Bookmarklets, Favelets and Things

"...With some creative thinking, there are many other library functions that could use the technology as well. InfoWorld analyst and writer Jon Udell started creating bookmarklets for library catalogs that would grab an ISBN out of the URL at a site like Amazon or Barnes and Noble and search it in a library catalog....

Not all library systems will support this, but Udell has quite a list on his Library Lookup page [www.snurl.com/w9j] for several main library systems along with links for hundreds of libraries. If yours is not listed, he even has a Library Lookup Generator that may be able to create one that works.

While the number of library lookup bookmarklets available is quite amazing, there are some caveats. For one thing, these only work for ISBN searches from pages that contain an ISBN somewhere in the URL. So while bookmarklets can work quite nicely for users at the Amazon or Barnes and Noble sites, they are not very helpful at the many Web pages that may only cite a book with a standard citation or even less information. If it is just a book title, and the book is no longer in print, it may be difficult to find a page with its ISBN at the online bookstores.

Even more problematic is the variety of ISBNs available for a single title. For one publication there can be separate ISBNs for the paperback, hardback, deluxe leather-bound, book on tape, and many other versions and editions. Consequently, a search just on a single ISBN may not pull up a copy of the work that is available in the library but in a different format.

Because of this, it may be best to consider Udell's laudable effort as a very useful beginning point. The bookmarklets can be adapted to do a catalog search with other criteria. James Howison, a graduate student at Syracuse University and FreelancePropaganda.com blogger, modified the library lookup bookmarklet for the Syracuse University library catalog so that it could do a keyword search of the catalog on selected text on an existing Web page [http://snurl.com/kwlookup], but realize that 'Bird' is the name of the main library at Syracuse and not an ornithological search limit.

Consider some related uses. In browsing the Web, a citation to an article shows up on a page. Select the periodical title and click on the local library bookmarklet that will do an accurate search for a print or electronic version of the periodical. Or from within a library's bibliographic database or a commercial online service, a bookmarklet could check against a list of full-text subscriptions.

Any library or lab that has public computers could set up bookmarklets for printing, e-mailing, accessibility, Web searches, catalog checks, full-text availability searches, and other linking. The potential is there even though the bookmarklets still need to be written and adapted to local situations for most of these examples." [Online, via TVC Alert]

ILS Vendors and Standards

"Gaylord has released a document, GIS Standards, which details all the standards they support, are working toward, and are looking into. As someone who works with Polaris on a daily basis, I think this is a neat idea and I would hope other vendors would do the same thing. I can think of at least two that get talked about quite often around here that are missing: RSS and XHTML. I am wondering if anyone would suggest any others." [LibraryPlanet.com]

What an excellent idea! Hey, Mark - does Innovative provide something like this? If not, I think they should. They all should - let's gang up on 'em! Here's our official chant - learn it, live it:

"What do we want?
Documented progress towards standards!

When do we want it?
Now!"

Tangent: don't forget to check out Catalogablog's post about the Nelsonville Public Library's brand-spanking-new implementation of Koha, the first open source integrated library system!

Sudden thought: hey - will using the phrase "brand-spanking-new" get my site blocked by censorware filters? And what does filtering mean for OPACs? For example, I have always wondered about records like this one in SWAN. Is it getting blocked within those SWAN libraries that are using censorware? Does all of SWAN get blocked as a result? What happens in libraries that can't or don't know how to tweak the settings to unblock it - is the catalog just not available??

I first noticed the word b1tch in SWAN when Snoop Doggy Dogg's album "Doggy Style" came out. I was working in a public library at the time, and I remember wondering if anyone was going to complain that the song titles had been cataloged and were searchable. To my knowledge, no one ever did. Interestingly, ten years later "b1tch" has been replaced by "b***h" in the catalog. Why on this record but not the others?

librarians for the day

"These two boys somehow won the chance to be librarians for the day. The library staff was doing their best to make it fun for them, and they did a good job. Heck, I still think shredding paper is fun....

I hadn't too much more to tell them when my phone started to vibrate in my shirt pocket. (We were at the one place in the library where I get reception). They laughed, and I pulled out my phone. 'Wanna see what my phone can do?', I asked. One surmised that I could surf the web on my phone, and I told them I could kinda do that.

