Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Our department is test-benching Twitter as an informational tool for communication between all of us. Here is the link to my profile.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Widgetized Applications! (for most html based browsers)
Well I have been working on polishing some applications that are designed to make life easier here at the library. We found some active library widgets at Widgetbox and I decided to try and work with it. Here is an example of what I came up with:
Constructing the widget was a bit difficult at first as there were no real instructions on how to start. In effect an html based widget requires html and can also take javascript. There was an issue with the way some of the components interacted and it took a bit of tinkering with the scripting and code to get the widget working correctly.
The problems I experienced were related to the straight searching of the catalog. It required that I create a new window in the browser, shift the focus to the window, and load the page. Rather than using a normal form, action command. The code also required javascript for the construction of appropriate urls.
On the plus side hosted widgets localizes the location of files and allows for a singular location where everything for the construction of the file is located. Say for instance that someone came in as a freelancer and created widgets for us then we would know where they were located and could easily access the code. Which could have been a problem with flash, or flex based widgets.
Constructing the widget was a bit difficult at first as there were no real instructions on how to start. In effect an html based widget requires html and can also take javascript. There was an issue with the way some of the components interacted and it took a bit of tinkering with the scripting and code to get the widget working correctly.
The problems I experienced were related to the straight searching of the catalog. It required that I create a new window in the browser, shift the focus to the window, and load the page. Rather than using a normal form, action command. The code also required javascript for the construction of appropriate urls.
On the plus side hosted widgets localizes the location of files and allows for a singular location where everything for the construction of the file is located. Say for instance that someone came in as a freelancer and created widgets for us then we would know where they were located and could easily access the code. Which could have been a problem with flash, or flex based widgets.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Phone Reference + Internet Based Chat = Sublime
I have been using Meebo as a chat client for over a year now to handle engineering and other subject related reference. One trick that I have added to my web 2.0 arsenal is using a two-edged, phone + chat, approach to reference:
Lets say I get a phone call or am handling general reference at our reference desk and get a phone call there. If I need to get a lot of information to the caller, and it just does not seem that telling them what or where the information is located is not working so well, then I will ask them to go to my profile here at the library on their computer. I then get them to scroll about halfway down the page and I can then send them textual information, web-links to information or databases. This phone-chat hybrid reference is a dynamite combination for explaining hard concepts or difficult situations.
I find that too often we spend a lot of time talking to people, who are already on the Internet, trying to point them to specific web-pages, waiting for them to get everything correct, spelling out web addresses, etc. It is much easier to just hand them the link that they need via the use of a chat client. We can give them more accessible information and do a better job of steering them to what they want this way. It seems less confusing. :)
Lets say I get a phone call or am handling general reference at our reference desk and get a phone call there. If I need to get a lot of information to the caller, and it just does not seem that telling them what or where the information is located is not working so well, then I will ask them to go to my profile here at the library on their computer. I then get them to scroll about halfway down the page and I can then send them textual information, web-links to information or databases. This phone-chat hybrid reference is a dynamite combination for explaining hard concepts or difficult situations.
I find that too often we spend a lot of time talking to people, who are already on the Internet, trying to point them to specific web-pages, waiting for them to get everything correct, spelling out web addresses, etc. It is much easier to just hand them the link that they need via the use of a chat client. We can give them more accessible information and do a better job of steering them to what they want this way. It seems less confusing. :)
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
OU Engineering Toolbar now compatible with Firefox 3.0 and auto-updates
I have finally had time to settle down and setup the OU Engineering Toolbar so it auto-updates. In effect everything you would need to know about fixing the versioning is in this article from Mozilla's Development Center.
The way that you setup automatic updating is by hosting an update.rdf file in a directory the format of which can be found in this web-page. It also requires you to use secure http (https). If you are working with this just check with your systems administrator to see if hosted files use this automatically.
I was expecting this process to take a lot longer time-wise to work it out but it only took about two days to get everything sorted. Now I am going to go down to the Russ College of Engineering and see about getting the toolbar hosted in the computer labs there!
The way that you setup automatic updating is by hosting an update.rdf file in a directory the format of which can be found in this web-page. It also requires you to use secure http (https). If you are working with this just check with your systems administrator to see if hosted files use this automatically.
I was expecting this process to take a lot longer time-wise to work it out but it only took about two days to get everything sorted. Now I am going to go down to the Russ College of Engineering and see about getting the toolbar hosted in the computer labs there!
Friday, June 20, 2008
All Science Poster Session - Engineering Toolbar: Portal to Library Services
Several people at the SLA Conference asked me to provide access to the poster that I presented, at the All Science Poster Session. Here is the link to that file. I hope everyone had a great conference and I look forward to hearing from you in the future.
Metalib and EBSCO Allow Many Databases to be Automated-Federated Searching
I just got back from SLA in Seattle, Washington and the conference was great! There are so many ideas that I have brought back and am planning on working with so I thought I would share some of them with you. The first is what Metalib and EBSCO allow us to accomplish, as librarians, when trying to create toolbar applications that search like Google.
When you run a search in Metalib for about 5-10 seconds a persistent URL will appear in the search box of your browser. You can do this for either individual databases, or the federated searches that Metalib provides. If you want to automate that search you need to copy it before it changes to a session URL. You can then of course automate it like I explain in this post.
The advantage here is that there are a large number of databases that Metalib can search through that use non-persistent URLs. The downside is that researchers may be used to specific interfaces. With the OU toolbars searches to a database that can only be accessed via Metalib use Metalib, but if the search box is left blank the toolbar goes to the native interface. Then through instruction I make sure to teach researchers which databases are wired for Metalib.
EBSCO has an option built into it where you can select multiple databases that you want to search. After running a search you can either check the persistent link to the search or add the search to your search folder (either is a persistent URL). When you select multiple databases you can extract a persistent search that covers many databases. So now we can set up searches for toolbars that are federated searches for EBSCO (for whichever databases you want to use).
When you run a search in Metalib for about 5-10 seconds a persistent URL will appear in the search box of your browser. You can do this for either individual databases, or the federated searches that Metalib provides. If you want to automate that search you need to copy it before it changes to a session URL. You can then of course automate it like I explain in this post.
The advantage here is that there are a large number of databases that Metalib can search through that use non-persistent URLs. The downside is that researchers may be used to specific interfaces. With the OU toolbars searches to a database that can only be accessed via Metalib use Metalib, but if the search box is left blank the toolbar goes to the native interface. Then through instruction I make sure to teach researchers which databases are wired for Metalib.
EBSCO has an option built into it where you can select multiple databases that you want to search. After running a search you can either check the persistent link to the search or add the search to your search folder (either is a persistent URL). When you select multiple databases you can extract a persistent search that covers many databases. So now we can set up searches for toolbars that are federated searches for EBSCO (for whichever databases you want to use).
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
ENGR Wiki goes live
I have been working on putting together ENGR Wiki an engineering research based Wiki that is now accessible at Ohio University Alden Library. The Wiki has reached a good enough size now that I can release it to the public. I hope you find it interesting though it will be most useful to engineering researchers from the Ohio University community.
The Wiki has a breakdown of useful databases by engineering discipline that are taught at the Russ College of Engineering. It also has research guides about patents, standards, and other topics. It is also the home of the OU Engineering Toolbar.
The Wiki has a breakdown of useful databases by engineering discipline that are taught at the Russ College of Engineering. It also has research guides about patents, standards, and other topics. It is also the home of the OU Engineering Toolbar.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
