Emerging Technologies for Library Managers-F2F.ppt

Copyright © 2006 www.palinet.org

Emerging Technologies for

Library Managers

John Houser

May 15, 2008

Trainer

John Houser

Senior Technology Consultant

(800) 233-3401 x1222houser@palinet.org

http://blog.palinet.org/dthttp://blog.palinet.org/

podcast

Technologies (First Session)

• Lucene/Solr• XML• RSS and Atom• AJAX• LAMP• OpenID

Concepts (First Session)

• Web 2.0 / Library 2.0• Social software• Extensible software• Feeds• New “standard” for discovery

tools

Demonstrations (First Session)

• Web feeds• Open source ILS systems• New discovery systems based on

Lucene/Solr

Web 2.0 / Library 2.0

• Tim O’Reilly (of the computer book publisher O’Reilly & Associates) has been an articulate spokesperson– What Is Web 2.0

http://www.oreillynet.com/lpt/a/6228

• May incorporate new technologies but more reflects an approach to services than a technology

Tim O’Reilly’s Six Big Ideas

1. Individual production and user generated content

2. Harness the power of the crowd3. Data on an epic scale4. Architecture of participation5. Network effects6. Openness

2.0 Characteristics

• Interactivity• Profile-based customized

experiences• Ability to self publish or collaborate• Ratings, reviews, comments, tagging• Standards-based distribution formats

that allow reuse or reformatting (XML)

2.0 Technologies

• XML• AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and

XML)– Cascading style sheets– XML

• LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and Perl or Python)

• Web loads software not simply pages, the Web is a software platform

• In this approach some of the processing is shifted to the client

2.0 Approaches

• More decentralized and trusting of users– Wikis– Blogs

• More finely tuned by the user– RSS– Firefox

• Mash-ups– Combining different sources into one – Data typically in some XML format

• Social bookmarking and tagging

Tagging

• Process of assigning descriptive keywords or phrases to a online record (such as a web page in a social bookmarking system, a photographic description, or a blog entry) in order to aid in organization or retrieval

• Collective tagging can produce a folksonomy

• A word cloud is the representation of a set of tags assigned to a given web page or record by a group of people, a piece of a folksonomy

Key Social Bookmarking Sites

• del.icio.us• Furl

Demonstration

• Furlhttp://www.furl.net

• Flickrhttp://www.flickr.com

• Digghttp://www.digg.com

• LibraryThinghttp://www.librarything.com

• Firefox add-onshttps://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/extensions/

The Long Tail

• Notion that those in the tail of a statistical graph total more than those in the main curve

• By using the net, unique needs can be met and marketed more than “average” needs

• Amazon sells more books not typically carried by bookstores than books that are carried--meeting the needs of the long tail

Wikinomics

• Idea that business is going through a huge change right now that is driven by Web 2.0 technologies and approaches and the mass collaboration that they foster.

• Don Tapscott, one of the inventors of this term believes that mass collaboration is going to fundamentally change how corporations operate.

The Cluetrain Manifesto

• This weird and wonderful document argues that companies need to change how they communicate and market themselves because of the changes in how people are communicating online, particularly in blogs.

Web 2.0 Bottom Line

• Pros– The interactivity and social aspects

are very attractive to users– The customized experience may

better meet users needs• Cons

– It requires a much more sophisticated tool kit to build this house

But…

It’s where the users are.

So…

It’s where we need to be.

New Standard for Discovery Tools

• The new “standard” feature set includes:– Faceted searching– Ranked retrieval– Spell checking

• “Did you mean…”– RSS feed of search results– Book covers– Reviews– FRBR (minimally, collated editions)– Commenting

• Optional, but coming:– Tagging– Rating

Software

• NCSU’s Endeca-based system• Open source ILS advances

– Evergreen– Koha indexing update with Zebra (3.0)

• Open source indexing and discovery tools– Lucene/Solr/Flare

• Commercial discovery tools– AquaBrowser– Encore, Primo, Visualizer, etc.

Solr

• Standalone enterprise search server• Full-Text Search• Standards Based Open Interfaces• Optimized for High Volume

– XML– HTTP

• HTML Administration Interface• Scalable• XML configuration • Extensible Plug-in Architecture

So What?

•Casey Durfee of Seattle Public Library demonstrated how you can create a new discovery tool using Lucene/Solr with just over 250 lines of code

• This technology is accessible!

So What?

•Casey Durfee of Seattle Public Library demonstrated how you can create a new discovery tool using Lucene/Solr with just over 250 lines of code

• This technology is accessible!

