Journal of Web Librarianship

Volume 2

Number 1

2007

EDITORIAL

Research Collaborations Between Public and Academic Libraries

Jody Condit Fagan

ARTICLES

Collaborative Strategic Planning: A Wiki Application

Susan L. Kendall, Mary H. Nino, and Shannon M. Staley

For the past several years, many have viewed wikis as useful tools for community building and collaboration. A number of free web services such as PBwiki have claimed convenience and ease of use as part of their overall packages. A review of the literature reveals a great deal of anecdotal support for wiki use in the workplace. However, few studies have been conducted to determine whether wikis are useful collaborative tools for employees within an organization. This case study will examine the use of a wiki by library employees during the strategic planning process at San Jose State University.

KEYWORDS: Wikis, strategic planning, collaboration, college and university libraries, web 2.0, communication, case study

SOCIAL EYES

Making IT Work: Tips for Getting Projects off the Ground

Brian S. Mathews

GLOBAL CONNECTIONS

Eternal Egypt

Sarah Beasley and Candice Kail

COMMUNICATIONS

Syndicating Rich Bibliographic Metadata Using MODS and RSS

Andrew Ashton

Many libraries use RSS to syndicate information about their collections to users. A survey of 65 academic libraries revealed their most common use for RSS is to disseminate information about library holdings, such as lists of new acquisitions. Even though typical RSS feeds are ill suited to the task of carrying rich bibliographic metadata, great potential exists for developing applications that can exploit metadata exposed to Web services via RSS. Using the MODS metadata format, entire catalog records can be seamlessly embedded in RSS 2.0 feeds. Existing tools, such as Library of Congress Java toolkits and XSLT stylesheets, can facilitate this process, while a new XSLT stylesheet may be used to create the RSS feeds complete with MODS records. As an example of the added functionality these MODS / RSS feeds can offer, records from a MODS-enriched RSS feed can be ingested into a non-RSS application such as Zotero. As more emerging library technologies use Web services architectures to handle data objects, the ability to syndicate catalog records will become more critical to providing innovative library Web services.

KEYWORDS: RSS, metadata, syndication, MODS, XML, Zotero, namespace, XSLT, open-source, programming, libraries

Webifying a Workshop: From Our Classroom to Their Desktop

Daniel S. Dotson and Amanda J. Wilson

The Knowledge Bank is The Ohio State University’s institutional repository, which houses various works by students, faculty, and staff. One of the text collections in the Knowledge Bank is electronic honors theses. Training students to submit their theses was initially given in the form of in-person workshops. Turnout for these workshops was sparse despite attempts to vary the times and days on which they were held and in contrast to the increasing number of questions received about the submission process. In addition to low turnout, requests for workshops at branch campuses made the idea of providing the workshop via the Web seem a desirable solution. This article discusses the criteria for creating such online tutorials and includes information from the literature about similar projects creating Web-based instruction. The authors created the KB Honors Theses tutorial through the use of screen-capture software and voiceover narration. The process through which the authors created their online tutorial is given, including technical aspects and examples of solutions to problems that arose. A description of each module of the tutorial serves as an overview of the content. Each module can be accessed as part of an overall video or individually. Testing and evaluation of the tutorial is also described, including an examination of Web statistics to determine which operating systems and browsers are most commonly used by to access OSU Libraries Web pages. Details of problems encountered and solutions to those problems are given. The article concludes with ideas for future directions for the online tutorial.

KEYWORDS:

Dynamic Pathfinders: Leveraging Your OPAC to Create Resource Guides

Ben Hunter

Library pathfinders are a time-tested method of leading library users to important resources. However, paper-based pathfinders suffer from space limitations, and both paper-based and Web-based pathfinders require frequent updates to keep up with new library acquisitions. This article details a step-by-step method to create an online dynamic pathfinder with a clean, intuitive interface that performs pre-determined searches in online library catalogs. This tool leads users to resources much as a traditional pathfinder does, but it is always up-to-date, requires almost no maintenance, and familiarizes patrons with the library’s catalog as they use it. This article requires a basic knowledge of HTML. PHP and Javascript are also used. While knowledge of these languages is helpful, these parts of the dynamic pathfinder are described in enough detail that no prior knowledge is required.

KEYWORDS: library catalogs, pathfinders, resource guides, PHP, JavaScript

REVIEWS

Professional Readings on Librarianship and the Web

Phillip M. Edwards, Review Editor