What I really want though is an SRU/SRW server. So I started doing some digging and found out that I can use YAZProxy in this way. I successfully compiled and installed it on a test server (which for me is a big deal - anything that involves compiling makes me uneasy) and following the directions for setting it up. It appears to be running right but I’m having issues searching the UH catalog. I’m not sure if this is because I’m inexperienced with CQL and SRU or because something isn’t properly configured either in YAZProxy or our catalog’s?? Z39.50 server. I’m guessing the later and need to do some troubleshooting to figure out what is wrong.

First of all, the structure of a MARCXML document, immediately makes it difficult for one to select nodes because instead of rationally putting things like 245 as node names, MARCXML makes this a tag attribute on a datafield node. To make matters worse, while subfields are subfields what kind of subfield it is is also stored in an attribute. This makes for convoluted XPath statements in order to select nodes.

The second thing that infuriates me about MARCXML isn’t really a MARCXML phenomenon but rather a carryover from MARC itself. The issue is with punctuation which delimits subfields. Instead of having the system contextually show the proper punctuation given the fields and subfields, MARC has catalogers encode the fields WITH the proper punctuation. The problem with this is that one never gets the true proper value of the field. As a result, you need to strip off characters to get a proper display.

Part of me wishes that I’d not chosen to go the MARCXML route for this project. But the alternative of Dublin Core isn’t necessarily preferable. While the WorldCat API output of DC does clean up some of the punctuation issues and creates a simpler node structure, it also has the failings of Dublin Core which means that a creator can be many different things from author to illustrator to editor. A compromise might be to do a MARCXML to MODS transformation and work with the records as MODS.

For now I’ll keep working with the MARC though so I can get the project done. Maybe the next version will use a MARCXML to MODS transform though!

Since then I’ve been thinking about all the email forms we have on the library website and how ineffective they are. Most of them have lots of data that gets transmitted via email and then has to be rekeyed for statistical or other purposes. Could Google Docs help with this? Maybe, but I need to do some experimentation. The key issue for me isn’t necessarily: “can we collect the data”? Its “can we get the data back out in an easy efficient programmatic way?” I hit on the Google Spreadsheets Data API but need to spend some time researching stuff.

All of this makes me wonder if I need to push for my institution to get serious about Google Apps for Education. Otherwise, we will be using “personal” accounts to make this happen.

The site is a place for members and potential members of the LITA BIGWIG Interest Group (and interested parties) to gather, talk, and work on stuff. The site is completely open; anyone can create an account and participate (add/edit content). This FINALLY gives us a place to meet virtually and work together on things without having to come together face-to-face. (Not that meeting in New Orleans with beignets isn’t great). It is my fervent hope that this space can be a place where ideas are generated, filtered and implemented. Case in point, we will be working on determining the Showcase topics via this space.

Most of all, we want people to?? consider this space a playground where Web 2.0 tools are experimented with to facilitate communication and collaboration among ALA/LITA participants. We will be continually trying out new things. So if you have ideas about what you’d want to see add them to the YourBIGWIG suggestions forum.

Please come participate in conversation.

For me the challenge was understanding two things: Drupal modules and the block model that Drupal operates on. Like Wordpress plugins, Drupal modules can be lots of different things from new kinds of content one can add to new ways of displaying existing content etc. The biggest thing is finding ones that do what you want and are compatible with the version of Drupal you are running. One downside to running version 6 of Drupal is that many of the modules haven’t been updated for this version yet. Still there were several modules that I’m interested in installing including:

• TinyMCE Editor
• Mibbit IRC
• Wikitools
• Local Menu
• Taxonomy Menu
• Web Form
• FAQ
• FAQ_Ask

The modules that I’d most like to see updated ASAP so that I can use them?

• Views (there is an alpha version that is missing features)
  
• Taxonews

The block model in Drupal proved to be more challenging. Blocks in Drupal are bit of content that you add to particular regions in your layout. By default when you put a block in a region in appears there on every page. You can tell blocks to only appear on certain pages but this is a little bit more complicated. There are several different kinds of blocks but blocks don’t include the main content of the node ie. the body of a page or story, etc. Drupal provides you with an interface which highlights and names what the different regions of the template are that you can put blocks in to and allows you to select which blocks you want to put in a particular region via drag and drop. This is a little bit like the Wordpress widgets interface. Understanding how all this worked took a little bit of experimentation on my part. I picked things up pretty quickly though and for a site with a single unified template I can see how this functionality and interface would work really well.

What I’m still trying to figure out is how Drupal would work for a more complicated site which has several different templates for different types of pages. I really haven’t determined this yet, but keep in mind I’ve only been working with Drupal for about a week. So my knowledge is pretty limited at this point. The more you work with a piece of software the better you learn it. Case it point, I’ve been using Wordpress for my blog since 2005 and only now am starting to discover some of the more powerful content management like things I can do with it. I’m hoping as I spend more time with Drupal that I can learn more about it and use it to its fullest potential.

