Disruptive Library Technology Jester

Disruptive Library Technology Jester

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Peter E. Murray

Library technologist, open source advocate, striving to think globally while acting locally

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  • On Being Fodder for Questionable Twitter Posts

    Okay, I know this is starting to seem like an obsession, but I can't figure out why someone(s) would be constructing tweets that consist of my blog post headlines and links back to my postings. I'm wondering how wide spread this problem is, so I constructed a list of …

     Posted on  December 30, 2009
     and last updated January 15, 2018
     ·  12 minutes reading time
  • Why I Need Twitter Distillation Tools

    The following may not be news to those who regularly hang out in Twitter-land, but the extent of the problem recently became clear to me: there is a bunch of spam in Twitter. More specifically, there appear to be robots that do nothing but scan the web for keywords and …

     Posted on  December 29, 2009
     and last updated December 29, 2009
     ·  4 minutes reading time
  • Midwinter Meeting Schedule (Plus News of a Free Midwinter Airport Shuttle)

    The year is coming to a close, so that must mean that the midwinter meeting of the American Library Association is right around the corner. Yep, there it is -- just two and a half weeks away in Boston. A conference in Boston in January -- the rates have got to be …

     Posted on  December 28, 2009
     and last updated December 28, 2009
     ·  6 minutes reading time
  • OCLC Introduces an API for Anyone to Access Book Data

    OCLC announced on Monday the availability of a new API for querying the WorldCat database: the WorldCat Basic API. This is a big deal -- it opens up part of the metadata in WorldCat to anyone who wants it (for non-commercial purposes). Previously, access to WorldCat data through the developer network …

     Posted on  December 16, 2009
     and last updated December 16, 2009
     ·  4 minutes reading time
  • Ohio Educational Technology Conference Program Posted

    For those interested and involved with distance and technology enhanced learning or have attended one of the past ODCE/LLT higher education conferences, you'll want to know about the Ohio Educational Technology Conference in early February.
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    The Ohio ETC is the combination …

     Posted on  December 02, 2009
     and last updated December 02, 2009
     ·  22 minutes reading time
  • Presentation Announcement: Re-Imagining the Bibliographic Universe -- FRBR, Physics and the World Wide Web

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    Next Monday (November 30, 2009) a colleague at the Library of Congress will be giving a presentation on modeling bibliographic information based on a "Paper Tool" technique adopted from physics. The title of the talk is "Re-Imagining the Bibliographic Universe: FRBR, Physics …
     Posted on  November 23, 2009
     and last updated November 23, 2009
     ·  3 minutes reading time
  • Revised Google Book Search Settlement from a Library Perspective

    Late, late in the day last Friday, the principle parties in the Google Book Search case submitted a revised settlement agreement agreement to the court. This post takes a look at the changes to the settlement from a library perspective. To keep this manageable, I'm not including discussion of library-oriented …

     Posted on  November 18, 2009
     and last updated November 19, 2009
     ·  11 minutes reading time
  • OCLC and the Associated Press -- Two Sides of the Same Information Provider Coin?

    I've run across a striking similarity between the bibliographic utility business and the newswire business, particularly in the area of cooperatives. Two cooperatives -- OCLC on the bibliographic utility side and the Associated Press on the newswire side -- have the same pattern of activity:

    • both are membership organizations,
    • both seek to …
     Posted on  November 11, 2009
     and last updated November 11, 2009
     ·  5 minutes reading time
  • OLE Project Design Phase Final Report

    There is an announcement on the OLE Project site that links to the final report as submitted to the Mellon Foundation. This version of the report has minor corrections in the text and now includes information about the group of libraries that have committed to the build phase of the …

     Posted on  November 10, 2009
     and last updated November 10, 2009
  • OhioLINK is Seeking Two Senior Repository Software Developers

    My place of work, OhioLINK, is part of a larger group called the Educational Technology Division of the University System of Ohio. In that capacity, we're seeking two senior repository software developers to work in our downtown Columbus, OH, office.

