[CODE4LIB] Microsoft Zentity
I¹m looking for some background information on Microsoft¹s Zentity (their digital repository software). If anyone has first-hand experience working with it, or if you know of institutions that have implemented it, please contact me. Thanks, Andy Ashton Senior Research Programmer Center for Digital Scholarship, Brown University Library andrew_ash...@brown.edu
Re: [CODE4LIB] XForms EAD editor sandbox available
Nice job, Ethan. This looks really cool. We have an Orbeon-based MODS editor, but I have found Orbeon to be a bit tough to develop/maintain and more heavyweight than we really need. We're considering more Xforms implementations, but I would love to find a more lightweight Xforms application. Does anyone have any recommendations? The only one I know of is XSLTForms (http://www.agencexml.com/xsltforms) but I haven't messed with it yet. -Andy On 11/13/09 9:13 AM, Eric Hellman e...@hellman.net wrote: XForms and Orbeon are very interesting tools for developing metadata management tools. The ONIX developers have used this stack to produce an interface for ONIX-PL called OPLE that people should try out. http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/pals3/onixeditor.aspx Questions about Orbeon relate to performance and integrability, but I think it's an impressive use of XForms nonetheless. - Eric On Nov 12, 2009, at 1:30 PM, Ethan Gruber wrote: Hello all, Over the past few months I have been working on and off on a research project to develop a XForms, web-based editor for EAD finding aids that runs within the Orbeon tomcat application. While still in a very early alpha stage (I have probably put only 60-80 hours of work into it thus far), I think that it's ready for a general demonstration to solicit opinions, criticism, etc. from librarians, and technical staff. Background: For those not familiar with XForms, it is a W3C standard for creating next-generation forms. It is powerful and can allow you to create XML in the way that it is intended to be created, without limits to repeatability, complex hierarchies, or mixed content. Orbeon adds a level on top of that, taking care of all the ajax calls, serialization, CRUD operations, and a variety of widgets that allow nice features like tabs and autocomplete/autosuggest that can be bound to authority lists and controlled access terms. By default, Orbeon reads and writes data from and to an eXist database that comes packaged with it, but you can have it serialize the XML to disk or have it interact with any REST interface such as Fedora. Goals: Ultimately, I wish to create a system of forms that can open any EAD 2002-compliant XML file without any data loss or XML transformation whatsoever. I think that this is the shortcoming of systems such as Archon and Archivists' Toolkit. I want to integrate authority lists that can be integrated into certain fields with autosuggest (such as corporate names, people, and subjects). If there is demand, I can build a public interface for viewing the entire EAD collection, complete with solr for faceted browse and search, but this is secondary to producing a form that people with some basic archiving knowledge and EAD background can use to easily and effectively create finding aids. A public interface is the easy part, in any case. It wouldn't take more than a week or two to build something fairly nice and robust. Here is the link: http://beta.scholarslab.org:9080/cocoon/eaditor/ I should stress that the application is *not complete.* I am using cocoon for providing a list of EAD content in the system. I will remove that application eventually and utilize Orbeon's internal pipelining features to achieve the same objective. I haven't delved too deeply into Orbeon's pipelines yet. Here are some things to note: 1. If you click on a link to open the main part of the guide or any of its components, you have to click the Load link on the top of the form. Forms aren't being loaded on page load yet. 2. Elements that accept mixed content per the EAD 2002 schema (e.g. paragraphs) only accept PCDATA. I haven't worked on mixed content yet; it is by far the most challenging aspect of the project. 