Sunday, October 26, 2008

Library 2.0 Gang 07/08: ALA - Anaheim

Originally posted on 8th July 2008 on the Talis Library 2.0 Gang Podcast.

22,000 Librarians congregated in Anaheim California between June 26th and July 2nd for the American Library Association 2008 Annual Conference and Exhibition. With over 300 educational programs, over 2000 committee meetings and events, the exhibition, opening and closing sessions, and the presidents program to choose from - and Disneyland just down the road - it was a busy time for those that attended.

Outgoing ALA President, Loriene Roy joins the Gang as our guest this month to reflect on the conference.

The Gang members, who all attended the conference, on this show are Char Booth, Carl Grant, Marshall Breeding, and Oren Beit-Arie. Amongst the topics discussed were the suitability of the venues chosen for ALA conferences, the return on investment for vendors as some conference attendees deliberately avoid the exhibition floor, concerns patron privacy and it’s effect on innovation, and the way librarians don’t discuss their failures.

Labels: , , ,

Library 2.0 Gang 06/08: Bolt-on OPACs

Originally posted on 10th June 2008 on the Talis Library 2.0 Gang Podcast.

Against the background of Web 2.0 and Library 2.0, we have seen the emergence of complementary, or bolt-on, products for Library Systems. Gradually we are seeing a moving away from the tradition of libraries purchasing absolutely everything from their ILS vendor.

It is now becoming normal for libraries to purchase URL Resolvers, Electronic Resource Management software, and Federated Search products from 3rd parties. This trend is becoming most prevalent in the area of search and discovery interfaces, these ‘Bolt-on OPACs’ being available from both commercial and open source providers.

Our guest Taco Ekkel is Director of Development for Medialab Solutions, the Amsterdam based company who produced Aquabrowser, the first commercial example of a complementary OPAC. He is joined by Gang members Matt Goldner, Betsy Graham, Andrew Nagy, Marshall Breeding, and Carl Grant, to discuss where these products are going and what was learnt from Aquabrowser.

Labels: , , ,

Library 2.0 Gang 05/08: ILS API

Originally posted on 6th May 2008 on the Talis Library 2.0 Gang Podcast.

Those reading library technology blogs, or attending conferences over the last couple of years, can not have failed to be aware of the pressure for Library System developers and vendors to open up those systems and provide API access.

Against this background, the Digital Library Federation (DLF) launched a working group to analyze the issues involved in integrating “integrated library systems” and discovery systems, and create a technical proposal for how such integration should be accomplished.

Following a survey of libraries, the working group produced a draft recommendation which was discussed at a meeting in Berkeley, California on March 6th attended by representatives of the DLF , academic libraries, and major library application vendors. Subsequent to this meeting participants agreed to the ‘Berkeley Accord’ supporting a set of essential functions for an API.

John Mark Ockerbloom Chair of the DLF Working Group is our guest this month. In conversation with the Gang members Talin Bingham, Oren Beit-Arie, Marshall Breeding, Andrew Nagy, and Dan Mullineux.

During the conversation we reference:

Labels: , , ,

Library 2.0 Gang 04/08: Google Book Search API

Originally posted on 8th April 2008 on the Talis Library 2.0 Gang Podcast.

Google Book Search has created much interest since its appearance as Google Print back in 2004. Recently they released an API to enable the embedding of Google Book Search resources in to sites, not least library OPACs.

This month’s gang Oren Beit-Arie, Tim Spalding, Warwick Cathro, John Blyberg, and Carl Grant are joined by guest Google Product Manager, Frances Haugen who gives an interesting insight in to the thinking behind and application of the API. During the conversation Frances suggests that those who wish to offer comments about and suggestions for future API developments should contact her by mail - fhaugen@google.com.

The Gang also discuss how services such as Google Book Search, The Open Library, LibraryThing, and others may be indicators of how in the future library systems will increasingly use globally based services to handle resources traditionally held locally.