    The position description can be a little tricky to get …

     Posted on  October 15, 2009
     and last updated October 15, 2009
     ·  3 minutes reading time
  • SkyRiver - a(nother) Bibliographic Utility

    North America is gaining its third ((or fourth? Does Open Library count as a bibliographic utility?)) major bibliographic record utility server this month with the unveiling of SkyRiver Image of SkyRiver Technology's Pre-launch Homepage

    SkyRiver Technology's Pre-launch Homepage
    The website is sparse at the moment -- it says: "We're Skyriver, the new bibliographic utility in town. If …

     Posted on  October 06, 2009
     and last updated January 15, 2018
     ·  2 minutes reading time
  • The Internet Comes of Age

    ICANN Logo Just as it turns 40, the internet comes of age. One day before of the anniversary of the first two computers connected together by a prototype network in 1969 ((From the BBN Timeline for ARPANET:

    On October 1, 1969, the second [Interface Message Processor] arrived at SRI and the first …

     Posted on  September 30, 2009
     and last updated October 01, 2009
     ·  2 minutes reading time
  • Google Book Search Settlement Hearing Is Likely Postponed

    Late today comes word that the plaintiffs (authors and publishers) and defendant (Google) have asked the court to postpone the settlement fairness hearing originally scheduled for October 7th. According to the memo from the parties supporting the request, the spark for this comes from the U.S. Department of Justice's …

     Posted on  September 22, 2009
     and last updated September 23, 2009
     ·  3 minutes reading time
  • EBSCOhost Connection Records Found In-The-Wild

    EBSCOhost Connect was announced in the spring of 2006 as near as I can recall. (I can't find the press release about it on the EBSCO website. As close as I can come to a date is from an announcement at the Oregon School Library Information System.) After three …

     Posted on  September 15, 2009
     and last updated September 16, 2009
     ·  3 minutes reading time
  • Broadcast JPEG2000 Alliance Announced

    Today at IBC2009 Fast Forward Video (FFV) announced the launch of the JPEG2000 Alliance, "a consortium of broadcast industry leaders dedicated to ensuring that JPEG2000 continues to develop into a leading compression standard." According to the press release:

    In addition to developing their own JPEG2000 technologies and products, these companies …

     Posted on  September 11, 2009
     and last updated September 11, 2009
     ·  1 minutes reading time
  • Index Data on Z39.50 for Dummies

    Earlier this year, Index Data started a new blog. I wanted to call out a series of posts (parts one and two) their newly started blog called Z39.50 for Dummies. Wolfram Schneider on the Index Data staff wrote these two posts.

    In the introductory posting, Wolfram says:

    Z39.50 …

     Posted on  September 10, 2009
     and last updated September 10, 2009
     ·  1 minutes reading time
  • Comments on Google Book Search Settlement Coming to a Head (Again)

    Ah, it is the beginning of September when thoughts turn to going back to school, the days turn a little colder (in the northern hemisphere) and the smell of lawsuit briefs is in the air. Well, okay -- the latter might not be what you expect, but this is a special …

     Posted on  September 03, 2009
     and last updated September 03, 2009
     ·  4 minutes reading time
  • Proposals Now Being Accepted for the Ohio Educational Technology Conference, February 2010

    The theme of the 2010 Ohio Educational Technology Conference, P-20 Conversations: Shaping a Path for the 21st Century Student, addresses the need to provide seamless technology integration throughout students' careers. Reflecting this year's theme, the sponsors of last year's Learning, Libraries and Technology conference — Ohio Learning Network (OLN), OhioLINK and …

     Posted on  September 01, 2009
     and last updated September 01, 2009
     ·  2 minutes reading time
  • A Thread of Comments on the OLE Project Draft Report

    Carl Grant, president of Ex Libris North America, posted a pair of messages on his corporate blog that it is worth calling attention to regarding the OLE Project final report, if you haven't already run into them: OLE; The unanswered questions and Library Software Solutions - We need a higher level …

     Posted on  August 31, 2009
     and last updated September 01, 2009
     ·  3 minutes reading time
  • Federal Textbook Disclosure Rules Now Law

    The fact that the Higher Education Opportunity Act (Public Law 110-315) -- otherwise known as HEOA -- was signed into law last year is probably not big news to anyone. One of the parts of the bill that I have been following and commented on here in DLTJ is the textbook disclosure …

     Posted on  August 31, 2009
     and last updated August 31, 2009
     ·  3 minutes reading time