple ideas for preconf sessions, but I am wondering whether
 anyone would be interested in them before further committing by posting
 one
 to the wiki. Would you be interested in attending or suggesting someone
 attend either of these?
 
 1. An introduction to coding through Ruby and Rails. I'm looking at
 something like the RailsBridge Curriculum [1] as a quick, gentle
 introduction to getting started coding web applications. It seems that
 with
 the bigger venue that more folks may be attending that do not do coding in
 their regular job but may like to get started. Is there something like a
 basic training that the Code4Lib conference and community can do to bridge
 that gap and get more folks in libraries coding and having a better
 understanding what is involved in the work? Anyone else who would be
 interested in helping to lead this or help field questions and help folks
 work through problems?
 
 2. An HTML5 Video workshop. I've pitched a talk on HTML5 Video that I'd
 really like to give, but wonder if there would be enough interest to do a
 1/2 day workshop on the topic? It would allow time to do some hands-on
 work
 with the whole process of making video available this way. Anyone else
 with
 experience with video who would like to help put this together?
 
 Interest in either of these? Would you commit to attend one? Willing to
 help plan one?
 
 Jason
 
 
 [1] 
 http://curriculum.railsbridge.**org/curriculum/curriculum
 
 
>>> --
>>> Shaun D. Ellis
>>> Digital Library Interface Developer
>>> Firestone Library, Princeton University
>>> voice: 609.258.1698 | sha...@princeton.edu
>>> 

Re: [CODE4LIB] Seeking examples of outstanding discovery layers

[Sean Hannan]

That's what user research is.  Qualitative evidence, too.

-Sean


On 9/20/12 1:18 PM, "Karen Coyle"  wrote:

> And I presume that you have quantitative evidence to show that.
> 
> kc
> 
> On 9/20/12 8:49 AM, Sean Hannan wrote:
>> Every one of these sites is not going to work for everyone.
>> 
>> Please conduct your own user research for your own audience.
>> 
>> Our users, for example, have no interest in visualizations of search
>> results.
>> 
>> Our researchers actually want just a list of results. They are compiling
>> bibliographies or reading lists and they honestly just want a really long
>> page of titles and authors of what we have.
>> 
>> -Sean
>> 
>> On 9/20/12 11:03 AM, "Karen Coyle"  wrote:
>> 
>>> Every one of this suggestions has one major flaw, IMO. The primary
>>> result of a search is a big set of bibliographic records -- more than
>>> the user can possible look through. In some of them there are facets
>>> available, but in no case is there any useful analysis of set in a
>>> visualization that would allow the user to get a picture of what she has
>>> retrieved. I'm thinking timelines, a la' WorldCat Identities or the Open
>>> Library subject pages [1]. Also, none of them tell the user more about
>>> the person or subject or work that they have retrieved. (At least, in
>>> the views that I have seen.) I really think that lists of manifestations
>>> just aren't good enough when searches bring up hundreds of results.
>>> 
>>> kc
>>> [1] some examples:
>>> http://openlibrary.org/subjects/halley%27s_comet
>>> http://openlibrary.org/subjects/place:istanbul_%28turkey%29
>>> and see others at: http://openlibrary.org/subjects
>>> or look for your favorites
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On 9/20/12 6:03 AM, Hamilton, Gill wrote:
>>>> My current fav is Digital NZ
>>>> http://www.digitalnz.org/
>>>> 
>>>> Gill
>>>> --
>>>> Gill Hamilton
>>>> Digital Access Manager
>>>> National Library of Scotland
>>>> Edinburgh, Scotland
>>>> g.hamil...@nls.uk
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> -Original Message-
>>>> From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of
>>>> Tania Fersenheim
>>>> Sent: 19 September 2012 20:00
>>>> To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
>>>> Subject: [CODE4LIB] Seeking examples of outstanding discovery layers
>>>> 
>>>> Got a favorite discovery interface?  Send me the URL
>>>> 
>>>> I am doing some quick & dirty investigation into libraries that have
>>>> successfully and elegantly integrated discovery of various resources,
>>>> e.g.:
>>>> 
>>>>- library catalog
>>>>- federated indexing service such as  Serials Solutions or Primo
>>>> Central, or a federated search system like Metalib
>>>>- ejournals
>>>>- ebooks
>>>>- libguides
>>>>- library web site
>>>>- worldcat local
>>>>- that kind o' stuff
>>>> 
>>>> I am looking for sites that are both nice to look at and seem easy to
>>>> use.  I will assume that if you're touting your own site it is
>>>> technologically sophisticated.  :-D  Got any faves?
>>>> 
>>>> Tania
>>>> 

Re: [CODE4LIB] Seeking examples of outstanding discovery layers

[Sean Hannan]

Every one of these sites is not going to work for everyone.

Please conduct your own user research for your own audience.

Our users, for example, have no interest in visualizations of search
results.

Our researchers actually want just a list of results. They are compiling
bibliographies or reading lists and they honestly just want a really long
page of titles and authors of what we have.

-Sean

On 9/20/12 11:03 AM, "Karen Coyle"  wrote:

> Every one of this suggestions has one major flaw, IMO. The primary
> result of a search is a big set of bibliographic records -- more than
> the user can possible look through. In some of them there are facets
> available, but in no case is there any useful analysis of set in a
> visualization that would allow the user to get a picture of what she has
> retrieved. I'm thinking timelines, a la' WorldCat Identities or the Open
> Library subject pages [1]. Also, none of them tell the user more about
> the person or subject or work that they have retrieved. (At least, in
> the views that I have seen.) I really think that lists of manifestations
> just aren't good enough when searches bring up hundreds of results.
> 
> kc
> [1] some examples:
> http://openlibrary.org/subjects/halley%27s_comet
> http://openlibrary.org/subjects/place:istanbul_%28turkey%29
> and see others at: http://openlibrary.org/subjects
> or look for your favorites
> 
> 
> On 9/20/12 6:03 AM, Hamilton, Gill wrote:
>> My current fav is Digital NZ
>> http://www.digitalnz.org/
>> 
>> Gill
>> --
>> Gill Hamilton
>> Digital Access Manager
>> National Library of Scotland
>> Edinburgh, Scotland
>> g.hamil...@nls.uk
>> 
>> 
>> -Original Message-
>> From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of
>> Tania Fersenheim
>> Sent: 19 September 2012 20:00
>> To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
>> Subject: [CODE4LIB] Seeking examples of outstanding discovery layers
>> 
>> Got a favorite discovery interface?  Send me the URL
>> 
>> I am doing some quick & dirty investigation into libraries that have
>> successfully and elegantly integrated discovery of various resources,
>> e.g.:
>> 
>>   - library catalog
>>   - federated indexing service such as  Serials Solutions or Primo
>> Central, or a federated search system like Metalib
>>   - ejournals
>>   - ebooks
>>   - libguides
>>   - library web site
>>   - worldcat local
>>   - that kind o' stuff
>> 
>> I am looking for sites that are both nice to look at and seem easy to
>> use.  I will assume that if you're touting your own site it is
>> technologically sophisticated.  :-D  Got any faves?
>> 
>> Tania
>> 

[CODE4LIB] Job: Software Engineer, Johns Hopkins University

[Sean Hannan]

The Sheridan Libraries of the Johns Hopkins University seeks a Software 
Engineer for its new Digitization Services Unit. This position will perform a 
major role in the design, software development, and implementation of the 
University Libraries and Museums’ digital collections discovery and 
presentation interfaces as well as associated backend workflows. The position 
will be responsible for formulating, developing and implementing technological 
solutions to expose some of the Libraries and Museums’ rare and unique special 
collections via the web. In addition, the position will be responsible for 
developing and supportingsoftware to support the digitization of this content. 
The position is located in the Scholarly Resources and Special Collections 
department but will interact with library and museum staff from many different 
departments.

Please visit 
https://hrnt.jhu.edu/jhujobs/job_view.cfm?view_req_id=53229&view=sch for more 
information.

Re: [CODE4LIB] Wikis

[Sean Hannan]

As an administrator of a Confluence installation, I have to say that I hate
it.

Confluence is fine if you are not going to be touching it or doing any kind
of local customizations (hooking it into local auth, etc.). If that's the
case, you should really be looking at the hosted version.

I've found that Atlassian is frustrating to deal with for support. I ran
into a bug in Confluence that has been an open ticket in their issue tracker
for 6 years. Years. I've found upgrades to be a pain, generally, and
sometimes Atlassian will be fast and furious with them and it's hard to keep
up. And the longer you wait, the more painful the upgrades become.

I don't deal with the money side of things, but I definitely think that we
do not get what we pay for with Confluence.

-Sean

On 7/25/12 9:05 AM, "Nathan Tallman"  wrote:

> That's what I'm worried about with MediaWiki. The syntax used when creating
> and editing pages isn't intuitive and I'm afraid people won't want to use
> it. I was hoping someone would recommend a wiki with more of a WYSIWYG type
> of editing interface. Was also hoping to stick with FLOSS, but perhaps I
> should at least peak at Confluence.
> 
> Thanks for the input,
> Nathan
> 
> On Wed, Jul 25, 2012 at 8:50 AM, Nate Vack  wrote:
> 
>> If you're expecting "everyone" to create and edit pages,
>> it will be very hard to get widespread adoption with it.
>> 

Re: [CODE4LIB] Browser Wars

[Sean Hannan]

I go by my statistics (and you should, too). I can't make users use another
browser (as much as I'd like them to). The bulk of our users still use IE
(well, the bulk use a WebKit browser--Chrome/Safari--but lumping those
together isn't an assumption I'm ready to lean on yet). That IE majority is
shrinking, though.

I'm in the middle of launching a new site redesign (old:
http://www.library.jhu.edu new: http://testsh.mse.jhu.edu/newwebsite), so
this is very present in my mind at the moment.

My cutoff is IE8. Everything IE8 and above is fine and will work fine with
the new site. And honestly, since I'm not doing anything that fancy with the
new site (it's pretty stripped down on purpose), that IE8 limitation is
really based on CORS support. IE7 don't got it.

People will upgrade when they upgrade. Libraries aren't really in the
position to force users to change their browsing habits.

-Sean



On 7/12/12 10:33 AM, "Michael Schofield"  wrote:

> Hi Code4Lib,
> 
>  
> 
> Ever since Microsoft announced the new IE auto-update policy, the
> blogosphere is fussing. This is definitely important (and good) news, but
> sites-Smashing Magazine has three articles on it in the last few days-are
> really pushing the "drop IE support," and "its literally slowing the
> internet down." I'm down, but that attitude-especially for libraries-isn't
> really the right one to have. It is, IMHO, an old view. A smart design
> strategy with progressive enhancement can deliver content to . everyone -
> which should be the priority for non-prof / [local-]government web presences
> over flare. Right?
> 
>  
> 
> Anyway, all of this is coming from some really good web developers who don't
> really face the same issues that have to be considered for library sites. I
> was just curious what the library community actually thought about this.
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks,
> 
>  
> 
> Michael
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Here's some reading:
> 
>  
> 
> "Old Browsers ar eHOlding Back the Web" (July 9th):
> http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2012/07/09/old-browsers-are-holding-back-the
> -web/
> 
>  
> 
> "Dear Web User: Please Upgrade Your Browser" (July 10th) :
> http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2012/07/10/dear-web-user-please-upgrade-your
> -browser/
> 
>  
> 
> "It's Time to Stop Blaming Internet Explorer" (July 12th):
> http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2012/07/12/its-time-to-stop-blaming-internet
> -explorer/
> 
>  
> 
> A recent library blog today: "Have you Given Much thought to browsers"? :
> http://www.meanlaura.com/archives/1528
> 
>  
> 
>  

Re: [CODE4LIB] library hours database/tool?