I then snapped a picture and showed it to them. They thought it was really cool - big smiles all around. I then went on the web to this page, and showed them that I could put pictures directly on the web. They gasped in amazement and demanded that their picture go on the site.

So I snapped a new one, and here it is. Two librarians for the day.

One asked if the phone was expensive. 'Not really, there are more expensive phones out there', I said. When I told them that in the next few years, all phones might have cameras, their faces lit up. And I quote, 'We totally hafta ask mom for those. I've gotta get one.' Sorry, Mom." [Lazyitis]

Today Aaron also taught a patron how to use her cameraphone because she didn't know how to take pictures with it.

"Jean Wilkins, Director of the Illinois State Library, invites ILLINET member libraries to become part of statewide virtual reference service. One of the newer services designed to support libraries and library users through technology, virtual reference offers a means of

• connecting and communicating in real time
• expanding telephone reference with the ability to provide immediate delivery of resources
• accessing back-up reference and/or banks of questions to further enhance local library service
• working with other Illinois libraries to provide cooperative virtual reference coverage, both locally and statewide.

'Year of Testing'

During the last 18 months, the Illinois State Library has worked with ILLINET member libraries on virtual reference projects. Ask-Us! Illinois brings all of these projects together, no matter which virtual reference product will be used in the coming year or whether the service will be provided by a single library or by a group of libraries. The first year of Ask-Us! Illinois will be a 'Year of Testing', designed to further investigate virtual reference products as the State moves toward a single virtual reference service product. All ILLINET member academic, public, school, and special libraries, whether or not they participated in a virtual reference grant, pilot, or other projects, are welcome to be part of Ask-Us! Illinois.

Multiple Products

In order to provide a true 'Year of Testing', the Illinois State Library has negotiated with three vendors, Docutek, OCLC's QuestionPoint, and Tutor.com Reference Management (formerly known as LSSI), to provide the lowest possible pricing in Illinois for FY2004, which ends June 30, 2004. Pricing information for all three products can be found on the Illinois State Library's web site at http://www.finditillinois.org/askus (contact SLS or Barbara Alexander at the ISL for the login and password). The first 175 participating libraries will each be awarded a $200 credit. Questions about Ask-Us! Illinois and information on the Ask-Us! Illinois web site can be directed to Barbara Alexander, balexander@ilsos.net or 217.785.7334.

Before You Buy

Based on the experiences of the ILLINET virtual reference service projects, the Illinois State Library asks libraries to consider the following questions as they begin the process of purchasing one of the virtual reference products offered through Ask-Us! Illinois.

• Is my library interested in virtual reference?
• Does my library want to do virtual reference as a single library or do we want to work with other libraries to provide cooperative coverage?
• If my library wants to do cooperative coverage, how do we set it up? Which of the following options most closely describes our plans for virtual reference service:
   
  1. We already have a group in mind and will work together to organize, manage and promote our group.
  2. We are interested in working with other libraries and will work with the Illinois State Library to identify interested libraries of the same type, geographic area or other appropriate value.
  3. Each group will be responsible for managing and promoting their own group.

Technical support for each product will be provided by the appropriate vendor. All payments will be made to the Illinois State Library.

Questions about the Illinois State Library's statewide virtual reference service, Ask-Us! Illinois, can be directed to Barbara Alexander, balexander@ilsos.net or 217.785.7334."

Dean sent me a heads up that Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn has started a blog called Breaking Views.

Someday Is Now for Tribune's New Web Log

"Neither my editors nor I are exactly sure of the answers. The working definition, which appears at the top of chicagotribune.com/breakingviews, is 'a frequently updated journal containing observations, reports, tips, referrals, tirades and whatever else happens to be in my notebook.'

This will translate into generally short nuggets of opinion and information--columnettes--that often link to other articles and sites of interest on the Internet. The orientation will be local but not exclusively so, and the approach will be subjective, candid and personal....

My goal is to make Breaking Views useful, provocative and amusing, sometimes all at once. And my hope is that readers will bookmark the site and peek in regularly enough to persuade the decision-makers in the fancy offices that I'm not out of my mind in leading the Tribune into this emerging hybrid media form....

