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Planned downtime for OCLC services on February 27 to upgrade network storage

On Sunday, February 27 there will be a scheduled service downtime for a number of OCLC services from 1:00 am until at least 6:00 am and, at most, 11:00 am (U.S. Eastern Time). We apologize for any inconvenience this causes. We need to take the following services off-line in order to upgrade the storage systems and capacity for all OCLC services. During this time, the following services will be unavailable:

Submitted by alicesneary on Wed, 02/16/2011 - 5:17pm
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HTML5 and CSS3 Webinar coming in March

Calling all Web designers, developers and general Webby types of folks. If you've been wondering what the low-down was on the relatively new HTML5 standard and what it might mean for your code--here's a great opportunity to learn more at a quick, free session made possible by a joint sponsorship from OCLC Developer Network and OCLC Research.

Submitted by alicesneary on Fri, 02/04/2011 - 2:10pm
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Book signing at Code4Lib for Open Source Web Applications for libraries

Karen is far too modest to ever post out about the fact she's written another book. But she has (!) they'll be giving away copies as part of the book raffle at Code4Lib next week and if you bring your copy with you to the conference, she might even sign it for you.

The book is called Open Source Web Applications for Libraries and here's what publisher Information Today says about it:

Submitted by alicesneary on Tue, 02/01/2011 - 5:40pm
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MapFAST Web Service Available

With the number of mobile devices increasing, so has the interest in geolocation services and applications. One recent project of OCLC Research which looks at subject headings from a geographic point of view is called MapFAST. This project is a mashup prototype that uses a Google Maps interface to present FAST Geographic authority records. Users can select of a location and display of nearby geographic headings.

Submitted by librarywebchic on Wed, 01/19/2011 - 12:34pm
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Tired of doing EZproxy admin? Send your Director to the Hosted EZproxy Webinar next week

If you're the EZproxy technical lead for your institution or organization and you're looking to re-claim part of that time for other things (a.k.a., more time to work with OCLC Web Services!)...then send your decision-makers to the EZproxy hosted service Webinar next week. EZproxy is the library's leading off-campus solution for access and authentication, and a hosted version just came available last month.

Submitted by alicesneary on Thu, 01/13/2011 - 5:35pm
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Join the OCLC Developer Network at Midwinter in San Diego

If you're planning to be in San Diego for the ALA Midwinter 2011 meeting, you'll want to put a couple of dates on your calendars now for developer-related events:

Saturday, January 8
The Power of Data, Technology and Community: the OCLC Platform Strategy

Submitted by librarywebchic on Tue, 12/28/2010 - 4:17pm
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VIAF now includes Corporate Names

For those you who haven't seen Thom Hickey's blog post, VIAF not includes corporate names. Conference names, which strongly overlap corporate names, are included in VIAF's corporate names. The corporate matching is not as mature as personal names, and OCLC will be refining it over the coming months. We know there are errors and would appreciate it if you would report any errors you see to help us improve the matching.

Submitted by librarywebchic on Mon, 12/06/2010 - 2:40pm
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Save the date: next WorldCat Mashathon set for April 7-8, 2011

We've heard from lots of people who want a chance to attend a WorldCat Mashathon--or host one. We LOVE to do them, see the results and most importantly meet all the outstanding developers out there in libraryland. So we're happy to announce that the next WorldCat Mashathon will take place Thursday and Friday, April 7-8, 2011. But where, you ask? The lack of a specific location reflects a different approach we're trying out with the next mashathon. It's going to be distributed among several locations. The idea is that this approach will make it easier to participate no matter where you live--and be a test bed to see if your library might want to be a host location in the future. Because this is the first time doing it this way, the Mashathon will be held at the same time in three different OCLC offices:
  • Washington, DC
  • Columbus, OH
  • San Mateo, CA
How will it work?
  • We plan to webcast the presentation and hands on activity portions of the mashathon to all locations.
  • Participants at each location to have time to work collaboratively on projects together.
  • Each location will have members of the Developer Network team there in person to act as hosts and answer questions.
  • We'll use chat, IRC, video conference, and webcasting to facilitate communication between participants at all three locations. If a participant has a question that requires a particular person's expertise, then we'll get together virtually.
  • Groups will have a chance to present their Mashathon project(s) and we'll webcast the "Show and Tell" wrap-up back to the other locations and the Web at large.
This is a grand experiment for the Developer Network, but it seems well worth it if it gives you the chance to attend a mashathon with fewer travel expenses and more opportunities to collaborate with other far-flung developers. Rest assured we're working hard on the technology aspects of hosting a distributed mashathon so you have the best experience possible. I'm sure we'll all learn a lot, regardless. And in the spirit of mashathons, we'll have a lot of fun no matter what. Registration will be available early in 2011. But mark your calendars now for April 7-8 at a location near you! For our European colleagues and fellow developers, we're also planning a European mashathon in 2011. Stay tuned for that announcement, coming soon.
Submitted by librarywebchic on Mon, 12/06/2010 - 11:01am
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Hosted version of EZproxy now available from OCLC

Calling all EZproxy admins! Happy Hanukkah and Christmas came early this year: OCLC EZproxy is now available as a hosted service. So you no longer have to maintain all the database tables and configuration files yourself, unless you just like doing it. Five libraries have been in pilot with the hosted service since April 2009, and they've helped the cooperative work out any kinks in the system. EZproxy now joins other OCLC services available as hosted versions, including CONTENTdm and ILLiad. What do you stand to gain from moving to the EZproxy hosted service? From the official announcement:
  • Timely addition of new databases
  • Reduced reliance on technical staff for initial configuration or ongoing configuration file changes
  • Peace of mind with a secure environment and security for user information
  • 24/7/365 access monitoring and reporting on usage
  • Elimination of local proxy server (or other hardware) maintenance
  • Automatic updating for bi-annual enhancements
So you'll always run the latest and greatest version--currently 5.3. And OCLC supplies the security certificate, too. In case you're curious, the deployment on cooperative's end is on Linux VM services at the OCLC data center. It currently has more than 2,200 VMs deployed as of 17 November. There are full diesel and battery back-ups for the data center and two commercial power feeds...just in case someone upstream gets crazy with a backhoe--you don't lose your eContent access. EZproxy hosted service sits alongside other recent OCLC innovations to help make it easier (and cheaper) to manage and provide access to eContent, including the WorldCat knowledge base, licensed resource management, and integrated link resolution. Learn more about the EZproxy hosted version at one of a couple introductory Webinars. New and current EZproxy users are encouraged to attend: To get a price quote for your institution to move to the hosted version, send your name, institution and FTE or community served to EZproxy [AT] oclc.org.
Submitted by alicesneary on Thu, 12/02/2010 - 11:13am
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Mashathon demos get incorporated at libraries

One of the scripts which I wrote as a mashup demonstration used the New York Times Bestseller API to add Best Seller indicators and links to a full record screen being generated via data from the WorldCat Search API. Michael Beccaria at Paul Smith College in upstate NY has taken my prototype script and revamped and incorporated it into their VuFind powered library catalog.

Submitted by librarywebchic on Tue, 11/30/2010 - 1:17pm
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The OCLC Developer Network supports the use of OCLC Web Services—a set of tools and APIs that expose data and services for WorldCat and our member libraries and partner institutions or companies. learn more »

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