A couple of days ago, Tim Spalding linked to an announcement that Simon Spero has released a nearly-complete copy of the Library of Congress Authority Files. This data wasn’t exactly hiding, but it hasn’t been easily accessible before, not in this way. Caveat One: In the announcement, Simon makes it clear that the records aren’t [...]
To make a long, long rant much shorter, I’ll just say this: I think OPACs have a long way to go before they stop sucking. To be more precise, I think we need to throw out the whole concept of the “Online Public Access Catalog.” But that’s not going to happen today or tomorrow. In [...]
Here’s an idea that just popped into my head: What if a library took Linden Lab’s source code and created their own Second Life grid? The grid would be a virtual library with staff providing online reference. But the Second Life library would also have virtual stacks where visitors could browse the shelves, looking at [...]
My jaw is on the floor. I missed this point, so I’m very thankful that Jessamyn West has pointed out one incredibly great thing about Casey Bisson’s WPopac. Catalog records distributed freely under a CC or GNU license? Jumpin’ Jupiter! That’s monumental! That’s heroic! That’s…about damn time!
Casey Bisson won the Mellon Award for his WPopac. The first time I saw his proposal for a library OPAC based on WordPress, my mind was fairly blown. So it’s great to see him getting an award for that. (Getting an award for creating the WPopac, that is, not for blowing my mind. There’s no [...]
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