[Sean Hannan]

I'm implementing this in Google Calendar. Easy to update for non-tech staff.
Easy to have multiple calendars (one per location), and the API is baked in.
Amenities info, etc. can be included in the notes field of the calendar
entry.

-Sean

---
Sean Hannan
Web Developer
Sheridan Libraries
Johns Hopkins University


On 6/14/12 3:38 PM, "Baksik, Corinna M."  wrote:

> At Harvard we need to implement a new library hours database/tool. We have
> over 70 libraries and are looking for something that's easy for staff to
> update (~100 staff users), and has some form of API such that other sites
> (like the Med or Law school library sites), can access it so they don't have
> to update hours in multiple places. It needs to include amenities info, café
> hours, etc.  Preferably staff could set default hours and then override them
> when hours vary.
> Are there any libraries doing this that are using open-source software, and
> like what they have? (If you have a locally built system and like what you
> have, I'm interested in that too).
> Many thanks,
> Corinna
> 
> Corinna Baksik
> Systems Librarian
> Library Technology Services
> Harvard University
> 90 Mt. Auburn St.
> Cambridge, MA 02138
> 617.495.3724

Re: [CODE4LIB] Library site design patterns

[Sean Hannan]

There's this thing: http://influx.us/onepager

But I don't really believe in it.

I know the library world is full of people that think that we're unique
snowflakes, but at least in my case (for library websites) I find that to be
true.  This is based on a number of factors: how librarians instruct
patrons, analytics data, faculty database preferences.

I look at some academic library websites and see the things that they
highlight and I know that our patrons here have zero interest in that.

In fact, our new website (beta heresies:
http://testsh.mse.jhu.edu/newwebsite) is minimizing the amount of content as
much as possible. Instructional content is in LibGuides, databases are in
Xerxes/metalib, catalog is Blacklight.  There's really no reason for us to
pull our users deeper into the site when everything they want is somewhere
else. The website will then become a facilitator rather than a collector.
That's the approach that's going to work for us; I can see a number of
institutions where that would be horrifying and wrong.

Collect some data (clicktracking data in particular) and find out where your
users are going and what content is being used. Design around that.

-Sean


On 5/10/12 5:41 PM, "Patrick Berry"  wrote:

> So, there are a gajillion and one design pattern libraries out there...has
> anybody come across a set of design patterns focused on library web sites?
> 
> Thanks,
> Pat

Re: [CODE4LIB] Anyone implementing common LIS applications on PaaS providers?

[Sean Hannan]

If you already have everything indexed in Solr elsewhere, a way to cut down
the BL slug size is to remove/ignore the SolrMarc.jar. It's pretty sizable.

-Sean


On 3/29/12 12:16 PM, "Chris Fitzpatrick"  wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I've deployed Blacklight on both Heroku and Elastic BeanStalk.
> 
> Heroku is still a much better choice. The only issue I had was I
> needed to make sure the sass-rails gem in installed in the :production
> gem group and not just development.
> 
>  I still have an issue of getting heroku to compile all my
> sass/coffeescript/etc assets on update, but it actually doesn't seem
> to make much of an impact on performance. The minor issue is that it
> would be nice to figure out a way to slim down BL's slug size. The
> lowest I've been able to get it is about 30mb and Heroku recommends
> having it be below 25mb.
> 
> I have not used Heroku's solr service (I still use EC2 for my solr
> deployments).
> EngineYard would also be another option.
> 
> There is also an AMI for DSpace, so deploying that to EC2 should be
> pretty easy
> 
> b,chris.
> 
> 
> 
> On Thu, Mar 29, 2012 at 3:55 PM, Rosalyn Metz  wrote:
>> Erik,
>> 
>> I haven't tried it (recently) on PaaS providers, but I have on IaaS.  The
>> AMIs I've created in association with start up scripts (if you're
>> interested in seeing those let me know, I'd have to look for them somewhere
>> or other) mean that the application automagically starts up on its own, all
>> you need to do is go to the URL.  I've used this as a back up method in the
>> past and I think would be a great way for people to be able to play with
>> the different apps before committing.
>> 
>> To this end, I created an AMI for Blacklight a while back:
>> http://www.rosalynmetz.com/ami-3c10f255/  I guarantee you it is grossly out
>> of date.  I also have instructions on creating an EBS backed AMI:
>> http://rosalynmetz.com/ideas/2011/04/14/creating-an-ebs-backed-ami/ which
>> is the method I used for creating the Blacklight AMI. These instructions
>> are also fairly old, but I still get comments on my blog now and then that
>> the method works.
>> 
>> I also played around with it on Heroku, but that was so long ago I don't
>> think any of the things I learned still apply (this was when Heroku was
>> fairly new to the scene).  Hope some of this helps.
>> 
>> Rosalyn
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Thu, Mar 29, 2012 at 8:34 AM, Seth van Hooland wrote:
>> 
>>> Dear Erik,
>>> 
>>> Bram Wiercx and myself have given a talk on how to put together a package
>>> to install CollectiveAccess on Red Hat's OpenShift:
>>> http://www.dish2011.nl/sessions/open-source-software-platform-collectiveacce
>>> s-as-a-service-solution
>>> .
>>> 
>>> My students are currently happily playing around with CollectiveAccess,
>>> which they have installed on OpenShift. My teaching assistant Max De Wilde
>>> has developed clear guidelines on how to run the installation procedure:
>>> http://homepages.ulb.ac.be/~svhoolan/redhat_ca_install.pdf.
>>> 
>>> It would be wonderful to aggregate these kind of installation procedure's
>>> for other types of LIS applications...
>>> 
>>> Kind regards and looking forward to your book!
>>> 
>>> Seth van Hooland
>>> Président du Master en Sciences et Technologies de l'Information et de la
>>> Communication (MaSTIC)
>>> Université Libre de Bruxelles
>>> Av. F.D. Roosevelt, 50 CP 123  | 1050 Bruxelles
>>> http://homepages.ulb.ac.be/~svhoolan/
>>> http://twitter.com/#!/sethvanhooland
>>> http://mastic.ulb.ac.be
>>> 0032 2 650 4765
>>> Office: DC11.113
>>> 
>>> Le 29 mars 2012 à 14:10, Erik Mitchell a écrit :
>>> 
 Hi all,
 
 I have been toying with the process of implementing common LIS
 applications (e.g. Vufind, Dspace, Blacklight. .  .) on PaaS providers
 like Heroku and Amazon Elastic Beanstalk.  I have just tried out of
 the box distributions so far and have not made much progress but was
 wondering if someone else had tried this or had ideas about what
 issues I might run into.
 
 Thanks,
 
 Erik
 
 Erik Mitchell
 Assistant Professor
 College of Information Studies
 University of Maryland, College Park
 http://ischool.umd.edu
>>> 

Re: [CODE4LIB] Transcription/dictation software?

[Sean Hannan]

Mechanical Turk it.

(I hear that's what all the hipsters do while they watch Downton Abbey.)

-Sean


On 2/27/12 1:52 PM, "Suchy, Daniel"  wrote:

> Hello all,
> 
> At my campus we offer podcasts of course lectures, recorded in class and then
> delivered via iTunes and as a plain Mp3 download (http://podcast.ucsd.edu).  I
> have the new responsibility of figuring out how to transcribe text versions of
> these audio podcasts for folks with hearing issues.
> 
> I was wondering if any of you are using or have played with
> dictation/transcription software and can recommend or de-recommend any?   My
> first inclination is to go with open-source, but I'm open to anything that
> works well and can scale to handle hundreds of courses.
> 
> Thanks in advance!
> Dan
> 
> *
> Daniel Suchy
> User Services Technology Analyst
> University of California, San Diego Libraries
> 858.534.6819
> dsu...@ucsd.edu

Re: [CODE4LIB] Local catalog records and Google, Bing, Yahoo!

[Sean Hannan]

Alrighty.

I took the top 10 landing pages of people coming from google and did a quick
google check with the 'link:' operator to find...that none of them were
linked elsewhere.

I know that the 'link:' operator can be a little finicky, so I've enabled
google webmaster tools. I'll check back in a day or two once it's had time
to recrawl and show me the inbound links...but I have a feeling that this
result will not change much.

The second most popular landing page is actually a LCSH subject search. I
highly doubt that anyone is linking to a listing of items that we have filed
under Sex customs -- India, but it is 5th hit when people google for 'india
sexuality customs'. (Which is the number one keyword search that gets people
to us, minus "jhu library catalog" and its permutations).

Also, our top 10 landing pages are mostly books or journals with lengthy
titles. Looking through the search keywords, people are not just typing one
or two words and ending up at our catalog. People are typing in
'international journal of obesity and related metabolic disorders' and
getting us as the 4th hit.  Seems like the more specific people are in their
searching (I'm seeing a lot of full, lengthy-titled keyword searches that
include the author's name), the more likely they are to end up at our
catalog.

-Sean


On 2/24/12 2:33 PM, "Binkley, Peter"  wrote:

> That example "gil scott heron circle of stone" returns a JHU record as
> the first hit, but the item is his thesis and the url is found in the
> Wikipedia article on Gil Scott-Heron, so it has a lot of pagerank
> independently of the catalogue. I'm just curious: can you control for
> that kind of externally-prominent link in your 59% number - say by
> taking the top x items that people hit from Google and searching their
> urls in Google to see if anyone else is linking to them? It would be
> interesting to know how much of that 59% is due to the richness and
> well-linkedness of JHU's special collections rather than to the
> prominence Google is giving to the catalogue.
> 
> Peter
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Peter Binkley
> Digital Initiatives Technology Librarian
> Information Technology Services
> peter.bink...@ualberta.ca
> 
> 4-30 Cameron Library
> University of Alberta
> Edmonton, Alberta
> Canada T6G 2J8
> 
> phone 780-492-3743
> fax 780-492-9243
> 
> 
> 
> -Original Message-
> From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of
> Sean Hannan
> Sent: Thursday, February 23, 2012 11:37 AM
> To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
> Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Local catalog records and Google, Bing, Yahoo!
> 
> Our Blacklight-powered catalog (https://catalyst.library.jhu.edu/) comes
> up
> a lot in google search results (try gil scott heron circle of stone).
> 
> Some numbers:
> 
> 59% of our total catalog traffic comes from google searches
> 0.04% of our total catalog traffic comes from yahoo searches
> 0.03% of our total catalog traffic comes from bing searches
> 
> For context, 32.96% of our total catalog traffic is direct traffic and
> referrals from all of the library websites combined.
> 
> Anecdotally, it would appear that bing (and bing-using yahoo) seem to
> drastically play down catalog records in their results. We're not doing
> anything to favor a particular search engine; we have a completely open
> robots.txt file.
> 
> Google regularly indexes our catalog. Every couple days or so. I haven't
> checked in awhile.
> 
> We're not doing any fancy SEO here (though, I'd like to implement some
> of
> the microdata stuff).  It's just a function of how the site works. We
> link a
> lot of our catalog results to further searches (clicking on an author
> name
> takes you to an author search with that name, etc).  Google *loves* that
> type of intertextual website linking (see also: Wikipedia). We also have
> stable URLs. Search URLs will always return searches with those
> parameters,
> item URLs are based on an ID that does not change.
> 
> All of that good stuff doesn't help us with bing, though. ...But I'm not
> really concerned with remedying that, right this moment.
> 
> -Sean
> 
> On 2/23/12 12:37 PM, "todd.d.robb...@gmail.com"
> 
> wrote:
> 
>> First of all, I'm going to say I know little in this area. I've done
> some
>> preliminary research about search indexing (Google's) and investigated
> a
>> few OPAC robot.txt files. Now to my questions:
>> 
>>- Can someone explain to me or point me to research as to why local
>>library catalog records do not show up in Google, Bing, or Yahoo!
> search
>&

Re: [CODE4LIB] Local catalog records and Google, Bing, Yahoo!