I don't know if I'm the one who can make this idea work at the Tribune. But I'll experiment with features and use the reach of my position, the resources of the newspaper and the energy of our readers to try to make Breaking Views worth your while.

As the self-appointed digital pioneer at the Tribune (first columnist to invite e-mail, 1993; first columnist with own Web site, 1997), I've volunteered for this admittedly questionable challenge because I have no question about one thing: Every publication and most opinion journalists will be blogging within 15 years, probably sooner.

Writers and readers will come to expect the immediacy and intimacy of the format, while publishers will find in it a new way to build and maintain valuable relationships with the public.

I may have to eat these words, so mark them well.

In fact, to be on the safe side, bookmark them well."

There's also an interesting Breaking Views FAQ, which oddly, is over on Zorn's personal site, not the Trib's. Some answers to the questions I know you're already asking:

"Q. What advantages does a bylined journalist have in writing a blog?
A. One, when we have questions we want answered, sources tend to return calls from publications whose names they recognize. Two, our publications can serve as ads for our blogs. Three, more and more we will be given time at work to blog, something most bloggers do not enjoy.

Q. Why do you write 'Web logs' instead of the more common and accepted 'weblogs'
A. It's current Tribune style. I predict it will change in time. We ultimately took the space out of DuPage County, you know, so anything's possible.

Q. Why don't you have perma-links, time-date stamps and other things that all other blogs do?
A. It's a software problem.   I'd like to and I hope someday the chicagotribune.com software will incorporate these standard blogging features.

Q. How will you know if Breaking Views has succeeded or failed?
A. I'm sure I'll be the last to know in either case. But I don't think it's purely a matter of numbers or click ons or click throughs; I'll be looking for more of a subjective sense of whether the blog ultimately matters or not to me and the readers. If not, I still have my day job."

Clearly Zorn is pushing them feet first on this blog thing, so bonus points to him. He obviously understands blogging and the blogosphere in general, as evidenced by the information he included in the FAQ. Even more bonus points because today's entries include a mention of Chicago flash mobs. Subtract them back, though, since I can't point you to the exact entry.

Plus, no mention of RSS anywhere, which just further highlights that the Trib is still completely clueless in this area. I just wish Zorn had been able to push them to provide an RSS feed so that I'd read Breakving Views and prove to his bosses that this blogging thing can attract new readers.

"Welcome to Audio Avenue, a new online community developed by the talking book centers in Illinois to offer online programs and outreach for librarians, other professionals serving the visually impaired, and the visually impaired.

To kick off the opening of Audio Avenue, the Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center will host a number of 45-minute online orientation sessions on talking books to library staff on all levels. This will allow your staff to attend an informative and interactive web-based presentation without having to travel and at the convenience of their own desk.

Talking Book Centers are dependent upon libraries of all types for referral to the program and want to work closely with libraries so they are comfortable and knowledgeable about the program. Participants will receive an orientation to the talking book program, learn about eligibility requirements and how to sign someone up, how to get involved as an institutional member, a brief tour of the website and online catalog, and participate in a brief discussion on how to promote talking books. All that is needed to participate is a microcomputer with an Internet connection, a sound card and speakers.

If you have a microphone, you will be able to participate in the session with audio chat. Without a microphone, you can participate using text chat. Using ivocalize.com conferencing software, the sessions will include text chat, audio chat, and synchronized web browsing.

To register, please send an email to info@mitbc.org with your selected time and date. A confirmation will be sent confirming your registration. The limit for each session is 8. The following dates and times are currently available:

• Monday, September 15, 1:00 - 1:45 p.m.
• Monday, September 15, 2:00 - 2:45 p.m.
• Monday, September 29, 1:00 - 1:45 p.m.
• Monday, September 29, 2:00 - 2:45 p.m.
• Monday, October 6, 1:00 - 1:45 p.m.
• Monday, October 6, 2:00 - 2:45 p.m.
• Monday, October 20, 1:00 - 1:45 p.m.
• Monday, October 20, 2:00 - 2:45 p.m.

Other activities including book discussion groups and talk shows of interest to librarians are scheduled for future dates."