3. I only have a few C-level elements available to add. 4. Not all did elements are available yet. 5. A lot of the generic attributes, like type and label, are not available for editing yet. This may be the type of thing that is best customized per institution relative to their own best practices. I don't want more input fields than necessary right now. 6. The only thing you can add into the archdesc right now is the dsc. Once I finish all of the c-level elements, I can just put some xi:includes into the archdesc XForm file to show them in the archdesc level. I think those are the major issues for now. As I stated earlier, this is sort of a pre-alpha. The project is open source and available (through svn) to anyone who wants it. http://code.google.com/p/eaditor/ . I have put together an easy package to get the application up and running without difficulty. All you have to do is unzip the download, go into the apache tomcat folder and execute the startup script. This assumes you have nothing running on port 8080 already. Download page: http://code.google.com/p/eaditor/downloads/list Wiki instructions:
Re: [CODE4LIB] preconference proposals
This isn't enough for a whole session or workshop, but we've been using Solr for a lot of small-to-medium-sized projects, and I've been interested in ways to optimize an environment to host a lot of little Solr instances (multicore?). I've also been working a bit with Solango (Solr Django) and am interested in what kind of development is happening with Solr connectors for simple webapp frameworks like that. -Andy Just one topic to toss out there. On 11/10/09 8:38 AM, Erik Hatcher erikhatc...@mac.com wrote: I'm interested presenting something Solr+library related at c4l10. I'm soliciting ideas from the community on what angle makes the most sense. At first I was thinking a regular conference talk proposal, but perhaps a preconference session would be better. I could be game for a half day session. It could be either an introductory Solr class, get up and running with Solr (+ Blacklight, of course). Or maybe a more advanced session on topics like leveraging dismax, Solr performance and scalability tuning, and so on, or maybe a freer form Solr hackathon session where I'd be there to help with hurdles or answer questions. Thoughts? Suggestions? Anything I can do to help the library world with Solr is fair game - let me know. Thanks, Erik On Nov 9, 2009, at 9:55 PM, Kevin S. Clarke wrote: Hi all, It's time again to collect proposals for Code4Lib 2010 preconference sessions. We have space for six full day sessions (or 12 half day sessions (or some combination of the two)). If we get more than we can accommodate, we'll vote... but I don't think we will (take that as a challenge to propose lots of interesting preconference sessions). Like last year, attendees will pay $12.50 for a half day or $25 for the whole day. The preconference space will be in the hotel so we'll have wireless available. If you have a preconference idea, send it to this list, to me, or to the code4libcon planning list. We'll put them up on the wiki once we start receiving them. Some possible ideas? A Drupal in libraries session? LOD part two? An OCLC webservices hackathon? Send the proposals along... Thanks, Kevin
Re: [CODE4LIB] METS and TEI?
Chris, In general I would say keep the documents separate, and build some sort of process that combines the relevant parts of the documents for ingestion into MarkLogic. However, not having any idea how MarkLogic works, that solution may not be an option. We're doing quite a bit with TEI and MODS documents in Solr, and we just have a service that generates a Solr indexing document out of our XML. * It seems the structure of TEI documents can be problematic since they follow a logical structure, by paragraphs/sections. And the structMap of all our METS documents, so far, are divided up by pages of text, not paragraphs. So the TEI structure does not fit nicely into METS the way we're using METS. In general, yeah. You can put page breaks (pb/) in TEI, but it would be a clunky way to address sections of the document from your METS. * We're also concerned with not having redundant metadata in the TEI header and the dmdSec of the METS document. So, we're considering keeping the TEI header very brief and relying on the METS doc for descriptive/administrative/technical metadata. (We won't be deriving METS from TEI which is another issue.) METS seems like a lower-level standard than the TEI header, so that makes