[Sean Hannan]

It's hard to say. Going off of the numbers that I have, I'd say that they do
find what they are looking for, but they unless they are a JHU affiliate,
they are unable to access it.

Our bounce rate for Google searches is 76%.  Which is not necessarily bad,
because we put a lot of information on our item record pages--we don't make
you dig for anything.

On the other hand, 9% of visits coming to us through Google searches are
return visits. To me, that says that the other 91% are not JHU affiliates,
and that's 91% of Google searchers that won't have access to materials.

I know from monitoring our feedback form, we have gotten in increase in
requests from far flung places for access to things we have in special
collections from non-affiliates.

So, we get lots of exposure via searches, but due to the nature of how
libraries work with subscriptions, licensing, membership and such, we close
lots of doors once they get there.

-Sean

On 2/23/12 1:55 PM, "Schneider, Wayne"  wrote:

> This is really interesting. Do you have evidence (anecdotally or
> otherwise) that the people coming to you via search engines found what
> they were looking for? Sorry, I don't know exactly how to phrase this.
> To put it another way - are your patrons finding you this way?
> 
> wayne
> 
> -Original Message-
> From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of
> Sean Hannan
> Sent: Thursday, February 23, 2012 12:37 PM
> To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
> Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Local catalog records and Google, Bing, Yahoo!
> 
> Our Blacklight-powered catalog (https://catalyst.library.jhu.edu/) comes
> up a lot in google search results (try gil scott heron circle of stone).
> 
> Some numbers:
> 
> 59% of our total catalog traffic comes from google searches 0.04% of our
> total catalog traffic comes from yahoo searches 0.03% of our total
> catalog traffic comes from bing searches
> 
> For context, 32.96% of our total catalog traffic is direct traffic and
> referrals from all of the library websites combined.
> 
> Anecdotally, it would appear that bing (and bing-using yahoo) seem to
> drastically play down catalog records in their results. We're not doing
> anything to favor a particular search engine; we have a completely open
> robots.txt file.
> 
> Google regularly indexes our catalog. Every couple days or so. I haven't
> checked in awhile.
> 
> We're not doing any fancy SEO here (though, I'd like to implement some
> of the microdata stuff).  It's just a function of how the site works. We
> link a lot of our catalog results to further searches (clicking on an
> author name takes you to an author search with that name, etc).  Google
> *loves* that type of intertextual website linking (see also: Wikipedia).
> We also have stable URLs. Search URLs will always return searches with
> those parameters, item URLs are based on an ID that does not change.
> 
> All of that good stuff doesn't help us with bing, though. ...But I'm not
> really concerned with remedying that, right this moment.
> 
> -Sean
> 
> On 2/23/12 12:37 PM, "todd.d.robb...@gmail.com"
> 
> wrote:
> 
>> First of all, I'm going to say I know little in this area. I've done
>> some preliminary research about search indexing (Google's) and
>> investigated a few OPAC robot.txt files. Now to my questions:
>> 
>>- Can someone explain to me or point me to research as to why local
>>library catalog records do not show up in Google, Bing, or Yahoo!
> search
>>results?
>>- Is there a general prohibition by libraries for search engines to
>>crawl their public records?
>>- Do the search engines not index these records actively?
>>- Is it a matter of SEO/promoted results?
>>- Is it because some systems don't mint URLs for each record?
>> 
>> I haven't seen a lot of discussion about this recently and I know
>> Jason Ranallo has done a lot of work in this area and gave a great
>> talk at code4lib Seattle on microdata/Schema.org, so I figured this
>> could be part of that continuing conversation.
>> 
>> I look forward to being educated by you all,
>> 
>> Tod

Re: [CODE4LIB] Local catalog records and Google, Bing, Yahoo!

[Sean Hannan]

Our Blacklight-powered catalog (https://catalyst.library.jhu.edu/) comes up
a lot in google search results (try gil scott heron circle of stone).

Some numbers:

59% of our total catalog traffic comes from google searches
0.04% of our total catalog traffic comes from yahoo searches
0.03% of our total catalog traffic comes from bing searches

For context, 32.96% of our total catalog traffic is direct traffic and
referrals from all of the library websites combined.

Anecdotally, it would appear that bing (and bing-using yahoo) seem to
drastically play down catalog records in their results. We're not doing
anything to favor a particular search engine; we have a completely open
robots.txt file.

Google regularly indexes our catalog. Every couple days or so. I haven't
checked in awhile.

We're not doing any fancy SEO here (though, I'd like to implement some of
the microdata stuff).  It's just a function of how the site works. We link a
lot of our catalog results to further searches (clicking on an author name
takes you to an author search with that name, etc).  Google *loves* that
type of intertextual website linking (see also: Wikipedia). We also have
stable URLs. Search URLs will always return searches with those parameters,
item URLs are based on an ID that does not change.

All of that good stuff doesn't help us with bing, though. ...But I'm not
really concerned with remedying that, right this moment.

-Sean

On 2/23/12 12:37 PM, "todd.d.robb...@gmail.com" 
wrote:

> First of all, I'm going to say I know little in this area. I've done some
> preliminary research about search indexing (Google's) and investigated a
> few OPAC robot.txt files. Now to my questions:
> 
>- Can someone explain to me or point me to research as to why local
>library catalog records do not show up in Google, Bing, or Yahoo! search
>results?
>- Is there a general prohibition by libraries for search engines to
>crawl their public records?
>- Do the search engines not index these records actively?
>- Is it a matter of SEO/promoted results?
>- Is it because some systems don't mint URLs for each record?
> 
> I haven't seen a lot of discussion about this recently and I know Jason
> Ranallo has done a lot of work in this area and gave a great talk at
> code4lib Seattle on microdata/Schema.org, so I figured this could be part
> of that continuing conversation.
> 
> I look forward to being educated by you all,
> 
> Tod

Re: [CODE4LIB] Issue Tracker Recommendations

[Sean Hannan]

Not Jira.

-Sean


On 2/22/12 12:36 PM, "Cynthia Ng"  wrote:

> Hi All,
> 
> We're looking at implementing an issue tracker for internal use, so
> I'm looking for recommendations.
> 
> What's key:
> 1) minimal effort in install/setup i.e. ready to use out of the box
> 2) small scale is okay, we have a very small team
> 3) ideally, have an area for documentation and issue creation via email
> 
> What does your institution use?
> What do you like and dislike most about it?
> Would you recommend it to others?
> 
> Responses (short or detailed) would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> Thanks,
> Cynthia

Re: [CODE4LIB] Conference size

[Sean Hannan]

This should fill some gaps: 
http://cynng.wordpress.com/2012/02/07/code4lib-day-keynote-on-code4libcon/

-Sean

From: Code for Libraries [CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] on behalf of Benjamin 
Florin [benjamin.flo...@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, February 08, 2012 11:37 AM
To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Conference size

For those of us reading about this from home, what was the "keynote bomb"?

Ben

On Wed, Feb 8, 2012 at 11:35 AM, Patrick Berry  wrote:
> I completely agree that size and character are a complex issues.  The folks
> at Concentra have dealt with these issues before and have helped other
> organizations (JASIG to name the one I'm familiar with), so it's just a
> piece of the puzzle.
>
> But if we're going to tackle this we can't just say that it's too tough and
> we don't know where to start.  We start at the beginning.
>
> On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 10:40 AM, Cary Gordon  wrote:
>
>> I think that conference size and character is a complex issue that
>> won't be solved by simply hiring a production company. That part comes
>> later.
>>
>> Cary
>>
>> On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 10:17 AM, John Fereira  wrote:
>> > Hi Patrick,
>> >
>> > Yes, Jenn (from Concentra) is awesome.
>> >
>> > -Original Message-
>> > From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of
>> Patrick Berry
>> > Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 1:00 PM
>> > To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
>> > Subject: [CODE4LIB] Conference size
>> >
>> > So, the keynote bomb has gone off.  One of the issues is that it's
>> really hard to put on a conference. Another conference I used to attend
>> used Concentra CMS to run their conferences.
>> >
>> > http://www.concentra-cms.com/services.html
>> >
>> > I'm just throwing that out there.
>> >
>> > Pat
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Cary Gordon
>> The Cherry Hill Company
>> http://chillco.com
>>

Re: [CODE4LIB] T-shirt contest winner

[Sean Hannan]

I could have gone the Python route, but tabs don't show up well in a two-color 
design.

-Sean

From: Code for Libraries [CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] on behalf of Simon Spero 
[s...@unc.edu]
Sent: Friday, December 23, 2011 11:45 AM
To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] T-shirt contest winner

There seems to be a character encoding error; #\( is rendering as #\{ and
#\) is rendering as #\}.

((believes ed.) (that (shurely (that (exists ?X (mistake ?X)))

Simon
On Dec 22, 2011 10:53 PM, "Ann Lally"  wrote:

> Sean Hannan from Johns Hopkins University is the winner of the Code4Lib
> 2012 t-shirt design contest! The voting was VERY close, but in the end,
> Sean pulled ahead and came out the winner.
> To see the winning design please visit:
> http://wiki.code4lib.org/index.php/C4l2012_t-shirtcontest
>
> Congratulations Sean!
>
> Angie Beiriger and Ann Lally
> T-shirt Committee
>

Re: [CODE4LIB] Pandering for votes for code4lib sessions

[Sean Hannan]

On Dec 1, 2011, at 8:34 AM, "Richard, Joel M"  wrote:

> In the end, the conference organizers can invite whoever they want to speak. 
> The voting ends up being a courtesy to the rest of us.
> 
> --Joel
> 
> Joel Richard
> Lead Web Developer, Web Services Department
> Smithsonian Institution Libraries | http://www.sil.si.edu/
> (202) 633-1706 | richar...@si.edu
> 
> 
> 

This indicates a massive misunderstanding of how code4lib works. 

-Sean


> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Dec 1, 2011, at 8:06 AM, Lynch,Katherine wrote:
> 
>> I was actually going to suggest just this, Kåre!  Another way to handle
>> it, or perhaps an additional way, would be give a user's votes a certain
>> amount of weight proportionate to the number of sessions they voted on.
>> So if they evaluated all of them and voted, 100% of their vote gets
>> counted.  If they evaluated half, 50%, and so on?  Not sure if this is
>> worth the effort, but I know it's worked for various camps that I've been
>> to which fall prey to the same problem.
>> 
>> Sincerely,
>> Katherine
>> 
>> On 12/1/11 6:55 AM, "Kåre Fiedler Christiansen" 
>> wrote:
>> 
 From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On
 Behalf Of Michael B. Klein
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
 In any case, I'm interested to see how effective this current "call
 for
 support" is.
>>> 
>>> Me too!
>>> 
>>> Could someone with access to the voting data perhaps anonymously pull out
>>> how many voters have given points to only a single talk or two?
>>> 
>>> If the problem is indeed real, perhaps simply stating on the page that
>>> you are expected to evaluate _all_ proposals, and not just vote up a
>>> single talk, would help the issue? It might turn away some of the "wrong
>>> voters". Requiring to give out at least, say, 10 points, could be perhaps
>>> be a way to enforce some participation?
>>> 
>>> Best,
>>> Kåre

Re: [CODE4LIB] Conference Schedule 2012

[Sean Hannan]

The draft schedule (http://code4lib.org/conference/2012/schedule) says we're
done at 12:15.