Seattle Demo

Demonstration

• Lucene/Solr Exampleshttp://research.library.villanova.edu/http://peel.library.ualberta.cahttp://reviews.cnet.com

• Kohahttp://search.athenscounty.lib.oh.us

• Evergreenhttp://gapines.org/opac/en-US/skin/default/xml/index.xml

Web Feeds

• RSS and Atom are types of web feeds• A web feed is a data format used for

serving users frequently updated content. Content distributors syndicate a web feed, thereby allowing users to subscribe to it. Making a collection of web feeds accessible in one spot is known as aggregation. -- Wikipedia

RSS

• Depending on the version, RSS means– Really Simple Syndication– Rich Site Summary– RDF Site Summary

• The most recent standard is RSS 2.0

Atom

• The name Atom applies to a pair of related standards. The Atom Syndication Format is an XML language used for web feeds, while the Atom Publishing Protocol (APP for short) is a simple HTTP-based protocol for creating and updating Web resources-- Wikipedia

• Atom feeds have come into wide usage in part because of Google’s decision to use the format for all their feeds

XML

• XML (eXtensible Markup Language) is a general purpose markup language based on SGML (just like HTML) which is used to create RSS feeds among many other things

Library-related XML Schemas

• MARCXML - MARC 21 data• MODS (Metadata Object Description Standard)

- Selected metadata from existing MARC 21 records as well as original resource description

• MADS (Metadata Authority Description Standard) - Selected authority data from MARC21 records as well as original authority data

• EAD (Encoded Archival Description) - For finding aids

• METS (Metadata Encoding & Transmission Standard) - For encoding descriptive, administrative, and structural metadata

• MIX (NISO Metadata for Images in XML) - For encoding technical data elements required to manage digital image collections

OPML

• Outline Processor Markup Language (OPML) is an XML format for outlines, now used for lists of feeds

• OPML is most often used to import and export lists of subscriptions (feeds) between readers

Definitions

• Atomhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atom_%28standard%29

• OPMLhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OPML

• RSShttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_%28file_format%29

• XMLhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML

• Web Feedhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_feed

Specifications

• RSS 2.0 (Harvard)http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss

• Atom 1.0 (IETF)http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4287http://atompub.org/rfc4287.html

Don’t PANIC!

It’s easier done than said…

You don’t have to learn XML to produce feeds!

Aggregators

• Software for viewing feeds• Three common forms:

– Web browser plug-in or extension

– Web-based service– Stand-alone application

Firefox (Browser)

Google Reader (Web-based)

KlipFolio (Stand-alone)

JetBrains Omea Reader (Stand-alone)

RSS and Atom Feeds Bottom Line

• Pros– Standards based– Spam free syndication– Allows users the freedom to reformat

or reuse• Cons

– Competing standards may confuse some

– Publisher has no control over display

Privacy and Libraries

• Who owns the content?– Tim O’Reilly

• Students posting material they might regret later in live

• Need for privacy policies that address user-generated content– Lauren Gelman

• Multiple personas online• Third party storage of profile data

Homework

• Discussion question for next session– What privacy issues are raised by the

shift towards the use of social software in libraries?

• Try searching in– http://www.technorati.com/– http://www.bloglines.com– http://blogsearch.google.com

End of Part One

Exercise

• Discussion question for next part– What privacy issues are raised by the

shift towards the use of social software in libraries?

• Try searching in– http://www.technorati.com/– http://www.bloglines.com– http://blogsearch.google.com

Concepts (Second Session)

• Blogging• Podcasting• Mass Collaboration• Mash-ups

Demonstrations (Second Session)

• Blog search engines– Bloglines– Google Reader– Technorati

• Podcasting• Wikis

– PLN– Library Success Wiki

Blogs

• A blog is a series of web-based articles, sometimes a journal, which is organized chronologically (the word blog is derived from weblog, a log of comments on the Web)

• Some blogs encourage wide-participation

• Many Blogs are set up as feeds, using RSS or Atom

More on Blogs

• Blogs are a social phenomenon as much as technical

• Precise definition is elusive--in essence, any web-based discussion is a blog

• Think of blogs as ongoing conversations, many are diaries and involve very controversial topics

• Most solicit responses from readers

Library-related Blogs

• There are now many library-related blogs

• Many professional discussions have largely moved from the e-mail list forums to blogs

Blog Example

Finding Feeds

• They are everywhere• Look for the feed symbol

in a web page or next to the location box in your browser

• Click to subscribe

ProQuest and EBSCO RSS

Feeds and Blogs in Libraries

• Patron overdue notifications (Seattle Public Library)

• New title notifications (Seattle, Ann Arbor, Penn)

• Notification to students in library instruction (Philadelphia University)

• RSS implemented or planned for variety of ILS services

Creating Blogs & Feeds

• For feeds, write files in pure code• Use software to create a feed, e.g.

