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WorldCat Mashathon UK - A quick overview

Last week the Developer Network and Liverpool John Moores University hosted a WorldCat Mashathon in Liverpool at Parr St Studios in conjunction with the Liver & Mash Mashed Libraries event. The event was attended by 28 participants from a variety of libraries and OCLC UK. Group photo participants OCLC Mashathon, Liverpool 2010 Photo by Bruce Washburn on Flickr The mashathon had a great deal of discuss about the various web services. Because of participant interest, I ended up talking about several newer services which we hadn't planned on covering. Dewey.info which is the top three levels of the Dewey Classification system as Linked Data and VIAF.org (Virtual International Authority File) which brings together authority data from libraries several national libraries around the world, were both of interest. As was the QuestionPoint Knowledge base web service. One day mashathons are always harder on the participants because there is less time to create functional code. Still we had two participants who were able to generate some basic code. George Bingham from the OCLC UK OLIB team, used WorldCat Identities to enhance the authority list display in the OLIB OPAC. Both by linking from the authority screen to Identities and by incorporating information from Identities into the authority screen. John Salter from the University of Leeds, used the xISBN service to find various editions of a book to place into their Reading List system. Using xISBN he could indicate in a reading list that a newer addition of the book existed and could be ordered. In addition, my colleague Bruce Washburn was able to spend some time working on his "Wise Guy" app for Android phones. Wise Guy uses the relatively new QuestionPoint Knowledge base web service. The app takes a term and finds a random question and answer pair within the QuestionPoint Knowledge base which match the term. Other mashathon participants kicked around ideas for applications but didn't complete writing code. In particular Julian Cheal from UKOLN had idea of mashing up date from WorldCat Search API, and Netflix to provide access to movies with a particular actor or actress which was quite interesting.

New EZproxy Reference Manual now available

For all of you EZproxy administrators, there's a brand new Reference Manual available as a PDF to help you manage all the different directives you may want to specify. Topping out at a whopping 114 pages, we're still thinking the Reference Manual is a work in progress. I mean, 104 Directives is pretty darn good for a first draft--but there are improvements to be had, to be sure. So download it now, peruse at your leisure and send the EZproxy team your thoughts and ideas about what else should/could go in here, and where it could use some additional information. There are already planned updates in the works, of course, and your feedback and insight is always encouraged. Future versions with small incremental changes will be called out with a version number and listed on a yet-to-be-created "changes made to this version" page.

Twelve new apps added to the OCLC Application Gallery

Fortunately, people have been hard at work figuring out new apps and mashups with OCLC Web Services and WorldCat.org links. I've just been slow to get them out to you! But now there are twelve--count them, twelve--new apps in the OCLC Application Gallery ( in no particular order):

WorldCat Mashathon UK is one week away!

Quick reminder that the WorldCat Mashathon UK is close approaching. If you haven't yet registered for it, better get yourself sorted now. The details: Thursday, 13 May Parr Studio 2, Liverpool, UK Held in conjunction with Liver and Mash on Friday, which is full already but our Thursday event still has a few slots available. 20 pounds to cover breakfast, lunch and tea breaks. If you can't attend, you can still follow the action from both days on twitter. #livtweet

Mobile Development Webinar happens today!

Nothing like short notice. Sorry, this event has been on my calendar for weeks now and I'd meant to blog about it ages ago. But...for those of you impromptu, spur-of-the-moment, I'm free-for-the-next-hour-why-not types, our own Bruce Washburn is giving a Webinar on Mobile Development today in 35 minutes. A free Webinar and part of the OCLC Research TAI CHI (Technical Advances for Innovation in Cultural Heritage Institutions) series, you can sign up from the news announcement lnked above. But never fear, if you only check your feedreader at night--the Webinar will be recorded and made available in the iTunes store for replay later.

