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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.Libology Blog
Established July 2006
ISSN: 1946-1852
by Rick Mason
Author Archives: Rick Mason
Unicode ascending
Unicode has recently become the top website character encoding in the world, according to Google. The point is driven home in this chart. Even if you do not use foreign languages or encoding on your web sites, Unicode should be … Continue reading
The Missing Link in the ILS
Karen Coyle writes about what is needed for the libraries of the world that don’t have the resources needed to install and use a full-featured integrated library system (ILS). There must be a minor psychic link involved (don’t worry Karen, … Continue reading
Posted in ILS, Libraries, Online Services, Software
Tagged internet connection, Karen Coyle
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RFID Post-It
RFID, which stands for Radio Frequency Identification, is currently the leading edge in managing inventories and supply chains of items in a variety of industries, as well as acting as a personal identification device. It is used in many situations, … Continue reading
Posted in Libraries, Video
Tagged bright group, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, personal identification device, researcher, retail warehouses, technology mashup
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Loyola University’s Information Commons
Information commons in a library is an idea being considered by most academic libraries, especially if they have plans to make changes to their allocation of space. Michael Stephens at ALA TechSource writes about his tour of Loyola University’s new … Continue reading
Posted in Libraries
Tagged Loyola University, Michael Stephens
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WorldCat and Digital Images Collections
Go to WorldCat and type in a search. The results contain books, video, audio, you name it. One of the more recent additions is the Digital Images Collections, which can be wonderful to view. How to find them, though? Type … Continue reading
Posted in Archival, Libraries, OCLC, Online Databases, Photography, Search
Tagged search terms
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National Library Workers Day
Tomorrow (Tuesday) is National Library Workers Day, and everyone should take a moment today (before the rush) and think about those who make libraries better by the quality of both their attitude and the work they do. Have someone in … Continue reading
Berkeley Accord
ILS Basic Discovery Interfaces, a.k.a the Berkeley Accord In what may turn out to be a historically significant event in the history of library tech, a group called the ILS Discovery Task Force has generated an outline detailing what amounts … Continue reading
Posted in ILS, Libraries, Library 2.0, OCLC, Search, Software, Web Design
Tagged API, California Digital Library, Eric Leese Morgan, html, ILS Discovery Task Force, Innovative Interfaces Inc, Internet Explorer, online search tool, Polaris Library Systems, Search, search technology
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State of the ILS
Marshall Breeding provides his annual overview of the shifts and trends in the world of the Integrated Library System (ILS) in the current issue of Library Journal. Of interest is the definite movement of the open source systems, Koha and … Continue reading
Posted in ILS, Libraries, OPAC, Open Source, Software, Statistics
Tagged ILS Marshall, Library Journal, Marshall Breeding, open source systems
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Simple truths in a comic strip
It’s a simple truth, and we all know it, but it still makes for a humorous punchline over coffee: On A Clare Day, 2 April 2008 Thanks to Donna, former co-worker extraordinaire, for passing that along!
Sandboxes
A couple of posts about sandboxes have caught my eye: LISNews posted about Peter Morville (writer of Ambient Findability, which if you haven’t read – you should) and his Flickr “sandbox for collecting search examples, patterns, and anti-patterns.” Roy Tennant … Continue reading
Posted in Libraries, Library 2.0, Open Source, Software, Training, Web Design, Wiki
Tagged Ambient Findability, helpful tools, Peter Morville, Roy Tennant, search examples, University of Cincinnati, USD, web hosting, writer
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Web 2.0 Tools
Teaching a Dog New Tricks is a post by Michelle Boule on ALA TechSource that contains a great overview of what good Web 2.0 tools have in common.
Announcing Scriblio on Libology
Libology’s Scriblio installation. Scriblio, the open-source Library OPAC that runs on a WordPress installation, has been installed on Libology. Several notes about this software installation: The library catalog contained within this installation of Scriblio is Capital University’s, located in Columbus, … Continue reading
Posted in Libraries, Library 2.0, OPAC, Open Source, Software, Web Design
Tagged Author, Capital University, Casey Bisson, Columbus, html, installation of Scriblio, Lampson Library, Libology Libology's Scriblio installation, Libology\'s Scriblio installation, Ohio, php, Plymouth State University, Plymouth State University's Lampson Library;, Scriblio, Scriblio installation, software installation, WordPress
installation
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Announcing Libology
And now the announcement I alluded to a couple of weeks ago… Libology.com is a new web site that I have begun work on. The focus of the site is described by its tag line : “Tools and Ideas for … Continue reading
Posted in Libraries, Library 2.0, Online Services, Software, Web Design
Tagged library Online Public Access Catalog, library technologies
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BookChaser Editions Lookup
BookChaser Editions Lookup is an International Standard Book Number (ISBN) lookup service with a twist : it obtains information from the amazingISBN, thingISBN and xISBN services and displays them, all for the purpose of letting the user compare and contrast … Continue reading
Posted in Books, OCLC, Online Services, Search
Tagged Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, xISBN
services
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Better World Books
Better World Books is a for-profit organization that, among other activities, will take a library’s discarded books and either donate them to literacy projects worldwide, or sell them via used book retailers such as Amazon Marketplace. A portion of the … Continue reading
Open Access and Undergraduate Research
A great, thought-provoking post on the OpenStudents blog : Open Access meets Undergrad Research… Please? If I were to be researching a paper on a topic that has a strong open access presence (and the easiest way to see these … Continue reading
Posted in Blogs, Copyright, Education, Libraries, Open Access
Tagged instructor, live web connection
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Happy Document Freedom Day!
Its the first annual Document Freedom Day! Document Freedom means open standards and free document formats. Take a few minutes to check out what this means to libraries, society, and to you. For me, well, I have been a fan … Continue reading
The Accidental OPAC Name
Someone at AskMetaFilter has inquired about why so many library OPACs have human names, and Jessamyn has asked for comments, so here is what I posted as a reply: Here’s a story about how one library accidentally gave their OPAC … Continue reading
Posted in ILS, Libraries
Tagged George Harrison, staff member, Sun technician
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Planet eBook
There are many ebook web sites; there are many free ebook sites, even. Planet eBook is special, and you should take a look for yourself and see what I mean. They have been around only a few months, their offerings … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Libraries, Open Access
Tagged ebook web sites, online core
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If it quacks like a librarian…
This post by The Limnal Librarian is, simply put, a must for everyone to read and understand (even if you don’t agree). I worked in a pharmacy as a technician for 8 years. There were great, and not so great, … Continue reading
Posted in Blogs, Libraries
Tagged Dean Giustini, Director, librarian, Library Journal, pharmacist, technician, The Limnal Librarian, Tim Spaulding
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