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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  • Espresso Book Machine Print-on-Demand

    The recent announcement by the University of Michigan Libraries about the first-in-a-library installation of an Espresso Book Machine from On Demand Books has caused quite a stir in the blogosphere. And rightly so. Given Michigan's leadership in the area of digitizing books in the public domain, it is little wonder …

     Posted on  September 22, 2008
     and last updated September 22, 2008
     ·  4 minutes reading time
  • LANL Releases Open Source JPEG2000 Image Server

    The lead article in the September/October issue of D-Lib Magazine release yesterday is on djatoka, the open source JPEG2000 Image Server from Los Alamos National Laboratory. The authors, Ryan Chute and Herbert Van de Sompel describe their effort in the article abstract:

    The ISO-standardized JPEG 2000 image format has …

     Posted on  September 16, 2008
     and last updated September 16, 2008
     ·  2 minutes reading time
  • Drupal as the Foundation of Ohio Textbook Portal

    At the end of last month, the Ohio Board of Regents announced the University System of Ohio Textbook Portal. The service has been talked about in the media, in trade publications, and in numerous blog postings. Enough time has passed now that word has gotten out, and I won't be …

     Posted on  September 12, 2008
     and last updated January 15, 2018
     ·  11 minutes reading time
  • OCLC WorldCat Hackathon -- New York City -- November 7-8

    This is interesting news -- Don Hamparian, Manager WorldCat Grid Portfolio at OCLC, formally announced the WorldCat Hackathon to the WorldCat Developer Network Discussion List tonight.

    Join fellow coders, hackers and tech-enthusiasts for a two-day WorldCat Hackathon at the New York Public Library. Sponsored by the OCLC Developer’s Network and …

     Posted on  September 09, 2008
     and last updated September 10, 2008
     ·  2 minutes reading time
  • Call for Presentations, Workshops and Demonstrations of Innovation -- Ohio LLT Conference -- March 1-3, 2009

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    University System of Ohio

    Learning, Libraries and Technology Conference
    Pre-conference Workshops: March 1, 2009
    Main Conference: March 2-3, 2009
    Easton Town Center in Columbus, Ohio

    The University System of Ohio invites you to submit proposals for the Learning, Libraries and Technology Conference …

     Posted on  September 08, 2008
     and last updated September 08, 2008
     ·  9 minutes reading time
  • Position Announcement: OhioLINK Systems Developer

    The Ohio Library and Information Network (OhioLINK) is seeking a hard-working, analytical individual to participate in the creation and maintenance of our internationally recognized set of online library information services, with special focus on the Ohio Digital Resource Commons. OhioLINK serves the higher education population in the State of Ohio …

     Posted on  September 05, 2008
     and last updated September 05, 2008
  • Survey Responses Sought: JPEG2000 for Still Images

    David Lowe, Preservation Librarian at the University of Connecticut, is coordinating a survey of JPEG2000 use for digital imagery. The survey asks questions about the use of the JPEG2000 file format (for archival purposes or for access systems), tools used (both JPEG2000 toolkits and software that embeds JPEG2000 toolkits), and …

     Posted on  September 04, 2008
     and last updated September 04, 2008
     ·  1 minutes reading time
  • Test Driving Lumifi

    Earlier this week, Lumifi Inc. announced a new version of their research platform "to better serve students, professionals and others in dealing with information overload." Lumifi is a private corporation based in Maryland, and this is their second major release of their service. (The first was announced in January 2008 …

     Posted on  September 04, 2008
     and last updated September 04, 2008
     ·  9 minutes reading time
  • A Successful BarCampOhio/LibraryCampOhio

    I'm pleased to be able to report a successful running of a BarCamp here earlier this week. Billed as BarCampOhio/LibraryCampOhio -- a mixture of .com and library technologists -- we had a good turnout and a lively discussion on a variety of topics. Thanks and gratitude go out to OCLC for …

     Posted on  August 14, 2008
     and last updated August 15, 2008
     ·  4 minutes reading time
  • Revision Proposed to ORE Atom Serialization

    Last Friday, Herbert Van de Sompel posted a message to various mailing lists about a proposed revision to the serialization of OAI-ORE into Atom. The proposal by Michael Nelson, Robert Sanderson, and Herbert has two key components:

    • To express an ORE Aggregation at the level of an Atom Entry …

     Posted on  August 07, 2008
     and last updated August 07, 2008
     ·  1 minutes reading time
  • Registration Open for BarCampOhio/LibraryCampOhio (August 11, 2008)

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    BarCampOhio Registration
    Registration is open for the BarCampOhio/LibraryCampOhio meeting on Monday, August 11th from 10am to 5:30pm at the OCLC Conference Center in Dublin, OH. Other details are on the event homepage.