sense. * The other issue has already been raised by Liza Daly: performance. We've been told by one of the programmers at Mark Logic that we should embed the TEI docs into METS for good performance, but we have other reasons why we don't want to embed the TEI (editing, maintenance, etc.). So, we are considering writing a script that would integrate the METS and TEI at the point a search is deployed. Does MarkLogic operate directly on the XML or does it index it? If it is running Xqueries or something like that, you may not see much of a performance increase by splitting them out. In fact I'd say that Xqueries are typically a lot faster when they're operating on a single document or collection of similar document. You may also want to consider what comes after MarkLogic. * From the metadata standpoint, I want to keep the TEI docs separate and link out to them from the METS docs, because I'm not convinced that library metadata standards are stable. If we move away from using METS in the next 5-10 years, I think it would be easier if all the text/image files remained separate from the metadata. So, I'd prefer links in the fileSec of METS that link out to external TEI files. That makes sense, although since your TEI would all be namespaced it wouldn't be too hard to extract it if necessary. I would be concerned with the future ramifications of having your objects optimized for a legacy system. -Andy
[CODE4LIB] Addressing fragments of a resource in RDF
This isn¹t library-specific, but there seems to be enough common interest that is it worth posting here I¹m looking for good ways to address fragments of a XML resource in a RDF expression. Specifically, I¹m talking about pointing at an Xpath, something like this: rdf:RDF rdf:about='http://seasr.brown.edu/conceptMap.owl#TEI_names'' teiSeasr:concept rdf:resource='http://www.example.edu/myTei.xml#xpointer(/TEI/teiHeader/profi leDesc/particDesc/listPerson/person/persName)' / /rdf:about /rdf:RDF Xpointer is an obvious option, but my impression is that it is dead in the water, and isn¹t seeing much use or development. And I realize that this approach compromises the resourceiness of the RDF, but the use case here is pretty much limited to a single application framework. I¹m hoping to keep it all in RDF without having to add another layer of abstraction. The big difference between this case and the typical http://domain/name#identifier example is that #identifier is assumed to be a stable entity, whereas the xpath in this case is fuzzy there could be many, or no, persName elements. So, any good options aside from Xpointer? Thanks, Andy -- Andrew Ashton Senior Research Programmer Center for Digital Scholarship, Brown University Library
Re: [CODE4LIB] How to access environment variables in XSL
Depending on how you're using the XSL, Cocoon-XQuery-XSL is one option -
although I don't know how Xquery would get access to your environment
variables directly. But you could use XQuery to stream the values into the
source XML as nodes just like the rest of your data, then deal with them how
you please in the XSL. You can use an XQuery module to store the variables
in question and import them into whatever XQueries you write.
The problem with this approach is that it locks you into a webapp
architecture that you might not want to deal with, though I'd be curious to
hear recommendations for non-Cocoon implementations of XQuery for webapps.
-Andy
On Fri, Jun 19, 2009 at 3:44 PM, Doran, Michael D do...@uta.edu wrote:
I am working with some XSL pages that serve up HTML on the web. I'm new to
XSL. In my prior web development, I was accustomed to being able to access
environment variables (and their values, natch) in my CGI scripts and/or via
Server Side Includes. Is there an equivalent mechanism for accessing those
environment variables within an XSL page?
These are examples of the variables I'm referring to:
SERVER_NAME
SERVER_PORT
HTTP_HOST
DOCUMENT_URI
REMOTE_ADDR
HTTP_REFERER
In a Perl CGI script, I would do something like this:
my $server = $ENV{'SERVER_NAME'};
Or in an SSI, I could do something like this:
!--#echo var=REMOTE_ADDR--
If it matters, I'm working in: Solaris/Apache/Tomcat
I've googled this but not found anything useful yet (except for other
people asking the same question). Maybe I'm asking the wrong question. Any
help would be appreciated.