Daily noncommercial usage limits raised for xISBN and xISSN

Based on feedback from OCLC Developer Network members, OCLC is pleased to announce that basic limits on all xIdentifier Web services have been increased to 1,000 queries per day. This increase is intended to facilitate easier use of the JSON-P format now in place, and is effective immediately. OCLC member libraries who also maintain an OCLC cataloguing subscription still remain eligible for higher usage limits at no charge. All other libraries and/or commercial organizations can select the subscription option that best meets their needs.

Web Services cheat sheets and Developer Network handbook PDFs updated

A quick note to let everyone know that the Developer Network handbook PDF is now available in two sizes:

WorldCat Mashathon UK + Liver and Mash set for 13-14 May in Liverpool

Clear your diary now for the WorldCat Mashathon UK event, planned for 13 May in Liverpool, UK. We're co-producing the mashathon with the Mashed Libraries group--so it's a Liver and Mash Mashathon 2-day extravaganza. Of course, you can come for either day and not the other if you'd like--but while you're there you might as well enjoy both days of coding fun. Note there are only 13 slots left for the Liver and Mash event on Friday--but plenty of room still for the Mashathon on Thursday. Here's what you can expect from the day: WorldCat Mashathon UK - Thursday 13 May The Mashathon will follow a similar format as previous events in Melbourne, Seattle , Amsterdam and New York. Participants will spend the day learning about, brainstorming and coding mash-ups to take advantage of all that WorldCat , the world's largest and most comprehensive bibliographic database from OCLC, has to offer. OCLC UK staff will kick off the session, and OCLC Developer Network manager Karen Coombs and OCLC Research engineer Bruce Washburn will present and be available for questions and breakout facilitation. Ideas and outcomes from the Mashathon, together with a participants list, will be shared during and after the event for others to download and build on. Get more details on the WorldCat Mashathon UK on the OCLC Developer Network site. Liverpool Tweetup - Thursday 13 May (optional) Join the Liverpool Twitter community from 6pm at Brew Tea Shop, Bold St, Liverpool. Enjoy some acoustic tunes, refreshments and good conversation. Follow the action from both days on twitter. #livtweet Liver and Mash - Friday May 14 A lively programme will include speakers from the libraries and museums sector, as well as local businesses engaged in mashups. A range of lightning talks will leave you struggling to choose which to attend, following by a delightful selection of practical workshops hosted by experts to whet your mashing appetites. Get the full programme from the Liver and Mash site. Plan to attend these two fabulous days at one single venue. Note to bring your laptop, as there are no PCs at Parr St! Register now for both events The registration is 20 quid and includes breakfast, lunch and tea breaks. The venue promises to be cool, as ColdPlay, Moby and others have played there. Who wouldn't want to code where ColdPlay has trod?

WorldCat API workshop in Boston tomorrow

The Simmons Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GSLIS) Tech Lab in Boston, MA, USA is offering a free one-hour workshop on the various WorldCat APIs tomorrow, April 9, 2010 from 1-2 pm EDT. Here is more information about the free one-hour workshop from the Event Brite listing:

Recent relevant readings

In case you missed the couple of articles that have come out recently, wanted to call out your attention to a couple of them: OCLC Opens up WorldCat through APIs Marshall Breeding gives a good review of OCLC Web Services, including the WorldCat Search API. Of course, being a Developer Network member and blog reader, you probably know all of this. But if you were looking for an article to give to your manager/Director for WHY you should spend more time on investigating cool mashups and potential usages of OCLC's different APIs, this might be a good one to start with. (reposted from ALA TechSource, who reposted from the February 2010 issue of Smart Libraries Newsletter). Querying OCLC Web Services for Name, Subject, and ISBN A nice article from Ya'aqov Ziso, Ralph LeVan, and Eric Lease Morgan---you'll learn more about OCLC Terminology Services, WorldCat Identities and see a few quick implementations for the services, such as Send it to Me. Note that all three writers were attendees at the inaugural mashathon in New York in November 2008! (Of course, since Ralph is from OCLC, he's also attended most of the others, too...) (reposted from The Code4Lib Journal).

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