Superpatron

Ann Arbor District Library downtown building project suspended

via Jim Rees via the Ann Arbor Chronicle:

By Jim Rees

November 24, 2008

I’m at the meeting now. The Library’s lawyer told the board in session that the bond market is not conducive to the needs of the new building project. The board just voted unanimously to suspend all work on the project.

Editor’s note: Jim Rees left the above text in a comment on the preview article, and we’ve elevated it to be a bit more prominent.  We have a reporter at the meeting this morning as well and will follow up with more details.

I'll be watching the Chronicle for more detail.

mobile identity: putting your library card into your mobile phone

I don't think this is too far fetched, given that Dubai is sending barcodes to mobile phones to use as entry visas.

The idea is really simple: take the bar code that's on the back of your library card, scan it in, load it onto your mobile phone, and then when it comes time to check out a book have the scanner scan from your phone screen.

more reading:

EFF busts a Neomedia mobile barcode patent

American brings mobile boarding passes to O'Hare - "Travelers on American can flash a bar code on their cell phone screens to board their flights and get through security checkpoints at O'Hare using new technology rolled out Thursday."

the only question is how well the readers read from my scratched-up screen; if it works, though, it would mean that there's no need to carry that piece of plastic any more.

mobile library links moved into github

In the "it's better to share" department, and the "it's better to have backups" department;

I'm moving my collection of web sites for libraries and bookstores and other book finding systems into a project on github, helpfully named "mobile".  It also happens to have a bunch of information about other non-library web sites that are similarly tuned and designed for the small screen.   I published what I readily had and will backfill with the stuff that got hidden that should be surfaced.

My particular zeal here is for the Blackberry, since I happen to have one.  I will also pick up iPhone sites along the way, but don't plan to specifically gather iPhone-only stuff.  Bookstores are fair game, in large part because they often do better than library catalogs at helping you find and remember books.

There's some hint in the README file that this is part of a bigger project to make this set of data more interestingly reusable; the motivation going back in time is to the early 1990s work that Billy Barron did to catalog online library sites.  In particular, a lot of this information is most useful tied to a particular place, and I'd love to have enough extra data about location to make it easy or easier to pull out a subset appropriate so that you can have a short handy mobile guide to the libraries of Washington or New York or Ann Arbor without having to maintain completely separate lists.

superpatron code repository on github

I'm going to be collecting the various bits and scraps of code I've written for Superpatron on github.  Look at the superpatron archive there for details.

So far it's just promises (I'm still figuring out git; it's not hard, just new to me) but I do hope to get the code that I have already released on various random FTP sites into this one place.

AADL planning SOPAC 2 beta for in-building use

If you are inside an Ann Arbor District Library building, you have access to an early beta of the new catalog.

By "early" I really mean "early" - there's no pretenses that it's finished, but it is up and running with catalog data, though the skin on it is completely bog-standard unvarnished Drupal that makes you want to sing the Drupal song.

One thing I notice right away is that there's a faceted search, so that you can sift through query results by date, language, or materials type.  I'm sure there will be more to discover as time goes on.

Sirpa

http://www.dbc.dk/produkter/alfabetisk-oversigt-over-alle-produkter/markedsforing-og-formidling

Sirpa er en onlinetjeneste, der markedsfører og formidler bibliotekets nyheder og tilbud. Adgang til Sirpa forudsætter abonnement.

I just saw your photo of the google books website on your
Flickr website. I really like it.
I would like to ask you, if I can get the permission to use
it in a story about 'books' - the new function on google,
which I am about to create for our news which we show at
big screens in libraries in Denmark.

You can see what we do at our website www.dbc.dk
<http://www.dbc.dk> (press at Sirpa, to se an example of
our work).

I will of course make sure your name will be shown at the
picture so everyone can see who's the photographer.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Best wishes,
Eva-Sabrina
[email protected]

SOPAC 2 at the Ann Arbor District Library: first impressions

(first impressions)
(how to access from in building)
(what to expect, what not to expect)

questions from eli about how to use
questions from ryan about how to funnel feedback in
where is the aadl dev blog

public library funding: city vs. school vs. free-standing

I know that this will oversimplify things a bit, but I want to get it out into text before the thought goes away.

In the US there seems to be three ways for public local funding of libraries: they are a part of a school system, they are part of a municipal city budget, or they have their own independent tax and funding authority.  (I suppose Indiana has some more thoroughly state-wide funding, so that's a fourth.  There's bound to be others).

If I were to look at where the best support at the community level is for public libraries, it seems to be where libraries have to pass their own millages to support their operations and growth.  Taxpayers vote library funding up or down, and by being independent of city budgets there is no internal budget battles vs. fire or police or water or sewer services.

This is also an argument for a library board that's elected, not appointed, so that change in the direction of the organization can come from a vote of the people and not an entrenched set of political appointees.

In Michigan the legislation that set the movement towards publicly elected district library boards in motion is Public Act 24 of 1989.

San Diego, CA library closings

from Sign on San Diego, November 11 2008

Possible library, rec center closings draw howls of protest

SAN DIEGO – Mayor Jerry Sanders' proposal to shutter 17 libraries and recreation facilities to reduce a $43 million deficit has prompted hundreds of calls and e-mails to City Hall.

City Council President Scott Peters' office has received about 20 phone calls and 100 e-mails, with most lamenting the library cuts, Peters' spokesperson said.

from Library Journal

Citing “plummeting tax revenues,” San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders has proposed the temporary closure of seven of 33 branches of the San Diego Public Library to help meet a $43 million gap. While Sanders also proposed closing recreational facilities and cutting the budget of police and fire services, libraries appear to face a larger percentage cut, $2 million of $37 million, or 5.4%. The library will lose 33.81 positions, according to the mayor's report.

In a statement, Sanders said that the libraries were selected based on lower usage as well as their proximity to newer, larger branches. (There’s also a Central Library.) The Board of Library Commissioners voted unanimously to oppose Sanders’s proposal, noting that library circulation has increased 8% in the last three months, a testament to the importance of library service in hard times.

The Friends of the San Diego Public Library have a web site, hosted on the city's computers.  It says nothing about this right now.

The San Diego Public Library Foundation has posted the news and is asking for public support for the libraries at commission meetings.

Wednesday, Nov 19 2008: Got 2.0? A Panel Discussion on Libraries and Web 2.0 , Wayne State University

Please save the date for an excellent opportunity to learn about how local information professionals are using Web 2.0 technologies in their institutions.

Got 2.0? A Panel Discussion on Libraries and Web 2.0

Wednesday, November 19, 2008
6:00 - 7:00 p.m.

Bernath Auditorium
Undergraduate Library
Wayne State University
Reception to follow in the Community Room

The panel is free and open to the public and will feature:

Moderator: Mike Sensiba, Next Gen Librarian, WSU

Panel Presenters:
Annette Healy, Librarian, Science & Engineering Library, WSU
Alicia Biggers, Senior Data Research Supervisor, Ford Motor Company
Paul Neirink, Digital Resources Specialist, Reuther Archives
Eli Neiburger, Associate Director, IT & Product Development, Ann Arbor District Library

--
Heidi Blanton-Hansen
Wayne State University
ASIS&T President