Archive for June, 2009

Friday, June 19th, 2009

Project Managers Sought for OSC

Due to an increase in work commitments for both Laena and David, new
project managers are sought for the Open Shelves Classification project. Below is a status report of the project. Interested leaders should contact Tim Spalding (tim@librarything.com).

OSC status report June 2009:

One year into the project, here is what we have accomplished so far:
-Many wide-ranging discussions were held in the LibraryThing Build
the Open Shelves Classification group and the OSC blog.

-Optional facets were agreed upon initially as the way to handle audience, format, and language.

-An initial list of top level categories was compiled by the end of 2008 and put out for review.

-In January 2009, LibraryThing members tested these categories by applying them to works in LibraryThing using the ClassifyThis feature.

-In January, a brainstorming meeting was held at the ALA midwinter meeting and was attended by librarians and non-librarians.

-In February, the feedback from the testing was used to further refine the top level categories.

-Starting in February and running through May, small groups began to construct the secondary levels for certain categories.

-Throughout the spring, Laena and David did outreach for the project, writing pieces for the PLA blog and the IFLA
newsletter
, and reached out to libraries in an unsuccessful search for public library data.

-In May, the current list of categories of the OSC was added to sandbox of the National Science Digital Library Metadata Registry.

Categories with second levels in development:
-Art
-Biography & Autobiography
-Design
-Fiction
-History
-Performing Arts
-Religion
-Science

After working on the project for a year, we have the following recommendations:
-The project needs a steering committee structure for leadership. The
project is too large in scope for one or two librarians to manage
without other leadership.

-More involvement and leadership from public librarians! They know
the intended audience of the OSC best.

Labels: Open Shelves Classification, OSC

Wednesday, June 10th, 2009

Intern at LibraryThing!

Not sure what to do with your summer? I just posted this to a few local lists—librarians, design people, etc. I thought I’d post it here too.

LibraryThing.com, the innovative social site for book lovers wants an intern.

We can think of four possible “types” for whom we could create a nifty internship. We’re only looking to get one intern, though.

  • “Weird Library Science” (MLS students)
  • “Web 2.0 Programming” (computer students)
  • “Web 2.0 Marketing” (anyone)
  • “Web 2.0 Design” (design students)

We offer:

*Minimum wage, probably
*Full- or part-time
*Cool, anarchic work environment (4 people in Portland, 6 elsewhere)

We’d love to get someone in who could help us, but the focus will be on learning from us, and doing interesting, open-ended and intellectually stimulating projects. 

We’d rather get someone local (Portland, Maine), but if you really want to do something remote, and have a strong idea what you could do with us, we’d love to hear from you.

About LibraryThing:

LibraryThing (http://www.librarything.com) is a social networking and social cataloging site for book lovers. Over 700,000 members have used the site to catalog over 40 million books–and created a whole new way of relating to books and to book people.

Contact: Tim Spalding, Founder (tim@librarything.com)

Labels: employment, internships

Wednesday, June 10th, 2009

Ann Arbor’s Shaman Drum closing

Ann Arbor’s legendary Shaman Drum Bookshop (website, LibraryThing Local) just announced they are closing after 29 years—and I’m devastated. They were my refuge in graduate school, and one of my favorite indies.

Links: Ann Arbor Chronicle, LA Times, Galleycat, Shaman Drum Announcement

Labels: bookstores, indiebound

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009

New developments on the FRBR front

The Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records have changed direction.

Hat-tip: Karen Coyle.

Labels: Uncategorized

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009

Category Feature Added to LTFL Reviews

We’ve added a new feature to the LibraryThing for Libraries Reviews Enhancement: the ability to categorize reviews for the blog widget.

Thus far, library patrons have been able to write reviews and rate books in their library’s catalog, add their reviews to their Facebook page and even create a widget that lets them show off their reviews on blogs and websites.

Now, libraries can show off reviews written by their patrons for specific library programs. Patrons and librarians can add categories to a review. The library can then create blog widgets with said categories – keep track of reviews for the Summer Reading Program, One Book, One City and book discussion groups.

This should be helpful all year round, but the inspiration for the feature came from a librarian’s request to manage the reviews children were going to be writing for the summer reading program at their library. They wanted some way to display the reviews separately from the rest of the reviews coming in.

Anyone who’s bought the Reviews Enhancement can use this feature starting immediately. Read here for instructions how to add and use it.

If you’d like more information about LTFL, and the enhancements that can take your OPAC from Library 1.0 to Library 2.0 overnight, fill out the interest form on the LTFL page.

The Reviews Enhancement isn’t available for all OPACs – currently, it supports Horizon, iBistro, iLink, eLibrary, Webvoyage, Voyager 7, WebPac, WebPac Pro and Koha. More are coming soon!

Labels: categories, librarything for libraries, ltfl, LTFL Reviews, new feature

Monday, June 8th, 2009

LTFL Reviews: you stand 300,000 deep

At the end of May, we reached 300,000 reviews vetted and available for LibraryThing for Libraries!

We’d previously been bragging about having 250,000 reviews, so here’s my core sample: at the beginning of April, we had 24 reviews for The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz. Now, we have 74. Of course, popular books will get more reviews, but trust me – we also cover the long, long tail of library collections.

The LTFL Reviews Enhancement is currently available for Horizon, iBistro, Webvoyage, Voyager 7, Koha, WebPac and WebPac Pro. The LTFL Catalog Enhancements are available for practically every OPAC. Contact us for more info.

Labels: book reviews, librarything for libraries, ltfl, milestone

Saturday, June 6th, 2009

How to start a dance party

A good illustration for social efforts of every kind.

Hat-tip: Ze Frank, David Weinberger

Labels: humor, social networking, tipping points