-Sean


On 11/16/11 12:00 PM, "Lepczyk, Timothy"  wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> Any idea when things wrap up on the 9th? I'm trying to gauge leaving that day
> vs the 10th.
> 
> Best,
> 
> Tim
> 
> -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -
> Timothy A. Lepczyk
> Digital Repository-Metadata Librarian
> John M. Olin Library
> Washington University
> 
> Phone: 314.935.8934
> Email: tlepc...@wustl.edu
> Website: http://www.digital.wustl.edu/

Re: [CODE4LIB] Code4Lib 2012 Registration Cost?

[Sean Hannan]

How about we call it a generously free preconference instead?

-Sean


On 11/9/11 4:29 PM, "Timothy McGeary"  wrote:

> So based on these responses - can the costs of the pre-confs be separated
> out?  Is there lunch provided?  Is it only room rental?
> 
> Either way, if it's going to be called a pre-conf, then the registration
> fee for the conference should only be charged for costs of the actual
> conference.  Otherwise, don't call it a pre-conf and have a range of
> options that will encompass all who are registering.
> 
> Tim
> 
> On Wed, Nov 9, 2011 at 3:31 PM, Edward M. Corrado wrote:
> 
>> On Wed, Nov 9, 2011 at 3:24 PM, Cowles, Esme  wrote:
>>> The CURATEcamp hackfest last year was free (sponsored by DLF):
>>> 
>>> http://curatecamp.org/node/21
>>> 
>>> -Esme
>> 
>> Not really free if it was sponsored by DLF, no?
>> 
>> Edward
>> 
>> 
>>> --
>>> Esme Cowles 
>>> 
>>> "In Lydia's imagination, a visit to Brighton comprised every possibility
>> of
>>>  earthly happiness." -- Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
>>> 
>>> On 11/9/2011, at 3:16 PM, Kevin S. Clarke wrote:
>>> 
 On Wed, Nov 9, 2011 at 12:01 PM, Cary Gordon 
>> wrote:
> I don't think that we have charged for pre-conferences in previous
> years, have we?
 
 Yes, we have.  We've even had people want to come to the preconference
 (and pay the preconference charge) but not attend the regular
 conference.  :-)
 
> I am pretty sure that we haven't charged for
> hackfests.
 
 Have we had hackfests in the past?
 
 Kevin
>>> 
>> 
> 
> 

Re: [CODE4LIB] ISBN Regular Expression

[Sean Hannan]

GitHub search knows all:
https://github.com/zapnap/isbn_validation/blob/master/lib/isbn_validation.rb

-Sean


On 10/21/11 1:44 PM, "Kozlowski,Brendon"  wrote:

> Hi all.
> 
> 
> 
> I'm somewhat surprised that I've never had to validate an ISBN manually up
> until now. I suppose that's a testiment to all of the software out there.
> 
> 
> 
> However, I now find that I need to validate both the 10-digit and 13-digit
> ISBNs. I realize there's also a check digit and a REGEX cannot check this
> value - one step at a time. Right now I just want to work on the REGEX.
> 
> 
> 
> Does anyone know the exact specifications of both forms of an ISBN? The ISBN
> organization's website didn't seem to be overly clear to me. Alternatively, if
> anyone has a full working regular expression for this purpose I would
> definitely not mind if they'd be willing to share.
> 
> 
> 
> The only thing I'm doing which is abnormal is that I am not requiring the
> hyphenation or spaces between numbers since some of this data will be coming
> from a system, and some will be coming from human input.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Brendon Kozlowski
> Web Administrator
> Saratoga Springs Public Library
> 49 Henry Street
> Saratoga Springs, NY, 12866
> [518] 584-7860 x217
> 
> Please consider the environment before printing this message.
> 
> To report this message as spam, offensive, or if you feel you have received
> this in error,
> 
> please send e-mail to ab...@sals.edu including the entire contents and subject
> of the message.
> 
> It will be reviewed by staff and acted upon appropriately.

Re: [CODE4LIB] New thread: Why are you doing what you're doing?

[Sean Hannan]

Evangelizing the importance and use of large information sets, research, and
discovery through alternate media forms. Visualizations, interactive
installations, video art.

Anyone feeling crazy enough to create a position like that?

-Sean

On 9/28/11 2:12 PM, "Karen Coyle"  wrote:

> I think a great question would be: what would you REALLY like to be
> doing? And I'm meaning that professionally, not "I'd rather be
> sailing/sleeping/drinking a beer." Pretend that the daily niggling
> bits of the job are gone and money is no object -- what would you do?
> 
> kc
> 
> Quoting Matt McCollow :
> 
>> "Why not? Why not? Why not not, then, if the best reasoning you can
>> contrive is why not?" - David Foster Wallace
>> 
>> I do what I do because I like learning how things work, taking
>> things apart and seeing what makes them tick. I like taking an idea
>> I have and making something with it, and I like taking things that
>> are broken and making them work. I think if I hadn't gone down the
>> developer path, I might have liked to be a mechanic.
>> 
>> Matt McCollow
>> Web Developer
>> Mills Library, McMaster University
>> 
>> On 2011-09-28, at 1:44 PM, Eric Hellman wrote:
>> 
>>> I think it's a good question, worth asking about *every* dev
>>> position being hired for.  I would be interested to hear an answer
>>> from others on the list. In fact, I think the price of putting a
>>> position announcement on Code4lib should be a willingness to answer
>>> "why?". And "why not?" is a pretty pathetic answer.
>>> 
>>> For me, I'm doing what I'm doing because I think it's important and
>>> because no one else is doing it. I hope there are many other with a
>>> similar answer.
>>> 
>>> Eric
>> 
> 
> 

Re: [CODE4LIB] Job Posting: Digital Library Repository Developer, Boston Public Library (Boston, MA)

[Sean Hannan]

OCLC Monopoly!

Go directly to CONTENTdm. Do not pass Worldcat. Do not collect $200.

-Sean


On 9/28/11 2:11 PM, "Ya'aqov Ziso"  wrote:

> *As a community, we create and modify our policies as we go along SO THAT we
> can contribute freely in our discussions with each other.*
> *
> *
> *Anybody, including a senior officer from corporate OCLC can simply state
> that her/his opinion does not represent her/his employer. **[without such
> distinction from OCLC's Tennant, how would an applicant feel about the
> position's description? to whom does s/he report, to BPL or partially also
> to OCLC?]*
> *
> *
> *This list archives include instances where such distinctions were not
> drawn, and people expected OCLC to kick in resources and involvements, and
> that did not happen. The reverse also happened, and personal opinions turned
> out to be strict OCLC policy.*
> *
> *
> *Ya'aqov*

[CODE4LIB] Job: Techy Library Position at SAIS, Johns Hopkins University - Washington, DC

[Sean Hannan]

Sorry for the vague title, but ‘LAN Administrator III’ (the official title) 
doesn’t really describe the position...

BUT THIS DOES:

The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) is a leading 
graduate school of international affairs, educating students for professional 
careers in government, business, journalism, international organizations, 
academia and nonprofits.SAIS enrolls about 600 full-time students in 
Washington, D.C., primarily in the school’s two-year Master of Arts program.  
Approximately 40 percent of the students are non-U.S. citizens coming from more 
than 70 countries.  About 190 students study at the Bologna Center in Italy 
while about 140 students attend the Hopkins-Nanjing Center in China.  To learn 
more about SAIS, visit www.sais-jhu.edu  .

The Position The Office of Information Technology is currently seeking a senior 
systems/network administrator for SAIS providing Tier 3 technology support to 
staff, students, faculty and the Mason Library -- including the integrated 
library management system, electronic reserves, web content, interlibrary loan 
management system, and Pharos.  Leads, or assists, in planning and implementing 
technology projects, policies, and procedures for SAIS to include the Library 
and the Hopkins-Nanjing Center Library.  This position functions with limited 
supervision providing primary support to the library but will also collaborate 
on and work with other SAIS wide IT assignments. The position requires the 
ability to make informed decisions, problem solve, and/or provide 
recommendations within scope of position responsibilities.  Additional 
independent time is spent on creative or developmental endeavors requiring both 
original work and refinement of previous practices, reporting back to !
 the CIO/ Library Director.

The successful candidate for this position will be subject to a pre-employment 
background check.  Johns Hopkins offers competitive salaries, excellent 
benefits and a very supportive, team-spirited environment in a drug- and 
smoke-free workplace.

Apply: https://hrnt.jhu.edu/jhujobs/job_view.cfm?view_req_id=49899&view=sch

-Sean

[CODE4LIB] Job: Software Engineer - Sheridan Libraries, Johns Hopkins University

[Sean Hannan]

*Apologies for cross-posting.*

Want do do some fun work exposing special collections/repository materials with 
Solr/Blacklight? Sure you do.

Come work with us.

This is a one-year full time position.

-Sean


Details:

Software Engineer

General Description:

Position will perform a major role in the design, software development, and 
implementation of Sheridan Libraries’ digital collections’ discovery and 
presentation interfaces as well as associated backend workflows. The position 
will be responsible for formulating, developing and implementing technological 
solutions to expose some of Johns Hopkins’ libraries rarest and most unique 
special collections via the web and to a variety of handheld devices. In 
addition, the position will be responsible for developing and/or supporting 
software to support the digitization of this content. The position is located 
at service-oriented, team-based and result-driven Library Systems department. 
The position will interact with the Sheridan Libraries’ Digital Research and 
Curation Center (DRCC) and other library and museum staff.

The primary duties and responsibilities of the job:

• Develop framework for exposing rare digital collections’ content, such as 
maps, digitized books, sheet music, rich text, audio and video, through common 
platforms for discovery and presentation.
 • Design and implement an architecture, including associated API layers, for 
exposing data from Johns Hopkins’ libraries various repositories and other data 
stores.
 • Develop context-appropriate interfaces specifically suited to handheld 
devices, including, but not limited to, iPads, DROIDs, and iPhones.
 • Develop solutions that work within existing open source infrastructure, 
including software such as dSpace, Fedora, Blacklight, Rails, Solr, and Umlaut.
 • Work with staff, customers, external organizations and open source 
communities.
 • Work across different development teams working on separate collaborative 
projects.
 • Adhere to and use online collaboration tools and change/version control 
tools to project-wide standards such as site design specs, data storage 
requirement, structured programming techniques, testing results, 
software/hardware releases and application customization procedures.

Additional information: The Sheridan Libraries encompass the Milton S. 
Eisenhower Library and its collections at the John Work Garrett Library, the 
George Peabody Library, the Albert D. Hutzler Reading Room, and the DC Centers. 
Its primary constituency is the students and faculty in the schools of Arts & 
Sciences, Engineering, Carey Business School and the School of Education. A key 
partner in the academic enterprise, the library is a leader in the innovative 
application of information technology and has implemented notable diversity and 
organizational development programs. The Sheridan Libraries are strongly 
committed to diversity. A strategic goal of the Libraries is to 'work toward 
achieving diversity when recruiting new and promoting existing staff.' The 
Libraries prize initiative, creativity, professionalism, and teamwork. For 
information on the Sheridan Libraries, visit www.library.jhu.edu 
 .

Qualifications:

BA/BS required with 5 years software development, including web application 
front-end development.

• Demonstrated experience developing for web architectures, including 
software-to-software API production or consumption.
• Experience designing, developing, and/or developing against web services 
(XML, JSON).
• Solid work experience with Unix/Linux environment.
• Ability and willingness to learn new programming languages and technologies 
quickly.
• Experience with open source software, especially related to academic 
application development.
• Familiarity with application development lifecycles, project management and 
quality assurance processes.
• Must be highly service oriented, self-motivated, and possess a team-working 
attitude with strong and effective communication skills.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with library-sector “institutional repository” software and/or 
working with software that manages library-type metadata.
• Experience integrating disparate products into an integrated user environment.
• Experience with Java web apps and servlet containers (eg. tomcat, jetty).
• A working knowledge of Rails is preferred.
• Experience developing apps or interfaces for mobile devices is desirable.
• Expertise in one of the following programming languages: Ruby, Java.
• Experience with library related technologies such as integrated library 
technologies, digital library repositories, e.g. Fedora, dSpace. Familiarity 
with Blacklight open source software or Solr is highly desirable.
 • Experience with Agile development methods preferred.

