As always, Ed Viel­metti is think­ing about how to make the library’s data work harder for him, with or with­out the library’s help. (Of course, Ed’s library is the phe­nom­e­nal Ann Arbor Dis­trict Library, which already offers more web-based ser­vices than most other libraries, but the sim­ple open­ness of their sys­tems makes it easy for a super­pa­tron like Ed to extend these ser­vices even fur­ther on his own.)

So when Ed couldn’t find some over­due library books in the house, he started won­der­ing aloud how the library’s ser­vices could help him out. Now we just need to think like Ed, too.

Now Where Did I Put that Book?

“All of the library books I have are tagged with RFID chips, which is used for inven­tory con­trol. That should mean that I can use some­thing like this 3M RFID loca­tor device as a reader and scan­ner to locate a lost item.”

Wall of Books Revis­ited: Just What Do I Have Checked Out?

“No, I still haven’t found my over­due books, but at least now I know what they look like.

The AADL prints a help­ful list of the books you have checked out, but doesn’t give you pic­tures of them (not yet at least). So I’m work­ing on the Grease­mon­key script that will insert cover images into that page. This is not that, but a step along the way.”

What I’m really wait­ing for, though, is Ed’s Grease­mon­key script that adds “text me the loca­tion of this item” to a library cat­a­log viewed in Fire­fox. I don’t think I’ll be able to use it for my home library’s cat­a­log, but I’ll hold out hope it can be adapted.

Text Me the Loca­tion of this Book — Step One of a Grease­mon­key Plu­gin for the AADL

“At the time I noted “how hard could it be to add this to my own library with Grease­mon­key” or some sim­i­lar off the cuff remark (oh how fool­ish I can be some times). So let’s pick that apart and see how I’d do this at the AADL.”