Last week An Event Apart, billed as “two days of peace, love, design, code, and content” took place in Seattle. I kept up with some of the stuff going on there and noticed this tweet. I saw it while Jared Spool was speaking and knew that he’s done work with Amazon so I figured the …
Read MoreIf you want to create an iPhone application to search your library’s online catalog (etc), taking a look at the DCPL’s solution wouldn’t be a bad place to start. The code is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike license and you can download it at the DCPL Labs website.
Read MoreAmanda Etches-Johnson and I presented a poster about library website usability at the 2009 Information Architecture Summit last week. What fun! The poster was interactive. It asked readers to list things they’d like to see on library websites and nudged people toward thinking about fun, whimsical things. It wasn’t a surprise that a bunch of …
Read MoreI wonder if his OPAC offers PIN reset via email.
Read MoreHurrah for alternative OPAC interfaces! I’m very pleased to let you know that the DCPL iPhone app went live last night. You can download it from the iTunes app store here. Functionality in this version includes: searching for library materials seeing an item’s cover and reading a summary placing a hold for pickup at the …
Read MoreThe other day I overhead a conversation taking place between a regular patron (really nice guy) and one of the NPPL’s circ clerks (also a nice guy). This gentleman, probably in his mid-70s, needed to keep track of a certain book on CD. He reported that he signed into his library account looking for a …
Read MoreThe other day I overhead a conversation taking place between a regular patron (really nice guy) and one of the NPPL’s circ clerks (also a nice guy). This gentleman, probably in his mid-70s, needed to keep track of a certain book on CD. He reported that he signed into his library account looking for a …
Read MoreA friend invited me to join Plurk, yet another status updating site. I joined not because I need another place to microblog but just to check it out. There are a few neat things about the site, two of which I’d like to point out here: Tweets, er plurks, are displayed on a timeline. I …
Read MoreI’ve used quite a few library OPACs. I’ve also used and sought out the best of the open web. You’ve probably done the same and like me, you’ve probably been dismayed at the disparity between the two worlds. The open web can be fun and inspiring. Would you say the same of our OPACs? I’ve …
Read MoreImagine my surprise earlier this week when I went to the Multnomah County Library Catalog and found a big, bright orange RSS icon. They’ve rolled out III’s RSS product, and have 15 feeds coming out of the catalog: Audiobooks, Children’s fiction Cookbooks DVDs Fiction Gardening books Graphic novels Music Mysteries Non fiction Science fiction Teen …
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