-- 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/
Re: [CODE4LIB] MODS-to-citation stylesheets
Thanks, I have heard of CSL but never really worked with it. Do you know if it is specifically geared toward Zotero's SQLite data structures? We're interested in generating citations in web apps from a native XML database of MODS, preferably without going through Zotero. I've experimented with generating the citations from our eXist-based system by way of Zotero, but we run into genre-authority issues. Zotero's default MODS import translator expects mods:genre authority=marcgt and our system uses other authorities. Granted, I'm working off of some older Zotero code, so I may not have the most recent info. -Andy On 1/12/09 10:51 AM, Jonathan Rochkind rochk...@jhu.edu wrote: What I've been meaning to investigate more fully is the Citation Style Language (CSL) which is used by Zotero for citation outputting--there are some other non-Zotero engines for CSL, but I'm not sure how mature/ready for production any of them are. The Zotero engine is of course in Javascript, so inconvenient (although not impossible) to re-use that code a server side app. I haven't really investigated what's going on with CSL, but that seems to be the 'right' way to deal with this to me. Once you have a CSL engine incorporated in your app, you can output not just in Chicago or MLA, but any citation style now or in the future that Zotero (or anyone else) provides a CSL file for. Thanks to Zotero (and it's partners?) for developing this re-useable CSL format instead of just a custom Zotero solution. Jonathan Andrew Ashton wrote: Can someone point me at any good, freely-available stylesheets to convert MODS to Chicago or MLA formatted citations? It seems like something that should be readily available, but I can¹t seem to find it. I¹d rather not reinvent the wheel if possible... Thanks, Andy
Re: [CODE4LIB] MODS-to-citation stylesheets
Thanks for the Citeproc recommendation - it is exactly what I'm looking for. On 1/12/09 12:45 PM, Erik Hetzner erik.hetz...@ucop.edu wrote: At Mon, 12 Jan 2009 08:11:59 -0800, Walker, David wrote: Do you know if it is specifically geared toward Zotero's SQLite data structures? I don't believe so, since the CSL standard, such that it is, predates Zotero. I've worked with CSL a little bit in trying to create a PHP CSL rules engine. Not a trivial task, to say the least, but long-term it would serve you very well. I think there are Python and Ruby CSL libraries, but my impression, like Jonathan's, is that they are still somewhat in the works. Hi - You might have a look at citeproc [1]. -Erik 1. http://xbiblio.sourceforge.net/citeproc/ ;; Erik Hetzner, California Digital Library ;; gnupg key id: 1024D/01DB07E3
Re: [CODE4LIB] Looking for your thoughts on the future of Libraries
The discussion of the value MLIS/MLS is interesting, and familiar. It is a discussion that always seems to go in one direction: namely, why do library technologists need MLS degrees? There are some pretty compelling arguments that they don't, but I'm curious what that means for librarians going forward. I went to library school during what I consider to be the Great Delusion of the Late Nineties. There was a palpable sense among MLS students and librarians that we were about to find our groove in the proto-Google web world. My intro MLS courses were chock full of readings about librarians being hired away by Fortune 500 companies to help them make sense of Information, and about these mystical skills that librarians possessed that allowed us some insight into Information that others could not possess without an MLS. What happened, of course, was that things changed quicker than MLS programs could adapt, and whether we liked it or not, our culture had moved beyond the need for librarians as gatekeepers. In the meantime, these amazing things are happening with open repositories, web services, and resource-oriented systems - things that should be front-and-center for emerging librarians, but often are skimmed because of the technical knowledge required. The result is that a lot of smaller academic libraries need to choose between enacting a really ambitious and forward-looking technology strategy, and protecting their MLS faculty lines. It seems like a doomed strategy in the long-run, but for a library director, I don't think there is an easy answer. So a lot of places try to have it both ways and fish for skilled technologists with MLS degrees. In my case, I went the other direction, currently working in a non-Library (but closely affiliated) technology group that is under the IT umbrella, despite having an MLS. So go figure... Andy On 11/24/08 3:05 PM, Jonathan Rochkind [EMAIL PROTECTED] and others wrote: interesting stuff
[CODE4LIB] Job Posting: Research Programmer - Humanities; Scholarly Technology Group, Brown University
: www.stg.brown.edu or [EMAIL PROTECTED] To apply, http://careers.brown.edu, look for job B01052 -- Andrew Ashton Senior Research Programmer Scholarly Technology Group Brown University
[CODE4LIB] Position Available: Systems Librarian - Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs NY (Search Extended)