In the meantime, I’ve only?? been impressed with what I’ve seen so far. I knew that it was powerful because Ann Arbor District Library uses it for their website and I knew it could be used to facilitate group communication, collaboration and interaction (code4lib uses it for their website). What I didn’t know was how to make it do what I wanted. Granted I’m still learning that, but there is so much good stuff here that I can’t help but be excited. (If only I had more time to play!) Hopefully by the end of the week I’ll be able to point you to some of my Drupal handiwork. But that means I have to get a few more things installed and configured first.

code4lib has this same problem. Only for them it isn’t a problem. The given at code4lib is that any preconference is BYOL (Bring your own laptop). Everyone knows it and everyone BYOLs. But code4lib isn’t CIL or Internet Librarian and I wonder if these conferences have yet crossed the threshold where preconference participants wouldn’t balk at a BYOL environment. I’d like to think that it would be possible for Jason and I to do our workshop as BYOL at Internet Librarian in the fall. This would allow us to do SO much more. It would also present different challenges and mean we would need to keep the group smaller in order to keep our sanity.

Based on my experience teaching the workshop at CIL this year though. I get a strong inclination that meatier and more hands-on, digging into the code is what people want. Frankly, I like teaching this type of workshop better myself. It is more fun because you can see people’s personal successes. To pull it off though the technology has to be spot on. Otherwise, chaos reigns and that can create a very negative experience. I’m really going to have to think about if it is possible and desirable to try to teach the AJAX workshop this way and if Jason and I are going to try it what logistics need to be handled to pull it off well.

Also I’m had a chance to use the Media Library functionality and am quite please with how I can upload pictures to my blog. While most things I’d post on Flickr, I sometimes upload screenshots and the Media Library makes this very easy to do. I’m wondering how all this will work out once I have many screenshots in the library but only time will tell.

The WYSIWYG TinyMCE Editor is improved as well. I can easily Flash files without having to have a plugin. I was able to change my pages that had Flash in them to use this built in functionality very quickly with little muss.

I also like the AJAX interface although it gave me some issues at first because my Creative Commons license plugin was out of date. Probably the biggest adjustment for me has been the new comment moderation interface. I’ll be frank I don’t like it. While it is easy to batch moderate a single comment or a single page or comments, if there are many pages of spam comments, it is more of a pain to deal with them. Typically this isn’t an issue for my blog which gets 10-12 spam comments a day in moderation max. LITABlog though gets many, many more. I want to be able to mark every comment in moderation as spam easily. I can’t do this and it makes me grumpy.

All in all I’m really happy with the upgrade and look forward to finding more new features in the interface over time.

• Tab menu with pointer from CSSPlay
• Tab example from silver orange
• Pure CSS tabs from Dive Into Mark

I’m not really concerned about the code to render these so much as a concept that I think will be effective in conveying to my users that “hey these are clickable tabs”.

Below are a couple screen shot of the current tabs to give you a sense of how they look/what they do. Keep in mind the number of tabs is variable as is the width of the area they are sitting in.

Why am I telling all of you this? Well what I’d really like is if you’d post links to your favorite tabs in the comments on this post. The help is appreciated and I’ll post back here which type we decide to go with, along with an updated screenshot from the site once they are implemented.

Honestly, while I learned a lot about database design, web design and project management via my degrees, as far as web programming skills, I’m pretty much self taught. I have lots of O’Reilly books that I use for reference when I need to know a specific function or such. I like the W3Schools tutorials a lot but they can be pretty basic. I learned my ASP by hiring a consultant to teach me and if your director can come up with the cash this is a great way to learn. Individual instruction while working on a specific project. Frankly it doesn’t get better than this.

My staff and I have looked a a variety of web-based training opportunities but these do not come cheap. The key is finding one that meets your needs. Another option is to see if your campus has a computer science program that might offer a class or two that meets your needs or if the campus technology group does training on this level. You could also partner with campus IT to bring in training for both groups of developers (the library’s and the campus web group).

My other advice is to leverage the code4lib group. Many of the folks in this group use open source programming languages like PHP, Ruby on Rails or Python. I’ve often asked them questions in the chat room.

As I lead a department with developers I don’t do much coding comparably any more and I struggle to keep my skills up to date. Mostly it is just playing and trying stuff. For me the biggest challenge is finding the time to learn things. When you are learning in a self-paced manner blocking out the time is really hard. A class solves that problem but it doesn’t make it as “real” in my opinion.

I wish I had a better answer for you and others out there. It isn’t easy sometimes.

My personal learning model is to work on things and have someone to ask questions. One of the best projects I did in library school was for my database design class. Basically we had to build a database and all the forms to interact with it using Access. The professor gave us a book that had step by step instructions and set us to work. He was available if we had questions. I had a similar experience with my Electronic Commerce Technologies class. Although this was a less helpful experience as I already had done programming in the language the professor had us working in. Keep in mind though, most of my MLS electives were from the MS in Information Management program. (The Info School at Syracuse contains the MLS, MS Information Management, and MS in Telecommunication and networking graduate programs) It was this cross-over that eventually prompted me to get both an MLS and a MS in Information Management. Many of my technology classes such as LANs, Telecommunications, all came during my IM degree. The really unfortunate thing is that many library programs don’t teach the important things that students who want to work as web or systems librarian need to know. Although I think some of this is changing. But I’m guessing my experience isn’t all that different from many other folks who have MLS degrees and work with library technology.

Since the upgrade I’ve discovered a few things already that I like about 2.5 and a few that confused me for a bit. “Options” is now labeled “Settings” which threw me for a loop. I’m hoping that the upgrade will solve my posts not going through properly on the first save issue. But we will see. I also am excited to check out further some of the media management tools. Hopefully this functionality will make it easier for me to upload some of my presentations.

For the moment, everything is working though and I’m anxious to try out new functionality when time permits.