Apply: https://hrnt.jhu.edu/jhujobs/job_view.cfm?view_req_id=49120&view=sch

Re: [CODE4LIB] Brief Survey: Reasons you've been given for NOT having a CMS in your library

[Sean Hannan]

This assumes that you want a CMS.

I don't.

http://www.slideshare.net/MrDys/lets-get-small-a-microservices-approach-to-l
ibrary-websites

-Sean


On 9/9/11 3:21 PM, "Varnum, Ken"  wrote:

> * Apologies for cross-posting *
> 
> We are doing a presentation at Internet Librarian
> (http://www.infotoday.com/il2011/day.asp?day=Wednesday#session_E302) on
> "Making a Case for CMS!". In preparation, we are exploring reasons you have
> been given for NOT having a CMS in your library. Have a good reason? Have a
> ludicrous reason? Fill out the poll at http://bitly.com/cmspoll
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Nina McHale (nina.mch...@ucdenver.edu)
> Ken Varnum (var...@umich.edu)

[CODE4LIB] FW: [Blacklight-development] Release 3.0 of Project Blacklight

[Sean Hannan]

FYI, y’all.

Big, big thanks to dfunk for getting the lion’s share of the code working in 
Rails 3.

-Sean

-- Forwarded Message
From: Dan Funk 
Reply-To: 
Date: Mon, 11 Jul 2011 18:11:02 -0400
To: 
Subject: [Blacklight-development] Release 3.0 of Project Blacklight

I am proud to announce the release of Version 3.0 of Project Blacklight.

Here are just a few things that are new in Blacklight 3.0:


  *   Installable as a Gem
  *   Rails 3.0 and 3.1 compatible
  *   JRuby Support
  *   Ruby 1.9.2 Support
  *   Automated Installation via Generators (rails generate Blacklight)
  *   Reduced dependencies (no longer requires Authlogic)
  *   Uses the new Rails3 engines for easier integration into your existing 
application

A complete announcement is on our Blog: http://projectblacklight.org/blog.html 
along with links to get you started.



Yours Faithfully,

The Blacklight Team.



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Re: [CODE4LIB] Code4Lib 2012 Seattle Update.

[Sean Hannan]

Honestly, I'm the most concerned that there was only one proposal last year.
Let's try to solve that problem.

-Sean


On 6/15/11 1:46 PM, "Kevin S. Clarke"  wrote:

> On Wed, Jun 15, 2011 at 1:27 PM, Jonathan Rochkind  wrote:
> 
>> Heresy I know, but I wonder if we should change conf host/site selection
>> from an open vote, to a conf selection committee that chooses.  Then the
>> committee could say to themselves "you know, even though the hosts say no
>> problem keeping costs as usual, we don't think an expensive city like that
>> is the best thing for us." Of course, in addition to being heretical, that
>> would rely on there being some people who wanted to fill that role, which
>> there may not be.
> 
> What is the problem we're trying to solve again?  Do we think that the
> recent conferences have cost too much for the attendees?  That this
> year's will cost too much?  Are we worried about not finding places to
> host in the future?  Are we worried about needing the level of
> sponsorship that we currently do?
> 
> This seems, to me, like a solution in search of a problem.  If we've
> trying to address the conference's relationship with its sponsors,
> Jaf's suggestion (e.g., define our expectations and see what happens)
> seems like a reasonable first step to me.
> 
> Kevin

Re: [CODE4LIB] exposing website visitor IP addresses to webcrawlers

[Sean Hannan]

I think in many circumstances, this sort of disclosure is covered by a
site's privacy policy (or it should be).

-Sean


On 5/20/11 10:35 AM, "Keith Jenkins"  wrote:

> Just out of curiosity, does anyone on this list have any opinions
> about whether website owners should publicly post lists of their
> visitors' IP addresses (or hostnames) and to also allow such lists to
> be indexable by search engines?
> 
> For example:
> https://www3.ietf.org/usagedata/site_201104.html
> 
> Keith

Re: [CODE4LIB] linking catalog records to IMDB

[Sean Hannan]

If I were doing this, I'd use the Freebase (freebase.com) API and write a
little app that returns the IMDB title stem (ex: tt0460791) for each of the
films you're trying to match up.

-Sean


On 4/27/11 10:56 AM, "R. Levi"  wrote:

> I would like to add a link to IMDB for the feature  films that we have in our
> catalog.  IMDB doesn't appear to have  ISBNs.  Is there a way to link the MARC
> record with the IMDB record  without manually searching IMDB to find each
> movie?  Thanks, Rich

Re: [CODE4LIB] MARC magic for file

[Sean Hannan]

http://i.imgur.com/6WtA0.png

(Sorry, it's Friday. Also, blame dchud for the idea.)

-Sean


On 4/6/11 4:53 PM, "Mike Taylor"  wrote:

> On 6 April 2011 19:53, Jonathan Rochkind  wrote:
>> On 4/6/2011 2:43 PM, William Denton wrote:
>>> 
>>> "Validity" does mean something definite ... but Postel's Law is a good
>>> guideline, especially with the swamp of bad MARC, old MARC, alternate
>>> MARC, that's out there.  Valid MARC is valid MARC, but if---for the sake
>>> of file and its magic---we can identify technically invalid but still
>>> usable MARC, that's good.
>> 
>> Hmm, accept in the case of Web Browsers, I think general consensus is
>> Postel's law was not helpful. These days, most people seem to think that
>> having different browsers be tolerant of invalid data in different ways was
>> actually harmful rather than helpful to inter-operability (which is
>> theoretically the goal of Postel's law), and that's not what people do
>> anymore in web browser land, at least not to the extremes they used to do
>> it.
> 
> But the idea that browsers should be less permissive in what they
> accept is a modern one that we now have the luxury of only because
> adherence to Postel's law in the early days of the Web allowed it to
> become ubiquitous.  Though it's true, as Harvey Thompson has observed
> that "it's difficult to retro-fit correctness", Clay Shirky was also
> very right when he pointed out that "You cannot simultaneously have
> mass adoption and rigor".  If browsers in 1995 had been as pedantic as
> the browsers of 2011 (rightly) are, we wouldn't even have the Web; or
> if it existed at all it would just be a nichey thing that a few
> scientists used to make their publications available to each other.
> 
> So while I agree that in the case of HTML we are right to now be
> moving towards more rigorous demands of what to accept (as well, of
> course, as being conservative in what we emit), I don't think we could
> have made the leap from nothing to modern rigour.
> 
> -- Mike

[CODE4LIB] Job Posting: Systems Engineer, Sheridan Libraries, Johns Hopkins University

[Sean Hannan]

We’re looking for a sysadmin at Hopkins.  Come work with me.  It’ll be cool, I 
promise.

-Sean
---

https://hrnt.jhu.edu/jhujobs/job_view.cfm?view_req_id=46964

The Systems Engineer will provide systems administration and, to a lesser 
extent, programming support for the Systems department’s multi-platform - 
primarily Linux, but also some Windows and Solaris – environment. This position 
will support services provided by the Systems department, including, but not 
limited to, library catalog, search interface, federated search tools, library 
web sites, blogs, file and print shares, desktop applications and mobile 
interfaces. The Systems department shares server infrastructure with Digital 
Research and Curation Center (DRCC), and collaborates closely with DRCC systems 
administrator.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities:
* Installing, upgrading and patching operating systems; installing, upgrading 
and maintaining server hardware and peripheral devices (disk arrays, tape 
libraries).
* Working with other systems administrators and programmers to proactively and 
appropriately monitor hardware, operating systems, and applications in support 
of services provided by Systems department.
* Providing support to programmers in selecting, packaging, deploying and 
configuring applications across a diverse server environment.
* Managing system backup and recovery across all supported servers.
* Supporting a virtual machine infrastructure as well as stand-alone servers.
* Troubleshooting problems across several areas, including application, 
network, OS, hardware.
* Installing, configuring, maintaining and providing security for all 
Linux/Unix systems and peripheral devices.
* Installing and maintaining small to mid-range UPS equipment.
* Configuring and managing infrastructure services, which include DNS, DHCP, 
SMTP, SSH, FTP and SMB services and software; web servers; servlet containers; 
database software (MySQL, Postgres, MSSQL).
* Serving as the point of contact for software and hardware vendors and 
vendors' technical support staff.
* Participating in the analysis and planning of systems and services, including 
recommending server configurations and purchasing.
* Serving as the liaison to the University IT community on issues related to 
Unix/Linux and systems administration.
* Participating in the Systems Office 24x7 on-call plan – includes being 
available by cell phone and participating in the on-call pager rotation.
* Sharing responsibility for physical and server environment in data center
* Programming support for optimizing system performance.
* Identifying areas for improvement in server and/or application management, 
and proposing/implementing solutions to improve processes.

Qualifications:
* Bachelor’s degree and five years related experience required. Additional 
education may substitute for required experience and additional related 
experience may substitute for required education, to the extent permitted by 
the JHU equivalency formula.
* The candidate will support a variety of applications and services running on 
Linux, Unix (Solaris), and Windows. Individual must work closely with other 
staff in the Library Systems department, DRCC, central IT department, and with 
external vendors and developers. Excellent oral and written communication and 
interpersonal skills are essential. Position may require lifting of materials 
less than 50 pounds occasionally.

Preferred Qualifications:
* Working experience with a virtual machine framework, such as XenServer; 
experience with Windows AD; experience with deploying software packages; 
experience with Tomcat, MySQL and PostgreSQL; programming experience in Unix 
shells, Ruby, Java, and Perl; and knowledge or experience with libraries are 
desirable.

The Sheridan Libraries encompass the Milton S. Eisenhower Library and its 
collections at the John Work Garrett Library, the George Peabody Library, the 
Albert D. Hutzler Reading Room, and the DC Centers. Its primary constituency is 
the students and faculty in the schools of Arts & Sciences, Engineering, Carey 
Business School and the School of Education. A key partner in the academic 
enterprise, the library is a leader in the innovative application of 
information technology and has implemented notable diversity and organizational 
development programs. The Sheridan Libraries are strongly committed to 
diversity. A strategic goal of the Libraries is to 'work toward achieving 
diversity when recruiting new and promoting existing staff.' The Libraries 
prize initiative, creativity, professionalism, and teamwork. For information on 
the Sheridan Libraries, visit www.library.jhu.edu .

[CODE4LIB] Wednesday Afternoon Video?

[Sean Hannan]

So, it looks like the Wednesday Afternoon archive video cuts off at lunch.  Did 
the afternoon talks get recorded.?

-Sean

Re: [CODE4LIB] Fwd: Code4lib 2011 Conference Registration

[Sean Hannan]

On 12/8/10 12:45 PM, "Westman, Stephen"  wrote:

> There seems to be a great deal of interest in the conference opening time.  It
> almost reminds me of people lining up for the IPhone. ;-)
> 
> Is there a reason for this?  Not having gone to code4lib before, do slots fill
> up quickly?

You betcha!


