Boondock Diaries

VuFind

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 09:00:50 -0800

Started tinkering with a new open source software program called vufind, which uses php, apache, mysql and java. It is mainly a solr project which runs on a jetty server. It is very module and very straight forward to to configure and set up. Adam Brin, the Tri-Colleges Systems Coordinator, has written an Innovative connection for it which is able to grab current status, and location from the catalog. Here is my current instance of vufind. Not a lot of customization yet.

New Server

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 09:10:17 -0800

Here are a few ins and outs of the new library server and how it is set up.

The main files all reside in www directory.

There are two directories, libservices and libweb in which we build the web site and web services.

All configuration files are in the etc directory.

For the apache web server files they are kept in /etc/httpd.

There is a conf directory which has the httpd.conf files in it. There is a conf.d directory which has all the specific web server information for the libweb and libserver are kept. Each file which ends in .conf in this directory are included in the virtual machines configuration.

Stronger liaison program to campus service providers

Thu, 05 Apr 2007 13:07:21 -0800

There is a good discussion on the Student Services in Libraries Face book Group on developing relationships with groups such as campus life and other cultural centers. I think we could provide a better image for the library if we started working with campus life some more and integrated the library into some of their activities. There are also some transcripts from their focus groups are available on their wiki, at http://fuss.pbwiki.com -- just look in the SideBar for "Focus group notes: service providers."

New Presentation Style

Tue, 03 Apr 2007 09:38:32 -0800

Instead of using powerpoint next time I give a talk I'm going to try and use this sample talk, and see if I can get away from the Microsoft machine.

Encoding We Will Go....

Wed, 07 Mar 2007 12:57:10 -0800

Spent most of the last day working on an encoding issue. We are brining MARC 8 records from the catalog and we need to convert them to UTF8 before putting them into a MySQL databases. Ended up using MARC::Charset 'marc8_to_utf8', it works great. Then we used an NFC function: $full = NFC($full); before loading the record.

ACRL Oregon/Washington 2006

Sun, 29 Oct 2006 14:33:55 -0800

Just got back from the 2006 ACRL Oregon/Washington conference held at the Menucha Conference Center outside of Corbett, OR. What a great site for a conference, and the conference itself was very good.

The keynote address was by Dr. Anthony Bernier a professor in the San Jose State Library school, he spoke on the emerging landscape of youth literacy, which was quite good. Not sure how someone would track all of the information he presented that youth are creating today, but nonetheless it is something to keep in mind.

The first afternoon finished up with a presentation on Library 2.0, from Jessamyn West, owner of Librarian.net, Jennifer had some great ideas and a lot of energy so it did not seem like another Web 2.0 presentation, and then Rachel Bridgewater finished up the afternoon.

I got in a great run on Friday morning in the dark and the fog, and had a wonderful breakfast. I have to say the food at the retreat center was really, really good. In the morning we had two presenters, one was a professor from Wester Oregon who used blogs in his classes, wish my Philosophy class did that; and then we got an update on how IM librarian service was running at U of O with Trillian. Good to see we are on the same path as them, offering the same type of service. There use of podcasts for the oral history of the Willamette River might be interesting to Mary.

Oregon State University demonstrated how they use the Wikipedia in a way I had not thought of before. Instead of bashing it for no authority, they show it as the development of a field and knowledge on a topic. They have the students use it in the exporatory phase of their research and it really makes sense. A possible rework for next year's gameplan program.

NWIUG 2006

Fri, 20 Oct 2006 14:46:48 -0800

I just got back from two days at the Norhwest Innovative Users Group. I hosted a systems forum on the first day, which turned out okay, but there has to be a better way to make these forums more effective.

On the second day I presented on Automatic Authority Processing: Shaping it to Your Needs or Not with Lihong Zhu from Washinton State and Corey Harper from the University of Oregon. My portion consisted of the workflow process at Willamette using Backstage and Automatic Authorities, as did Zhu's from a Washington State perspective. Corey's was interesting as they have chosen not to use III's automatic processing product.

The conference as a whole was pretty good, but more III bashing and more work arounds not using the Innovative system dominated the schedule.

Monday Morning Quarterback

Wed, 31 May 2006 08:38:30 -0800

Six big projects will dominate the systems department this summer:

1. New Web Site
2. ILLiad
3. Web Services
4. Resolver
5. Video Database
6. E-Reserve Update
7. Digital Collections
8. Web Server Migration

Many of these projects are tied together, and keeping them all on schedule will be challenging.

Monday Morning Quarterback

Wed, 17 May 2006 13:16:46 -0800

The following projects came up at our weekly systems meeting:
1. Serials Solutions has been ordered and we will have a conference all Tuesday.
2. Public Services wants to work on the design and look of their web presence.
3. Bill will upgrade EZproxy and Rich will continue to learn how to update.
4. We will hold off on ordering any equipment until after the break.
5. Bill will create an admin interface to John's stats and the SSRD permissions.
6. Get the include directory removed.
7. Give Joni's group a sample logo to see what it would look like.
8. Can we take check-in records out, change to MARC format and reload?