Please excuse cross-posting: SYSTEMS LIBRARIAN (search extended) Skidmore College seeks a creative, service-oriented Systems Librarian to provide leadership for library technology projects and digital initiatives in the Scribner Library. The Systems Librarian participates in the Library's strategic planning activities, helps to guide the overall direction of technology implementation in the library, develops and maintains library systems, and participates in reference, instruction, and departmental liaison activities. In addition, the Systems Librarian will be a key player in the development of Digital Assets Management initiatives at the college. Responsibilities: * Develop and administer a comprehensive technology plan that is integrated with the Library's strategic plan; recommend policies; plan upgrades; be responsible for the Library's ILS (Ex Libris Voyager), catalog (AquaBrowser), and other production systems (e.g. ILLiad). * Stay abreast of emerging technologies, and collaborate with the library faculty and staff to develop new technology projects. * Serve as liaison with Skidmore's IT department. * Represent the library in professional organizations and campus committees. * Supervises the Library Systems Analyst in supporting and developing a variety of applications. Required: ALA-accredited MLS/MLIS; a background in information technology, programming, or equivalent experience; advanced knowledge of emerging technologies and their impacts on academic libraries; experience working with a broad set of technologies, including programming and database management experience; solid knowledge of HTML and common web technologies; capacity for working flexibly and creatively in a rapidly changing environment; ability to work effectively in a team environment; a demonstrated interest in professional activities, including participation in local, state, and national organizations. Desirable: 2 years full time experience working as a professional librarian in an academic library; a commitment to exploring how emerging technologies, including Semantic Web technologies and XML, can impact scholarly work; experience working with Perl, ColdFusion, SQL, and XML in both Windows and UNIX network environments. Expanded and renovated in 1995, Skidmore College's Lucy Scribner Library is a state-of-the-art facility with an Ex Libris Voyager integrated library system. The library, with a book collection of approximately 400,000 volumes and the most utilized computer cluster on campus, is dedicated to serving the information needs of the college's student and faculty population. The position is a non-tenured 12-month faculty appointment reporting to the College Librarian. For more information or to apply, please go to: jobs.skidmore.edu Review of applications will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled. -- Andrew Ashton Systems Librarian Scribner Library, Skidmore College (518)580-5505
[CODE4LIB] Position available: Systems Librarian - Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY
(Please excuse the cross-posting) Skidmore College seeks a creative, service-oriented Systems Librarian to provide leadership for library technology projects and digital initiatives in the Scribner Library. As a member of the library faculty, the Systems Librarian reports to the College Librarian and supervises the Library Systems Analyst in supporting and developing a variety of applications. The Systems Librarian participates in the Library's strategic planning activities, helps to guide the overall direction of technology implementation in the library, develops and maintains library systems, and participates in reference, instruction, and departmental liaison activities. Responsibilities: * Develop and administer a comprehensive technology plan that is integrated with the Library's strategic plan; recommend policies; plan upgrades; be responsible for the Library's ILS (Ex Libris Voyager), catalog (AquaBrowser), and other production systems (e.g. ILLiad). * Stay abreast of emerging technologies, and collaborate with the library faculty and staff to develop new technology projects. * Serve as liaison with Skidmore's IT department. * Represent the library in professional organizations and campus committees. Required: ALA-accredited MLS/MLIS; a background in information technology, programming, or equivalent experience; advanced knowledge of emerging technologies and their impacts on academic libraries; experience working with a broad set of technologies, including programming and database management experience; solid knowledge of HTML and common web technologies; capacity for working flexibly and creatively in a rapidly changing environment; ability to work effectively in a team environment; a demonstrated interest in professional activities, including participation in local, state, and national organizations. Desirable: 2 years full time experience working as a professional librarian in an academic library; a commitment to exploring how emerging technologies, including Semantic Web technologies and XML, can impact scholarly work; experience working with Perl, ColdFusion, SQL, and XML in both Windows and UNIX network environments. Expanded and renovated in 1995, Skidmore College's Lucy Scribner Library is a state-of-the-art facility with an Ex Libris Voyager integrated library system. The library, with a book collection of approximately 400,000 volumes and the most utilized computer cluster on campus, is dedicated to serving the information needs of the college's student and faculty population. The position is a 12-month faculty appointment for 2 years with potential for renewal. For more information or to apply, please go to: jobs.skidmore.edu Review of applications will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled. Ideal start date is summer 2008. -- Andrew Ashton Systems Librarian Scribner Library, Skidmore College (518)580-5505
Re: [CODE4LIB] Serials Solutions 360 API - PHP classes?