-Sean


> 
> Thanks for any info you could provide!
> 
> Stephen Westman
> Digital Information Systems Librarian
> University of North Carolina at Charlotte
> 9201 University City Boulevard
> Charlotte, NC 28223
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -Original Message-
> From: Code for Libraries on behalf of Jonathan Rochkind
> Sent: Wed 12/8/2010 11:43 AM
> To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
> Subject: [CODE4LIB] Fwd: Code4lib 2011 Conference Registration
>  
>  Original Message 
> Subject:  Code4lib 2011 Conference Registration
> Date:  Wed, 8 Dec 2010 11:40:53 -0500
> From:  mcdonald 
> Reply-To:  code4lib...@googlegroups.com 
> To:  code4libcon 
> 
> 
> 
> As mentioned here on Monday,  Code4lib 2011 Conference Registration
> will open on on Monday Dec 13, 2010.
> 
> I have posted this notice here - http://code4lib.org/conference/2011
> 
> On Monday I will notify this list, the code4ib list, and the IRC
> channel once registration has been opened.
> 
> I would also like to remind everyone about our new scholarship
> opportunities with AngelFund4Code4lib and Code4Lib Japan. I have also
> posted these up to the main web page for the site note there are still
> a few more days to apply for these opportunities.
> http://code4lib.org/conference/2011
> 
> I know the program committee is currently confirming all speaker
> slots. We do have spots reserved for all prepared speakers for
> code4lib - the current voting list has been added to the agenda -
> http://wiki.code4lib.org/index.php/C4L2011draftschedule
> 
> thanks
> 
> robert

Re: [CODE4LIB] detecting user copying URL?

[Sean Hannan]

There are JS hooks for cutting and pasting (it's how certain websites add
their little source: tag when you "excerpt" from one of their articles), but
the support is very spotty[1].  And nothing is going to let you detect
cutting and pasting from the URL bar.

[1] http://www.quirksmode.org/dom/events/cutcopypaste.html

-Sean

---
Sean Hannan
Web Developer
Sheridan Libraries
Johns Hopkins University

On 11/29/10 1:49 PM, "Ken Irwin"  wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> I have just, for the severalth time, just talked to a student who had lost a
> bunch of work in a common way: he had copied-and-pasted a bunch of
> database-content URLs on the fairly-reasonable (but, of course, incorrect)
> assumption that those URLs would get him back to the content later. He
> happened to be in LexisNexis, but it happens in lots of databases.
> 
> Here's what I'm wondering: is there any tasteful/sane way of using JavaScript
> to detect when a user clicks into the URL bar and copies/cuts the URL from a
> page that will do the user no good later? It would, to my mind, be completely
> civilized for the database provider to generate a little popup window alerting
> the user to the error of their ways.
> 
> User education would be great, of course, but some sort of built-in alert
> would be very friendly.
> 
> What think you all? Would JS or some similar tool be able to achieve this?
> 
> Ken

Re: [CODE4LIB] PHP MVC frameworks

[Sean Hannan]

It really depends on the use case.  If I'm trying to get something up
quickly and it isn't too involved, CodeIgniter.  If it's going to be a much
more fully developed application that is to be maintained for a lengthy
amount of time, Symfony.

-Sean


On 11/15/10 6:19 AM, "David Kane"  wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I am interested to hear if anyone is using PHP MVC frameworks to help with
> their code.  From what I have learned, they seem to be a very good idea
> indeed.
> 
> However, there are so many of them (http://www.phpframeworks.com/)
> 
> Also, pkp.SFU.ca uses their own one in their PKP (public knowledge project)
> software.
> 
> Who is using them and what for?
> 
> David.

Re: [CODE4LIB] usability question: searching for a database (not in a database)

[Sean Hannan]

I was in the middle of typing a really long response along these lines, but
Dre beat me to it.

But yeah, labeling is a big issue that really requires testing with actual
users to find out what works best for them. Giving users immediate
feedback/correction with Google Suggest-like functionality will clue them in
a bit quicker.

-Sean


On 7/30/10 9:04 AM, "Andreas Orphanides" 
wrote:

> Another thing that could help clarify the role of the search box would be to
> have some type-ahead action. This would cue the user as to what it is they are
> actually searching for, and also give them an opportunity to skip past the
> results screen if they select a full title from the type-ahead. Of course,
> this 
> would require a bit more infrastructure to support.
> 
> -dre.
> 
> Sarah Weeks wrote:
>> Long time lurker, first time poster.
>> I have a little usability question I was hoping someone could give me advice
>> on.
>> I'm updating the databases page on our website and we'd like to add a search
>> box that would search certain fields we have set up for our databases
>> (title, vendor, etc...) so that even if someone doesn't remember the first
>> word in the title, they can quickly find the database they're looking
>> through without having to scroll through the whole A-Z list.
>> My question is: if we add a search box to our main database page, how can we
>> make it clear that it's for searching FOR a database and not IN a database?
>> Some of the choices we've considered are:
>> Seach for a database:
>> Search this list:
>> Don't remember the name of the database? Search here:
>> 
>> I'm not feeling convinced by any of them. I'm afraid when people see a
>> search box they're not going to bother reading the text but will just assume
>> it's a federated search tool.
>> 
>> Any advice?
>> 
>> -Sarah Beth
>> 

Re: [CODE4LIB] audio transcription software

[Sean Hannan]

Not software, exactly, but this seems like an ideal thing to set up in
Mechanical Turk.

This guy did it with an audio interview:
http://waxy.org/2008/09/audio_transcription_with_mechanical_turk/

-Sean


On 5/12/10 2:18 PM, "Eric Lease Morgan"  wrote:

> Does anybody here use or know of any audio transcription software?
> 
> We have a growing number of projects here at Notre Dame that include oral
> histories. How can these digital files be converted into plain text? Audio
> transcription software may be the answer?

Re: [CODE4LIB] OCLC Service Outage Update

[Sean Hannan]

After poking around, it seems that there is: Wt (http://www.webtoolkit.eu/wt).  
After looking through the source of the Hello World example[1], I'm not sure 
why anyone would go through the trouble, but then again, I feel that way about 
a lot of lower-level compiled languages.

-Sean

[1] http://www.webtoolkit.eu/wt#/src/hello

From: Code for Libraries [code4...@listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Andrew 
Hankinson [andrew.hankin...@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, May 10, 2010 6:49 PM
To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] OCLC Service Outage Update

Is there even a C webapp framework available?

-A

On 2010-05-10, at 16:59, stuart yeates  wrote:

> Simon Spero wrote:
>
>> Of course, the real problem is that too many people are writing
>> unoptimized
>> code in energy-inefficient languages like ruby and PHP, which
>> require far
>> more servers, and far more cooling, to do the same work as properly
>> written
>> code.
>
> No, the real problem is with trolls sending flamebait.
>
> cheers
> stuart
> --
> Stuart Yeates
> http://www.nzetc.org/   New Zealand Electronic Text Centre
> http://researcharchive.vuw.ac.nz/ Institutional Repository

Re: [CODE4LIB] Bibliographic data on Freebase

[Sean Hannan]

Also, David Huynh (of Gridworks and Freebase Parallax fame) dropped into IRC 
last week asking about MARC4J and its possible use with Gridworks.

Things are afoot.

-Sean


On Apr 22, 2010, at 7:27 AM, Owen Stephens wrote:

> Thought that some on the list might be interested in various discussions
> happening on the Freebase email list at the moment:
> 
> Firstly some stuff on dealing with ISBNs
> http://lists.freebase.com/pipermail/freebase-discuss/2010-April/thread.html,
> and secondly (and more interesting I think) work on loading a University
> Library catalogue (see the link for emails with the subject "UniversityX
> Book 
> Load",
> and also this page http://wiki.freebase.com/wiki/UniversityX_Load), which
> includes work on mapping place of publication to existing Freebase location
> information (
> http://lists.freebase.com/pipermail/freebase-discuss/2010-April/001218.html)
> 
> Owen
> 
> -- 
> Owen Stephens
> Owen Stephens Consulting
> Web: http://www.ostephens.com
> Email: o...@ostephens.com

[CODE4LIB] Blacklight Developers Open Skype Call April 26

[Sean Hannan]

Apologies for cross-posting...

On April 26 at 1pm (EST)/10am (PST) Blacklight 
(http://www.projectblacklight.org/) developers will be having an hour-long 
Skype call open to anyone that cares to participate. If you have any questions 
or concerns or things you want to discuss with Blacklight programmers, feature 
requests, implementation advice, etc., here's your real-time opportunity.  If 
you just want to sit back and listen to the goings on, that's great as well.

For those that want to participate, e-mail me off-list with your Skype ID. If 
you were on previous open calls and want to be on it again, I still have your 
Skype ID, but shoot me an e-mail to express your interest. If you're new to 
Skype, please take a few minutes to test your audio setup (headphones & a 
microphone is preferred).

If you have anything specific (or in general) that you would like to chat 
about, send that along to me so I can toss it on the agenda.  An agenda will be 
posted to the blacklight-development list closer to the date of the call.

-Sean

Re: [CODE4LIB] New books RSS feed / "badge" with cover images?

[Sean Hannan]

I would suggest using Yahoo! Pipes (http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/) for 
something like this.  You can feed it your RSS feed, and add in some logic to 
strip out extraneous information and the grey boxes.

-Sean

---
Sean Hannan
Web Developer
Sheridan Libraries
Johns Hopkins University

On Apr 9, 2010, at 10:07 AM, Laura Harris wrote:

> Hi, all - I suspect something like this is being done already, so I thought I 
> would check in and ask. 
> 
> Essentially, what I would like to do is display the library's new books on a 
> web page in a graphic format - I'd like it to look very similar to the sorts 
> of widgets that GoodReads or LibraryThing users can create. I threw up a few 
> quick examples here:
> 
> http://gvsu.edu/library/zzwidget-test-171.htm 
> 
> Now, we have an RSS feed for our new books (Millennium is our ILS if it 
> matters), and as I understand it, the images we get from Syndetic Solutions 
> are parsed as enclosures to that RSS feed. Is there a way to take the RSS 
> feed, and only show those enclosures (if they exist, and are not the default 
> "grey box" we see if the book doesn't have a cover image) somehow? 
> 
> Or perhaps there's a really easy way to do this that I'm overlooking. 
> 
> Would appreciate your insight! 
> 
> Thanks,

Re: [CODE4LIB] Vote for Code4Lib 2011 host is OPEN

[Sean Hannan]

Not to mention that the SkyTrain will get you to Main in 3 minutes, and there 
your options increase exponentially.

-Sean

On Mar 14, 2010, at 5:35 PM, Paul Joseph wrote:

> Here's a few pubs and brewpubs that have decent beers and are within easy
> walking distance to the proposed hotel in Vancouver:
> 
> http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&cd=1&ei=-VGdS4uGJo-wsQOq-pypAw&sig2=BLolHm_6heW_NehsLNNrKQ&ie=UTF8&view=map&ved=0CE0QgAc&msa=0&msid=109855744217088022882.000481c8f6f4132c0f138&ll=49.282588,-123.113523&spn=0.015061,0.038581&z=15
> 
> Not to mention, walking is good for you!
> 
> Paul
> 
> On Sun, Mar 14, 2010 at 1:45 PM, Edward M. Corrado 
> wrote:
> 
>> Having been to Vancouver recently, I can tell you getting to brew pubs
>> takes a lot of walking.
>> 
>> Edward
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Schwartz, Raymond wrote:
>> 
>>> +1
>>> 
>>> -Original Message-
>>> From: Code for Libraries on behalf of Rod McFarland
>>> Sent: Sun 3/14/2010 3:31 PM
>>> To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
>>> Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Vote for Code4Lib 2011 host is OPEN
>>> Edward M. Corrado wrote:
>>> 
>>> 
 Michael J. Giarlo wrote:
 
 
> Folks,
> 
> I respect all of your points of view, but you have been going about
> this all wrong.
> 
> Here's some data on brewpub density from Yelp.
> 
>   New Haven: http://bit.ly/b4vZBP (4)
>   Bloomington: http://bit.ly/aOJ6KW (7)
>   Vancouver: http://bit.ly/9p6Fgs (20)
> 
> 
 But you need to divide this by population (population comes from
 Wikipedia) - which gives you:
 
 Vancouver: 1 brew pub per 30593 people
 New Haven: 1 brew pub per 31000 people
 Bloomington: 1 brew pub per 10322 people.
 