    What is a BarCamp? ((Description adapted from the BarCamp Wikipedia entry.))

    First and foremost: This …

     Posted on  July 31, 2008
     and last updated August 01, 2008
     ·  1 minutes reading time
  • Final Version of the Higher Education Reauthorization Act Leaves Textbook Provisions Intact

    Earlier this week U.S. Senate passed its own version of the "College Opportunity and Affordability Act of 2007" (H.R.4137 to amend and extend the Higher Education Act of 1965, and for other purposes) by unanimous consent (hence no recorded vote) and appointed members of a conference committee …

     Posted on  July 31, 2008
     and last updated July 31, 2008
     ·  6 minutes reading time
  • Video Tour of OPAC Discovery Layer Tools

    In March, I gave a presentation at the NISO forum on Next Generation Discovery Tools: New Tools, Aging Standards. For those that were there, you may remember the bulk of the presentation was in the screencast tours of the functionality of 10 OPAC enhancement tools. Topping out at over 750MB …

     Posted on  July 25, 2008
     and last updated July 25, 2008
     ·  1 minutes reading time
  • BarCampOhio and LibraryCampOhio, August 11, 2008

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    Announcing the BarCampOhio/LibraryCampOhio meeting on Monday, August 11th from 10am to 5:30pm at the OCLC Conference Center in Dublin, OH. Two camp communities! One day! All of the details, include stuff not covered below, are on the event homepage.


    What's planned is a dual-track unconference …

     Posted on  July 17, 2008
     and last updated July 17, 2008
     ·  1 minutes reading time
  • HOWTO Deal With Spam as a Mailman List Owner

    Dealing with SPAM e-mail is a real hassle. Dealing with SPAM e-mail as a mailing list owner is an even bigger hassle. Here are some tips for dealing with SPAM e-mail on mailing lists using the Mailman software package.

    The Symptoms

    Unless you are making your users as well as …

     Posted on  July 16, 2008
     and last updated July 17, 2008
     ·  4 minutes reading time
  • On the Internet, How Do You Know If You Are Talking to a Dog?

    Published in The New Yorker July 5, 1993.
    Image from The Cartoon Bank

    The famous 1993 cartoon from The New Yorker has the caption “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.” The question at the moment is: when you're on the internet, how do you know you are …

     Posted on  July 15, 2008
     and last updated July 16, 2008
     ·  8 minutes reading time
  • Colorado Community College System Announces Flat-price Electronic Textbooks from Pearson Education

    Colorado Community College System (CCCS) signed an agreement with Pearson Education for flat-rate access to Pearson textbook content online. News of this comes by way of a link left by Lorcan Dempsey in a comment to an earlier DLTJ entry that pointed to a blog entry by Michael Cairns talking …

     Posted on  July 11, 2008
     and last updated July 11, 2008
     ·  7 minutes reading time
  • The Complex World of the Textbook

    Who knew the college textbook marketplace could be so complex? The agents in this ecosystem and their interests are so intertwined that as a whole it poses a massive amount of inertia for those who attempt to change the marketplace. I've been involved for about a year with an effort …

     Posted on  July 08, 2008
     and last updated July 08, 2008
     ·  16 minutes reading time
  • Archiving in Practice with JPEG2000: ALA Annual Conference, June 29, 8am-10am

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    The JPEG2000 in Archives and Libraries Interest Group of the LITA division of ALA is pleased to present a program on Archiving in Practice with JPEG2000 on Sunday, June 29th from 8am to 10am in Ballroom E, Anaheim Convention Center.

    The lead presentation will be given by …

     Posted on  June 24, 2008
     and last updated June 24, 2008
  • A Catalog for the "Next Generation" or the Current Generation?

    Are we building the "next generation" catalog for us (librarians) or our users? As a read a report from the Next Generation Summit Search Interface Working Group of the Orbis/Cascade Alliance, I have to wonder. Portions of this report are dated ((Although the report itself does not contain a …

     Posted on  June 23, 2008
     and last updated June 23, 2008
     ·  4 minutes reading time