General information

CIL 2006 – Structured data, Web 2.0, Libraries

Lorcan Dempsey

Second day of the conference and my first post… It’s been busy, but exhilirating. This was a good session that really worked to bring together the possibilities of web 2.0 for libraries. Lorcan began by emphasizing the need to make bib data work harder; of releasing the value from Library Marc and IsO markup.

Lorcan framed the conversation by using the definition of web 2.0 from Tim O’Reilly. Web 2.0 is:

  1. flat applications – apis and mashups, rss, web services; lightweight service composition
  2. rich interaction – AJAX, smooth applications within browser
  3. data is new functionality – collection, exploitation of metadata and bib data
  4. participation – social networking, social tagging

Lorcan walked through how these web2.o features are appearing in OCLC research applications.

Lightweight Service Composition Example
audience level grease monkey script – algorithm ranks book according to worldcat holdings (library holdings indicate type of audience – children, adolescent, adult, research…)
http://www.oclc.org/middleeast/en/research/projects/audience/default.htm

Rich Interaction Example
Livesearch of LCSH – FRBR inspired results, narrow by Dewey attributes. Brings smooth interaction of AJAX to searching bib records. Creates an application that is very responsive to user request (The new web site tools and technologies session talked about the “how to” of AJAX yesterday. Look for those slides on the conference web site – http://www.infotoday.com/cil2006/Presentations/ .)
http://lcsh.orhost.org/

Data is new functionality example
FictionFinder – interface that supports searching and browsing of fiction works in worldcat;
algorithm about most purchased books by library dictates display order, faceted browse by work; created special indexes (fictitious character, literary form…)
http://www.oclc.org/research/projects/frbr/fictionfinder.htm

Lorcan closed by calling for libraries to enable people to prospect our data – keep them around. We must imagine new ways to mine our data to show different filters and views to our users.

Jason A. Clark for LITA