Internet Archive

This morning's keynote was delivered by Brewster Kahle. It was on the Internet Archive; Open Library. The talk was much the same as the one he gave at the Technology in History conference last year at Brown, however while that was theoretical, the project is now up and running. There was even an article on it, and its issues in the Journal of Higher Education.

(They are also working with zotero (see previous post) on creating a scholarly commons)

Meanwhile a code4lib regular told me about the irc channel that a lot of people log into during the conference. - basically its a chat room. So right now while listening to the presentation there is a comment conversation going on in the chatroom - sort of a reality check, and very informative.

Next: Rob Styles from Talis - a UK vendor
"Finding Relationships in MARC" appears to be about RDF but with a really good slide show which I hope becomes available, but they are also recording it, and it's on Rob Styles blog at: http://www.dynamicorange.com/blog/archives/library-tech/marc_rdf_and_fr.html

"Delivering Library Services in the Web 2.0 Environment" OSU

Put resources where the student were - put links/info on the course pages. There is an opensource client. Takes only a few minutes to make a page. http://ica.library.oregonstate.edu/about/index.html

Alot of the libraries were comparing this to Libguides. (which I can't load right now to read more about.)

Another one to check out is Vu-find. Still looking good, but I can't forget our goals - that the data only lives one place. It can be harvested but again, can only live in one place.

The real reason I'm here

You know you're at a geek conference when you spend the day trying to download ubuntu, but the connection is too slow because the other 200 people in the room are also using the internet...and then, the next day you discover that all along, they had free ubuntu CD's at the registration desk.

Yesterday there were 3 sessions, 2 workshops on installing open source library systems, LibraryFind and Evergreen, and 1 on Zotero. From the first 2 we learned that the systems are just as complex as they ever were and you need a mid range knowledge of linux and its quirks to be successful. Of the two systems I'd say LibraryFind offers the most potential for MSM. At the same time as those sessions there was a rogue group doing an install of koha which I heard went much smoother, nice looking system too.

The zotero sessions was good and I started building a translator (zotero code4lib page) for Mobius. With the zotero extension in firefox users can create custom collections from various sites. In the next release they are working toward making those collections shared. They are also working on various geographic interfaces and are looking for beta testers for the next release.

Afterwards about 10 of us headed to a the Rogue Brewery where we ran into another group of 20 or so attendees. I had a hazelnut beer which was interesting. We spent a good deal of time talking about the California Digital Library (4 of them were in the group) and debating why the restrooms were labeled "Barley" and "Hops".