 This makes Bloomington the clear choice.
 
 Edward
 
 
 
> Now you can all make an informed decision.
> 
> -Mike
> 
> 
 I think Mike was right originally; we'd be interested in the geographic
>>> density of brew pubs in the easily-accessible area. I'm not sure how much of
>>> a factor brew pubs per capita would be, other than to predict potential
>>> crowding.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Rod
>>> 
>>> 
>> 

Re: [CODE4LIB] Code4Lib 2011 Proposals

[Sean Hannan]

As someone who has done a lot of US->Vancouver travel, here's a protip:  Fly 
into Sea-Tac and then take the Quick Shuttle (http://www.quickcoach.com/) 
across the border ($40ish USD).  You won't get dinged on airport international 
travel fees and you will have a lot more flight options.  Just in case the 
international travel costs were going to factor in to anyone's attendance...

-Sean


On Mar 2, 2010, at 11:14 AM, MJ Suhonos wrote:

>> Yes, a group of us at the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser
>> University in sushi-ski-beach-beer-MichaelBuble-soaked Vancouver, BC are
>> intending on submitting a proposal to host.
> 
> More specifically, I wonder what thoughts people have about how a VanC4L2011 
> might affect / be affected by the C4L North proposal, and Eric's comment that 
> C4L was originally "envisioned as an Access USA".  There seems to be a strong 
> contingent on both sides of the 49th parallel these days.
> 
> Having worked for UBC and SFU for a number of years (though, from Toronto), 
> I'll add my +1 to Vancouver for a 2011 venue.  But I'm still pushing for 
> Kingston in May as well.
> 
> MJ

[CODE4LIB] Conference Twitter List

[Sean Hannan]

If you're attending the conference and on the Twitters, please be so kind as to 
jump over to the wiki and add yourself to the attendee twitter list: 
http://wiki.code4lib.org/index.php/2010_Twitter_List

I'm cobbling together a @code4lib list to make for easy following: 
http://twitter.com/code4lib/attendees-2010

Vielen dank.

Sean Hannan
Code4Lib Twitter Wrangler

Re: [CODE4LIB] Sunday in Asheville

[Sean Hannan]

If I'm remembering correctly, NBC is opting to show Ice Dancing over the 
USA/Canada game.

Yay, NBC.

-Sean

On Feb 17, 2010, at 2:53 PM, David Fiander wrote:

> Seriously, are any other sports going to be broadcast during that time slot?
> 
> On Wed, Feb 17, 2010 at 14:51, Julia Bauder  wrote:
>> Ooh!  Ooh!  I want to watch the hockey game!  (As long as y'all won't throw
>> things at me if I root for Canada)  They have an NHL team in North
>> Carolina--there have to be SOME hockey fans in the state.
>> 
>> The Bier Garden is listed as a sports bar on Yelp, and their Web site says
>> they have 16 televisions -- I'm sure we can convince them to tune a measly
>> one TV to the hockey game.
>> 
>> Julia
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> *
>> 
>> Julia Bauder
>> 
>> Data Services Librarian
>> 
>> Grinnell College Libraries
>> 
>>  Sixth Ave.
>> 
>> Grinnell, IA 50112
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 641-269-4431
>> 
>> 
>> On Wed, Feb 17, 2010 at 1:45 PM, Andrew Darby  wrote:
>> 
>>> There's also the Canada/US Olympic men's hockey game on Sunday night
>>> at 7:30 EST.  Finding an establishment willing to turn it on might be
>>> a challenge, though . . . .
>>> 
>>> On Wed, Feb 17, 2010 at 1:41 PM, Tania Fersenheim 
>>> wrote:
 I emailed them a few questions awhile ago at he...@monkpub.com and they
 answered within a few hours, from the address ba...@monkpub.com.
 They seem to have a decent non-Belgian tap list as well.
 
 Tania
 
 --
 Tania Fersenheim
 Manager of Library Systems
 
 Brandeis University
 Library and Technology Services
 
 415 South Street, (MS 017/P.O. Box 549110)
 Waltham, MA 02454-9110
 Phone: 781.736.4698
 Fax: 781.736.4577
 email: tan...@brandeis.edu
 
> -Original Message-
> From: Code for Libraries [mailto:code4...@listserv.nd.edu] On
> Behalf Of Doran, Michael D
> Sent: Wednesday, February 17, 2010 11:06 AM
> To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
> Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Sunday in Asheville
> 
> Hi Mike,
> 
>> the Thirsty Monk [1].  It's a half-mile from the conference
> hotel, so
>> it's easily walkable/stumbleable.
>> 
>>  1. http://www.yelp.com/biz/thirsty-monk-pub-asheville
> 
> The Yelp entry has their address being 50 Commerce St,
> Asheville, NC 28801.  However their website
> (http://www.monkpub.com/) has them at 92 Patton Ave,
> Asheville, NC 28801 (which is even closer to the conference
> hotel).  Google maps now has Hookah Joe's at the 50 Commerce
> St address, so perhaps the Thirsty Monk has moved.  They are
> not answering their phone (828-254-5470) this early, but I
> will try them later on to get clarification.
> 
>> I hope to run into some of you folks there.  If you're into Belgian
>> beer and a different pub atmosphere, do join me.
> 
> Belgian beer is my favorite, so I plan on going (even if you
> are going to be there -- just teasing!).  I didn't notice any
> Atomium on draft, though (previewing the beer menu is how I
> happened to notice the address discrepancy).
> 
> -- Michael
> 
> # Michael Doran, Systems Librarian
> # University of Texas at Arlington
> # 817-272-5326 office
> # 817-688-1926 mobile
> # do...@uta.edu
> # http://rocky.uta.edu/doran/
> 
> 
>> -Original Message-
>> From: Code for Libraries [mailto:code4...@listserv.nd.edu]
> On Behalf Of
>> Michael J. Giarlo
>> Sent: Wednesday, February 17, 2010 8:39 AM
>> To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
>> Subject: [CODE4LIB] Sunday in Asheville
>> 
>> Folks,
>> 
>> We have a fabulous slate of social activities lined up for
> this year's
>> conference in Asheville (thanks to, well, y'all).  But those of you
>> arriving on Sunday will notice there are no planned outings that
>> night!  Oh noez!  Well, I'm planning to spend my post-dinner time at
>> the Thirsty Monk [1].  It's a half-mile from the conference
> hotel, so
>> it's easily walkable/stumbleable.
>> 
>> I hope to run into some of you folks there.  If you're into Belgian
>> beer and a different pub atmosphere, do join me.
>> 
>> -Mike
>> 
>> P.S. If you'd like to reach me via phone, my number is: the NJ area
>> code beginning with seven, followed by the numerically lower Santa
>> Monica (CA) area code, followed by the sum of the prior
> value added to
>> the number of the beast, padded with one zero.
>> 
>>  1. http://www.yelp.com/biz/thirsty-monk-pub-asheville
> 
 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> --
>>> Andrew Darby
>>> Web Services Librarian
>>> Ithaca College Library
>>> http://www.ithaca.edu/library/
>>> ada...@ithaca.edu
>>> 
>> 

Re: [CODE4LIB] Newcomer dinner reminder

[Sean Hannan]

Apart from the steakhouse, all of the remaining restaurants have vegetarian 
(and some vegan) options.  Check out their menus, they look tasty.

-Sean
(Token Vegetarian)


On Feb 17, 2010, at 11:12 AM, Joyce Chapman wrote:

> I heard concerns from some vegetarians that all the slots are taken at
> vegetarian restaurants (maybe new restaurants have been added since I last
> looked though). Is there any way to make room for vegetarians at the
> vegetarian restaurants? Or maybe homeless vegetarians could put a new
> section for themselves at the bottom so some vets can see what kind of need
> there is for increased vegetarian dinner?
> 
> Joyce
> 
> On Wed, Feb 17, 2010 at 10:34 AM, Becky Yoose  wrote:
> 
>> Hi everyone,
>> 
>> There's still lots of room left for the Newcomer dinner on Monday, so
>> please
>> look at the restaurant sign up
>> list<
>> http://wiki.code4lib.org/index.php/C4L2010_social_activities#Newcomer_Dinner_Signup
>>> and
>> sign up for the restaurant of your choice.
>> 
>> Guidelines to keep in mind while making your choice:
>> 
>>  - Max of *8* per location
>>  - ID yourselves so we can get a good mix of new people and vets
>>  - New folks - n
>> - c4l vets - v
>>  - One leader needed for each location (code4lib vets only - New people
>>  can skip this part)
>> - Leader duties
>>- Make reservations if required; otherwise make sure that the
>>restaurant can handle a group of 8 rowdy library coders
>>- Herd folks from hotel to restaurant (know where you're going!)
>> 
>> There's at least one group that has people signed up but no one in the
>> leader slot. If there are any vets that want to step up and take the lead,
>> I'd greatly appreciate it!
>> 
>> FYI - I have listed on the wiki to meet in the hotel lobby at 6 PM Monday
>> evening. People can meet up with their groups from there...
>> 
>> Let me know if you have any questions. I'll see all of you very soon!
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> Becky
>> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Joyce Chapman
> NCSU Libraries
> Metadata and Cataloging/
> Digital Library Initiatives
> joyce_chap...@ncsu.edu

Re: [CODE4LIB] Q: what is the best open source native XML database

[Sean Hannan]

BaseX is actively developed (6.0 came out about two weeks ago), but I 
understand your concern.  It seems like they are moving towards building more 
of a community around it (mailing lists and such), but yes, the core is pretty 
much the university team. 

eXist has more plug-ins and specialty features than BaseX. BaseX has XQuery 
full text search and much much faster querying speed.

As far as putting your eggs in a basket, I'm pretty sure that if you're looking 
to base your project around XML databases, you're already putting your eggs in 
a basket of some form...

-Sean

On Jan 19, 2010, at 1:00 PM, Godmar Back wrote:

> On Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 10:09 AM, Sean Hannan  wrote:
>> I've had the best experience (query speed, primarily) with BaseX.  This was 
>> primarily for large XML document processing, so I'm not sure how much it 
>> will satisfy your transactional needs.
>> 
>> I was initially using eXist, and then switched over to BaseX because the 
>> speed gains were very noticeable.
>> 
> 
> What about the relative maturity/functionality of eXist vs BaseX? I'm
> a bit skeptical to put my eggs in a University project basket not
> backed by a continuous revenue stream (... did I just say that out
> loud?)
> 
> - Godmar

Re: [CODE4LIB] Q: what is the best open source native XML database

[Sean Hannan]

I've had the best experience (query speed, primarily) with BaseX.  This was 
primarily for large XML document processing, so I'm not sure how much it will 
satisfy your transactional needs.

I was initially using eXist, and then switched over to BaseX because the speed 
gains were very noticeable. 