ListGarden, RSS Publisher, and Feed for All 

• Most blog programs generate RSS feeds, such as Bloglines

• Can create blogs with Blogger, WordPress, MovableType

Blogs Bottom Line

• Pros– Great way for libraries to speak in a human

voice– Participation of individual librarians can

attract and hold customers when they have a positive experience

– Democratizing effect• Cons

– The proliferation of personal blogs may make it hard for an organization to speak with one voice (market)

Demonstration

• Bloglines– Subscribing to a blog search feed

Blogs Bottom Line

• Pros– Great way to give a human voice to your

organization– Enhances and encourages communication

• Cons– Need to set guidelines for what is

appropriate content, if the organization’s name is associated with the blog

– Can make it hard to control the marketing message

Podcasting

• Digital sound files- format is frequently MP3 or OGG VORBIS

• Files can be played on most laptops, many PDAs, and the Apple iPod (where the “pod” in podcasting is derived)

• Typically, a podcast is distributed on the Internet via Internet feed technology such as RSS

Podcatchers

• The aggregators to obtain podcasts are sometimes called podcatchers

• Apple iTunes, available for free for Windows and Mac machines, is a podcatcher http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/

• iPodder is another podcatcherhttp://www.ipodder.org/directory/4/ipodderSoftware

Finding Podcasts

• Podcast directories:

– PodcastAlley.comhttp://www.podcastalley.com/

– Podcast.nethttp://www.podcast.net/

– iPodder.orghttp://ipodder.org

Podcasting Requirements

• Personal computer• Microphone

– Blue Snowballhttp://www.bluemic.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Products&file=index&prod_id=18

• Software that can create MP3 or OGG Vorbis files– Audacity

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/• Web server on which to place the sound

file• Ability to create an RSS feed

Demonstration

• Podcast creation

Podcasting in Libraries

• PALINET has podcasts http://http://blog.palinet.org/podcast

• Librivox is a huge effort to provide sound files for public domain books http://www.librivox.org/

• Lansing MI public library has several podcasts of tech news, info teens, and also for children http://www.lansing.lib.il.us/podcast.htm

Podcasts Bottom Line

• Pros– Format allows customers to consume

information when and where it is most convenient for them

• Cons– Requires hardware (iPod or MP3

player)– Apple iPods don’t support MP3 files

directly– Apple iTunes only open to iPods

Wikis

• Pronounced as wick-ey (rhymes with sticky) or wee kee (rhymes with we key)

• Wiki is part of Hawaiian word for quick (wiki-wiki)

• Invented by Ward Cunningham to help develop Web pages quickly

Content Management System

• Pages editable via the web• Content stored in a database• Logs changes• Stores previous versions• Allows you to compare versions• Allows rollback to a previous

version

Social Software

• It forms a space for both collaboration and self-publishing

• Comments and discussion are encouraged

• Many wikis also support blogging, discussion forums, and other structured content

What’s a Wiki Good For?

• Getting rid of bottlenecks• Maintaining information that

changes frequently• Improving discovery• Preservation of ephemeral data

Getting Rid of Bottlenecks

• Allows you to push the responsibility for posting information on the website out to the owner of information

• Allows anyone who has the useful input to post

• Encourages a sense of community and of ownership

• Encourages collaboration

Maintaining Frequently Changing Information

•Editing is very quick and easy

•No HTML required (but some supported)

•Shallow learning curve

Improving Discovery

• Everything is automatically indexed and searchable

• Navigational tools allow for easy discovery of new or changed data– Watches– New page lists– Changed page lists

Preservation of Ephemeral Data

• All content is stored in a database

• All previous versions are stored

• Deleted pages can be recovered– Nothing is ever lost

Demonstration

• Library Wikis

Wikis Bottom Line

• Pros– Easy way to collaboration– Wisdom of the crowds– Low cost web development tool

• Cons– No (real-time) central control over

content– Content may not be reliable– Still some training required

Links

• Don Tapscott on Wikinomicshttp://www.vvc1.ca/client/canclub/01152007/

• Cluetrain Manifestohttp://www.cluetrain.com

• Bloglineshttp://www.bloglines.com

• Technoratihttp://www.technorati.com

• iTuneshttp://www.apple.com/itunes/download/

Resources

• Gospodnetic, Otis, and Erik Hatcher. Lucene in action. Greenwich, CT: Manning Publications. 2005.

• Tapscott, Don and Anthony D. Williams. Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything. New York, NY: Portfolio, 2006.