Labels: , , , ,

Library 2.0 Gang 03/08: Code4lib

Originally posted on 11th March 2008 on the Talis Library 2.0 Gang Podcast.

The Open Library, ILS APIs, and New Cataloguing Influences, are the subjects under discussion in this show. Gang Regulars John Blyberg, Nicole C Engard, Carl Grant, Char Booth, and Rob Styles are joined by Aaron Swartz from The Open Library.

The topics for this month’s show were drawn from the excellent Code4lib 2008 Conference February 25-28, in Portland, OR. - The Open Library, ILS APIs, and new influences on cataloging.

The following are referenced in the conversation:

Labels: , , , , , , ,

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

ALA LITA Ultimate Debate :: There’s No Catalog like No Catalog

Thanks to the Internet Resources and Services Interest Group (IRSIG), there was another Ultimate Debate panel at ALA Annual 2008. The title this year was “There’s No Catalog like No Catalog”, and a full recording of the debate was podcast on the LITABlog. Panelists included Stephen Abram, Joe Janes, Karen Coyle, and Karen Schneider.

Podcast originally posted on July 5, 2008. [MP3 file: 105:47]
See also Roy Tennant's three summaries in Library Journal: [1], [2], [3]

Labels: , , , ,

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Talking With Talis :: Tim Berners-Lee

Originally posted on Talking With Talis on February 27, 2008.

In our latest podcast interview I talk with Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web and now Director of the World Wide Web Consortium. We discuss the Semantic Web's readiness for mainstream adoption, and explore a wide range of issues from Linked Data to the writing of new books for developers.

For further discussion of the interview's content, see this post on ZDNet's latest blog, The Semantic Web.

Download MP3 [63 mins, 30Mb]. Read transcript

During the conversation, we refer to numerous resources. These are linked from the transcript, and reproduced below;

Labels: , , , , , , ,

Talking With Talis :: Richard Cyganiak

Originally posted on Talking With Talis on March 13, 2008.

Latest recording on technical matters is a chat with Richard Cyganiak, who's currently working on the Sindice Semantic Web search engine, though is probably best known for his leading role in the Linking Open Data project (maintaining the cloud diagram :-)

In the podcast Richard describes various technical details of these projects, and talks about the nature of data on the Web in the wild, as RDF, microformats and increasingly RDFa. He also discusses some of the practical issues in mapping existing databases to the Semantic Web (the kind of techniques Tim Berners-Lee mentioned in his podcast with Paul a few weeks ago).

Richard naturally mentions the principles of Linked Data :

  1. Use URIs as names for things
  2. Use HTTP URIs so that people can look up those names.
  3. When someone looks up a URI, provide useful information.
  4. Include links to other URIs. so that they can discover more things.
Download MP3 [47 mins, 44Mb]

Labels: , , , , , , , ,

Friday, March 14, 2008

Talking With Talis :: Tom Morris

Originally posted on Nodalities on March 8, 2008.

Today's verbal delight features Semantic Web hacker (and philosopher) Tom Morris, initially talking about using XML to describe real-world things, mentioning the advantages of RDF. He then describes his experiences with the Ruby programming language, and offers thoughts on practical aspects of working in the distributed environment of the Web. Tom tells of ideas he has around using Bluetooth with RDF, before giving his opinion of platforms like Facebook, and related novel aspects of online gaming. He concludes by talking about his recent experience of organizing SemanticCamp London, and encouraging other people to try the BarCamp approach to conferences.

Download MP3 [52 mins, 48Mb]

During the conversation, we refer to the following resources:

Labels: , , , , ,

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

The Mark of Zotero: Two-Clicks to Citation Management

Originally presented at OPAL on January 23, 2008.

The Mark of Zotero: Two-Clicks to Citation Management, a presentation made by Chris Strauber, Reference and Web Services Librarian at Wofford College.

Labels: , ,

Subscribe to: Podcast