My impression, from a recent conversation with a Serials Solutions sales rep, is that Serials Solutions (or one of its 15 parent companies) bought WebFeat, and they will be merging all the WebFeat-exclusive connections into 360. Since we don't have either of those products, I can't say what that means in practice. -- Andrew Ashton Systems Librarian Scribner Library, Skidmore College (518)580-5505 -Original Message- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Cloutman, David Sent: Thursday, April 03, 2008 2:43 PM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Serials Solutions 360 API - PHP classes? Just as a note, before you write your code- We are in the process of evaluating federated search tools, and one item we learned that Serials Solutions and Webfeat are now owned by the same parent company. The stories we are getting from the two vendors are a little different, but essitially what we are hearing is that the two federated searching products will be integrated into a single product within a year, and that the two development teams will be merged. I do not know how this will impact the API for 360 Link, since that appears to be a separate module, but you may want to take this into consideration in planning your development. Good luck with your project, - David --- David Cloutman [EMAIL PROTECTED] Electronic Services Librarian Marin County Free Library
Re: [CODE4LIB] Library Software Manifesto
Vendors need to guarantee that software development and support is not a factor of the software's life-cycle. Too many library systems products are being under supported presumably because the products are no longer generating new revenue for the vendor. I don't know how that fits into your manifesto, but I think it is worth mentioning in the context of this conversation... -- Andrew Ashton Systems Librarian Scribner Library, Skidmore College (518)580-5505 -Original Message- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Roy Tennant Sent: Tuesday, November 06, 2007 1:34 PM To: CODE4LIB@listserv.nd.edu Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Library Software Manifesto On 11/6/07 10:27 AM, Jonathan Gorman [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: How about an equivalent list from the vendor/software developer's perspective? I think that would help balance the picture, but perhaps that's already in your plans ;). Funny you should ask...I had originally intended to do this, but then I was wondering if it start to be redundant -- that is, would a number of points simply be restated from the vendor's viewpoint? But if there are unique points to make from that perspective it would be worthwhile to include them. This is an area where I consider myself even more ignorant than usual, so if those of you who work on that side of the fence would like to chime in with relevant manifesto points from the perspective of developers and vendors, I'm all ears. Thanks, Roy
Re: [CODE4LIB] Conference feedback
the two other comments I heard were: Would have like a more technical opening key note. Some of the presentations weren't technical enough.s I understand these sentiments, but I disagree strongly. There were a lot of technical sessions - as there should've been - but a conference like this always risks falling into the trap of showcasing technology for technology's sake. I think a keynote that grounds us in a real, educational mission is critical to putting these awesome projects in context. I loved both keynotes and I found them to be a welcome change of pace from the day's sessions, which I also loved. All in all, I just want to thank the planners of the conference - it was my first Code4Lib and it was simply one of the best and most fun conferences I've attended. -- Andrew Ashton Systems Librarian Scribner Library, Skidmore College (518)580-5505
Re: [CODE4LIB] search analytics, part deux
I would also add that our proxy server logs are great sources for search analytics. At the 2004 Computers in Libraries I did a talk on analyzing proxy server logs to mine usage stats[1], but the parameters of that data are fairly limited. I wonder if it might be time to resurrect that in the form of a lightning talk... See y'all in a few weeks! [1]http://www.skidmore.edu/library/aashton/Ppt/ashtonB103_paper.doc -- Andrew Ashton Systems Librarian Scribner Library, Skidmore College (518)580-5505