-Sean


On Jan 16, 2010, at 11:15 AM, Godmar Back wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> we're currently looking for an XML database to store a variety of
> small-to-medium sized XML documents. The XML documents are
> unstructured in the sense that they do not follow a schema or DTD, and
> that their structure will be changing over time. We'll need to do
> efficient searching based on elements, attributes, and full text
> within text content. More importantly, the documents are mutable.
> We'll like to bring documents or fragments into memory in a DOM
> representation, manipulate them, then put them back into the database.
> Ideally, this should be done in a transaction-like manner. We need to
> efficiently serve document fragments over HTTP, ideally in a manner
> that allows for scaling through replication. We would prefer strong
> support for Java integration, but it's not a must.
> 
> Have other encountered similar problems, and what have you been using?
> 
> So far, we're researching: eXist-DB (http://exist.sourceforge.net/ ),
> Base-X (http://www.basex.org/ ), MonetDB/XQuery
> (http://www.monetdb.nl/XQuery/ ), Sedna
> (http://modis.ispras.ru/sedna/index.html ). Wikipedia lists a few
> others here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML_database
> I'm wondering to what extent systems such as Lucene, or even digital
> object repositories such as Fedora could be coaxed into this usage
> scenario.
> 
> Thanks for any insight you have or experience you can share.
> 
> - Godmar

Re: [CODE4LIB] Library Website Redesign Info and Project Plans

[Sean Hannan]

We're currently in the middle of a library website redesign as well.   
For the most part, we have framed our project using Jesse James  
Garrett's The Elements of User Experience 
(https://wiki.library.jhu.edu/download/attachments/30737/elements.pdf 
).  It has been immensely helpful in plotting out our work from the  
User Experience touchy-feely end to the Information Architecture to  
the visual design and implementation.

-Sean

---
Sean Hannan
Web Developer
Sheridan Libraries
Johns Hopkins University

On Sep 16, 2009, at 10:52 AM, Rosalyn Metz wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> I'm about to embark on a library website redesign.  I've started
> thinking about creating a project plan, but I honestly don't know
> where to start.
>
> I saw this website redesign presentation Lorcan Dempsey tweeted about:
> http://www.ucd.ie/library/guides/powerpoint/rpan_ppt2/index.swf  And
> started thinking, I wonder if anyone else has similar slides or
> project plans or advice.  I of course asked the Google but I didn't
> really find any project plans.  (If you're curious what I did find,
> take a look here:
> http://delicious.com/rosy1280/library+website-redesign)
>
> I do of course realize that every library is different, but I'm hoping
> that any information you all might be able to provide could help get
> the juices flowing.
>
> Thanks for your help in advance.
> Rosalyn
>
> Rosalyn

Re: [CODE4LIB] Good advanced search screens

[Sean Hannan]

If you haven't already, I'd suggest that you poke around in the IxDA mailing 
list archives (http://www.ixda.org/).  I find that list (and its members) 
invaluable for design/usability best practices (often backed up with published 
research). 

Luke Wroblewski's blog (http://www.lukew.com/ff/index.asp) and book 
(http://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/webforms/info/description/) might be other 
good places to look for inspiration.

-Sean

Sean Hannan
Web Developer
Sheridan Libraries
Johns Hopkins University
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

>>> "Walker, David" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 11/14/2008 4:48 PM >>>
I'm working on an advanced search screen as part of our WorldCat API project.

WorldCat has dozens of indexes and a ton of limiters.  So many, in fact, that 
it's rather daunting trying to design it all in a way that isn't just a big 
dump of fields and check boxes that only a cataloger could decipher.

So I'm looking for examples of good advanced search screens (for bibliographic 
databases or otherwise) to gain some inspiration.  Thanks!

--Dave

==
David Walker
Library Web Services Manager
California State University
http://xerxes.calstate.edu

Re: [CODE4LIB] PHP Frameworks

[Sean Hannan]

I've done some work on Omeka (www.omeka.org ) which uses Zend as a framework.  
I've been quite pleased with its organization and OO-ness.  I find its error 
messages particularly friendly and useful in debugging.

For heavy-duty apps, I like symfony (http://www.symfony-project.org/ ) a lot, 
but it tends to be overkill for most things PHP.

Sean Hannan
Web Developer
Sheridan Libraries
Johns Hopkins University
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 
>>> Susan Teague Rector <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 10/27/08 4:50 PM >>> 
Hi All,

We're exploring Zend as a framework for php based Web applications. I'm 
curious to see if anyone out there is using this framework (or another 
MVC framework). Also, I wondering how many full- time developers you have 
on staff programming.

Thanks in advance!

--  
Susan Teague Rector
Web Applications Manager
Library Information Systems, VCU Libraries
804.827.3554 | [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Re: [CODE4LIB] OAI-PMH Harvester in PHP?

[Sean Hannan]

There's some good skeleton code (not sure how far it will get you) in Omeka's 
SVN: https://omeka.org/svn/plugins/OaiPmhImport/trunk/ 
 

Sean Hannan
Web Developer
Sheridan Libraries
Johns Hopkins University
[EMAIL PROTECTED]


>>> "Walker, David" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 10/06/08 4:52 PM >>> 
Hi all,

Anyone know of any OAI- PMH harvesting software written in PHP?  I've seen the 
code that can serve as a provider, but I'm looking for a harvester.

Thanks!

-- Dave

==
David Walker
Library Web Services Manager
California State University
http://xerxes.calstate.edu

Re: [CODE4LIB] Code4Lib Logo

[Sean Hannan]

emolanphy++

I, too, being a closet design nerd, would also volunteer to be on some sort of 
committee.

-Sean  
 
>>> Emily Molanphy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 09/29/08 4:51 PM >>> 
Ignite, Drupal, Ubuntu, OLPC and lots of other tech groups have logos and
brand identities. Actually some of the best- known logos are for
non- profits-- I'll bet most of us can mentally summon the United Way logo, no
problem. I don't see it as a corpporate gesture. Code4Lib is a group that
people are excited to be associated with, so I think it makes sense to have
a logo to put on stickers, shirts, etc.

I'll offer that I tried my hand at designing a logo for my library last
year. In fact, several of my colleagues made attempts as well, but I won't
implicate them by name. The results ranged from uninspiring to ridiculously
terrible. We're now working with a professional graphic designer and I think
that's a good way to go.

Because of our project, I've gotten interested in logos and would like to
volunteer to serve on the committee, if there is one.

Emily

Re: [CODE4LIB] code4lib Keynote Speaker Suggestions

[Sean Hannan]

After being thoroughly blown away by the Freebase Parallax screencast 
(http://mqlx.com/~david/parallax/ ), I think David Huynh would make an 
excellent keynote speaker.  His other projects include SIMILE's Exhibit, Sesame 
for RDF, and SIMILE's faceting-for-Thunderbird plugin Seek.

Personal homepage: http://davidhuynh.net/

Sean Hannan
Web Developer
Sherdian Libraries
Johns Hopkins University
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 
>>> jean rainwater <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 09/10/08 11:33 AM >>> 
I don't think we're doing an official vote but if you want to add your
endorsement to a name mentioned below or suggest additional names
please do so.  There is no official planning committee (maybe there
should be?) --  conference planning takes place on the code4libcon
group. This list was shared with that group and now it's being shared
with the full code4lib list.  As the host organization for 2009 we're
just trying to coordinate this discussion.  --  Jean

On Wed, Sep 10, 2008 at 10:46 AM, Kevin S. Clarke <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I'm sorry, I'm a little confused... is this a call for us to vote or
> is it just gathering up the list of candidates?
>
> Thanks,
> Kevin
>
>
>
> On Wed, Sep 10, 2008 at 10:37 AM, jean rainwater
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> Below is a summary of keynote speaker suggestions posted to this list
>> to date. A number in parentheses indicates multiple
>> votes.  Top choices are Lucia (4), Malamud (3),  Hammer (3), Holovaty (2).
>>
>> Folks in the code4libcon google group have made a plea for gender
>> balance.  Any further suggestions or comments
>>
>> Speaker Suggestions:
>>
>> Aaron Swartz
>> http://www.aaronsw.com/
>>
>> Abigail Sellen
>> http://research.microsoft.com/~asellen/
>>
>> Adrian Holovaty (2)
>> http://www.holovaty.com/
>>
>> Andy Powel
>> http://www.eduserv.org.uk/foundation/people/andypowell/
>>
>> Carl Malamud (3)
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Malamud
>>
>> Ian Davis
>> http://iandavis.com/blog/about
>>
>> Jon Orwant
>> http://www.orwant.com/bio/
>>
>> Joseph Lucia (4)
>> http://library.villanova.edu/About/Director
>>
>> Patrick Ball
>> http://www.hrdag.org/about/patrick_ball.shtml
>>
>> Sebastian Hammer (3)
>> index data
>>
>> Stefano Mazzocchi
>> http://www.betaversion.org/~stefano/
>>
>> Sue Dumais
>> http://research.microsoft.com/~sdumais/
>>
>> Tim Spalding (note, he will be keynote for LITA)
>> http://www.librarything.com/profile.php?view=timspalding
>>
>> _
>> Jean Rainwater
>> Co- Leader, Integrated Technology Services
>> Brown University Library
>> 401,863.9031
>> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>
>
>
>
> --
> There are two kinds of people in the world: those who believe there
> are two kinds of people and those who know better.
>

Re: [CODE4LIB] what's friendlier & less powerful than phpMyAdmin?

[Sean Hannan]

I was in a similar situation and I just used CodeIgniter's scaffolding 
(http://codeigniter.com/user_guide/general/scaffolding.html ) feature to allow 
my users to add/edit data.  It's pretty safe, and it looks neat and clean, too.

Sean Hannan
Web Developer, Sheridan Libraries
Johns Hopkins University
 
>>> Ken Irwin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 07/30/08 9:35 AM >>> 
Hi folks,

I have some straightforward MySQL data tables that I would like to be 
editable by some of my less- techy colleagues. I tend to think of 
phpMyAdmin as a perfectly serviceable and reasonably interface for 
updating database tables, but I'm told that it's kind of intimidating to 
the uninitiated.

Are there alternatives that are meant for non- admin- types? I'd want 
something with read/write permissions, but that could be targeted at 
just a few tables, wouldn't have any of the more potent tools (drop, 
empty, etc.). In the ideal world, I might like something that would 
prevent users from doing things like accidentally changing primary key 
data and things like that.

I've thought about writing something, but I suspect that would be 
reinventing the wheel. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Ken

--  
Ken Irwin
Reference Librarian
Thomas Library, Wittenberg University

Re: [CODE4LIB] Shibboleth

[Sean Hannan]

I have been working to get our Confluence and Jira installations shibbolized.  
From an implementation perspective, I could not be happier.  It was remarkably 
easy to set up and configure a service provider.  As central IT handles the IdP 
and federation side of things, I can't really speak to that; if you have any 
integration-type questions I'd be more than happy to try to answer them.



Sean Hannan
Web Content Coordinator
The Sheridan Libraries
Johns Hopkins University
410-516-7642
[EMAIL PROTECTED]



>>> "K.G. Schneider" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 3/21/2008 10:23 AM >>>
If you have been involved in investigating or implementing Shibboleth --
or alternative approaches -- I'd like to hear from you.

Wearing my official chapeau I am,

Karen G. Schneider
Research & Development
College Center for Library Automation
http://www.cclaflorida.org
Voice: 850-922-6044
AIM/Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Re: [CODE4LIB] Open Source Course reserves management

[Sean Hannan]

Reserves Direct (http://www.reservesdirect.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page) is the 
only one that I am aware of.  I'd be very interested if people know of any 
others.



Sean Hannan
Web Content Coordinator
The Sheridan Libraries
Johns Hopkins University
410-516-7642
[EMAIL PROTECTED]



>>> Jeffrey Barnett <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 3/6/2008 3:06 PM >>>
Is anyone aware of a standalone or add-on open source package for
managing electronic and/or digital course reserves?  A commercial
offering in this area is "Aries", but it is not customizable to our
needs.  Most useful features are monitoring for multiple use of same
article or chapter and efficient copyright clearance.