Build a centralized tagging repository that all Evergreen software
can share. Assign tags to some kind of identifier (ISBN, LCCN,
OCLCnum, allowing all of these), depending on what's there. To allow
tags to be applied across catalogs. Build it on an open protocol so,
although it will be built into Evergreen, other software can use it too.
I was not aware of InSurge. Perhaps it already is this? If so, by all
means build on top of that instead of re-inventing the wheel.
If InSurge is this, is anyone actually running an InSurge server that
I can hook up my own software to use? I have need of this for non-
Evergreen purposes. I didn't know anything existed I could use for
this. (If I were creating one myself from scratch, I'd have to
consider charging a nominal fee to organizations hooking up to it, to
support the infrastructure).
Incidentally, the same need arises with comments/reviews attached to
titles. A central repository of such things does a lot better than
just your own silo.
Jonathan
On Oct 6, 2008, at 5:48 PM, Jason Etheridge wrote:
Yes, the ability to tag should be there. But make it a feature
that can be turned off by those of us who do not want it.
Part of the problem with the "wisdom of the masses" aspect of tagging
is building incentive and getting a critical mass for a network
effect. Personal tagging has its own incentive, and maybe the
predominantly privacy-conscious librarians will let us set the default
to "Shared" for personal tagging in their libraries, but is it and
will it be enough to kick off the process? LibraryThing[1] hits the
incentive nail on the head; the whole point there is to catalog your
books. But that's not the point of _current_ library catalogs (we
need to change that--the library website could be a tool to help you
organize your data rather than merely find data).
This potential lack of incentive and resulting sparseness of data is
one reason why I'm very interested in the SOPAC[2], and more
importantly, its Insurge component (Independent Social Repository).
With Insurge you can share user-contributed data between catalogs and
populations. So if one library manages to hit upon an incentive for
their population (for example, Oakville and Bibliocommon's Build the
Ultimate Catalog contest[3], if it were not a silo), then everyone
benefits.
Some ideas?
Get the third party open source catalogs working on Evergreen
(VuFind[5], SOPAC, Blacklight[6], etc.).
Get commercial OPAC-related products working on Evergreen
(LibraryThing for Libraries[7], AquaBrowser[8], Endeca[9], etc.).
Many folks have harped on the notion of a "dis-integrated" library
system. It's a good idea, and it's one reason why we built Evergreen
with a service oriented architecture. Freedom breeds innovation
(actually, that's a bit of a fib--problems and constraints breed
innovation, but you need the freedom to innovate, to well, innovate,
so it's worth advocating freedom).
Give Evergreen a way to consume the bookbags and RSS feeds it
produces.
Try to engage the patron with little sidebar surveys and the like
("Hey, since you last signed in, you have returned these books: xxx,
xxx, xxx. What did you think of them?")
Participate in the Next Generation Catalog For Libraries (NGC4LIB[10])
mailing list.
[1] - http://www.librarything.com/
[2] - http://www.thesocialopac.net/
[3] - http://opl.bibliocommons.com/info/contest
[5] - http://www.vufind.org/
[6] - http://lib.virginia.edu/digital/resndev/blacklight.html
[7] - http://www.librarything.com/forlibraries/
[8] - http://www.aquabrowser.com/
[9] - http://www.endeca.com/
[10] - http://dewey.library.nd.edu/mailing-lists/ngc4lib/
--
Jason Etheridge
| VP, Community Support and Advocacy
| Equinox Software, Inc. / The Evergreen Experts
| phone: 1-877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457)
| email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
| web: http://www.esilibrary.com
