I don't think you'd necessarily want to sync the whole catalogue
(although as storage becomes cheaper and more portable it may become
less of an issue - I already don't fill my iPod with my entire music
collection) - but you might want to sync your personal collection, or a
list of books you are looking for to it while you wander round.
Although I can see some objections, the idea of having a local copy of
the catalogue (whether on a portable device or a desktop) has some
attraction - I could do some library searching on the train, mark some
interesting books, and then pick them up in the library when I get there
- a Google Gears implementation of the library catalogue? (I know that
Art Rhyno did some work on indexing the catalog using Google Desktop a
year or so ago (building on work on representing the library system as a
file system using Webdav) - and some of the ideas here still seem of
interest to me - the catalogue on my PC, integration with desktop tools
etc.)
Although I agree that 'live data' using wireless access in the stacks
would be good, I'm not sure this is as easy as some have suggested. My
experience of putting wireless networks into libraries is that they
don't reach half as far as you'd like, and book stacks are particularly
problematic. Even if this proves less of a problem than I think, we are
definitely a little way from easily available, cheap, pervasive wireless
access yet, so there is still a potential 'offline' market when talking
about portable devices.
Finally, coming back to the online version - with interfaces like the
iPhone where you can zoom in etc to the bit of the page you want, is
there still a need for specific web interfaces for mobile devices?
Owen
Owen Stephens
Assistant Director: e-Strategy and Information Resources
Imperial College London Library
Imperial College London
South Kensington
London SW7 2AZ
Tel: 020 7594 8829
Email: o.stephens_at_imperial.ac.uk
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
> [mailto:NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Christopher Barr
> Sent: 18 September 2007 14:31
> To: NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu
> Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] The portable catalogue
>
> I don't think having a 'synched' version of the catalog on a
> device would be as useful as accessing the catalog through a
> web interface. If you want to know what the future will look
> like, stop by an Apple store and play with an iPhone, this is
> where things are going (though hopefully the wireless data
> connectivity will get speedier). That said, our interfaces
> need to be lightweight, flexible, and ultra-accessible.
>
> The main advantage of having the live web version is that you
> can get up-to-date holdings information. Soon patrons will be
> walking through the stacks, connected to your wi-fi with their phone.
>
> The other problem with synching an entire catalog to your
> iPod (besides being just a novelty), is that you are taking
> up valuable space for tunes! I hate to see development time
> being spent on things that are not going to return in use value.
>
> --chris barr
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________________
> From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
> [NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Stephens, Owen
> [o.stephens_at_IMPERIAL.AC.UK]
> Sent: Tuesday, September 18, 2007 5:34 AM
> To: NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu
> Subject: [NGC4LIB] The portable catalogue
>
> A posting from Jerri Swinehart (Jerri - I think you raise some
> interesting questions, so don't go back to lurking!) in another thread
> triggered some thoughts about the catalogue on portable devices.
>
> Over two years ago Lorcan Dempsey mentioned in a blog posting
> that Thom
> Hickey had loaded the entirity of Worldcat on an iPod
> (http://orweblog.oclc.org/archives/000544.html), but that you couldn't
> do much with it once it was on there.
>
> When we talk about accessing the catalogue on portable devices, is the
> future in a web interface that plays nicely on a small screen/limited
> connectivity device, or is it in loading local copies into cheap
> portable storage? I have to admit that the idea of being able
> to browse
> through the catalogue (or a personalized view of the catalogue) on my
> iPod sounds quite cool to me - but as a librarian/geek this
> may not mean
> much :)
>
> If we are talking about a portable device web interface, how
> would this
> differ from a NGC on a desk/laptop device?
> If we are talking about loading a local copy of the catalogue onto a
> device, how would this work? I did play around with making a Journal
> Browsing mechanism in iTunes a while ago, but never tried
> synching it to
> my iPod - the coverflow feature with journal covers was quite nice
> though.
>
> If the latter type approach was taken, would we need to deliver client
> software to 'synch' to a device - if so, what would this look like?
>
> Anyone done any work in this area?
>
> Owen
>
> Owen Stephens
> Assistant Director: e-Strategy and Information Resources
> Imperial College London Library
> Imperial College London
> South Kensington
> London SW7 2AZ
>
>
> Tel: 020 7594 8829
> Email: o.stephens_at_imperial.ac.uk
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
> > [mailto:NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Jerri Swinehart
> > Sent: 17 September 2007 19:13
> > To: NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu
> > Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] As a Library 'decision maker'
> >
> > At 01:20 PM 9/17/2007, Deb Bergeron wrote:
> > >While I realize that creating a well-designed catalog for all users
> > >(including catalogers) is a controversial subject, what I
> don't quite
> > >understand is why this is an issue when we now have the ability via
> > >open-source to develop dual-catalog interfaces that 'play
> > well' with ILS
> > >modules, thus giving us the ability to design for both the
> patron and
> > >the staff (librarians/catalogers). What am I missing?
> >
> >
> > I think the future of cataloging as a profession first came
> > up because the Library of Congress (LoC)decided not to create series
> > authorities. There was gossip on the cataloging listservs had LoC
> > doing away with subject headings. I think it woke a lot of
> catalogers
> > up that the traditional catalog, which is now online might very well
> > go away. So cataloging jobs would change or disappear. Change can be
> > a very frightening thing for folks especially when they've spent
> > their lives doing their work the same way.
> >
> > My own opinion is that I want a catalog that is available
> > 24/7 on all those nifty and expensive electronic devices that
> > everyone (but me) has today. I also want a more robust keyword
> > searching mechanism than is currently available (at least on
> > Voyager). I also want to be able to add more keyword searchable
> > information to bibliographic records. If that means not
> using MARC so
> > be it. A well-designed metadata schema, a few standards for
> entry, an
> > ILS that supports it et voila! We can begin to give library
> users (at
> > all levels)what they want in the way they want it.
> >
> > I also think that before sitting down to the nuts and bolts
> > of how to do this that the library users need to be
> surveyed. What do
> > all library users at all kinds of libraries want? Or feel they need?
> > The answers would, I suspect, change the way in which ILSs are
> > designed, the way in which information literacy classes are taught,
> > and also change the way in which catalogers do their jobs.
> >
> > Sorry...I'll go back to lurking now.
> >
> > Jerri Swinehart
> > MLIS
> > Library Assistant III
> > Oakland University
> > Kresge Library
> > Technical Services
> > Rochester, MI 48309-4484
> > swinehar_at_oakland.edu
> >
>
Received on Tue Sep 18 2007 - 09:20:07 EDT