tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64625857649433420162024-02-21T22:22:00.042+11:00RamblibrarianMartin Boycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05550567367127437402noreply@blogger.comBlogger60125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6462585764943342016.post-35212697595398939332016-10-24T14:11:00.001+11:002016-10-24T14:11:33.618+11:00Linked DataYou've probably heard Linked Data being talked about by library people.<br />
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You may have even heard jargon being thrown around like triplets, the Semantic Web, RDF and Bibframe.</div>
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But if you're anything like me it has not been totally clear what linked data is and how it could benefit libaries. But I've been let into the club and you can be too.</div>
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The WHAT and HOW?</h3>
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I've heard a number of speakers at different events talk about linked data and I thought I kind of understood it based on those talks. As someone who writes code for websites I was comfortable enough with the descriptions of linked data in terms of the way it is encoded. Without going into the actual syntax of the code, it boils down to the relationships between uniquely identified things, expressed in a collection of triplets. </div>
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For example, Tim Winton is a person. Cloudstreet is a book. <i>Tim Winton is the Author of Cloudstreet</i>. There is a triplet - it expresses a relationship between three defined concepts - [person] is the [author] of [work]. This particular relationship has high relevance for library data but it is not the only type of relationship. What about subjects? Mount Everest [place] is the [subject] of Into Thin Air [book]. Linked data is not purely a library thing. There are many ways that different data can be expressed as linked data. Tony Abbot [person] is a [friend] of Malcom Turnbull [person].</div>
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Linked Data is encoded in a structured way based on defined ontologies. Ontologies define concepts like a 'person' - without a person ontology you can't uniquely identify Tony Abbott. And when you have enough of these triplets you have much potential for computers to be able to deduce answers to questions based on the relationships in the data.</div>
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All that's fine, but it left me totally lost when it came to libraries. I could see how the collection data in a library catalogue could be encoded as linked data. But this would have to be done programmatically - there's no way a few people can hand code all the relationships in a library catalogue. And even if you could, so what? Where is the value? I thought that it was potentially of use to the Library of Congress and other national libraries. That maybe those larger organisations might be able to make a case for it out of public interest. What could developers do if all of the Trove data was available to them as linked data?</div>
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I had a hazy picture of the what and how of linked data but I was no closer to seeing the potential.</div>
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The Penny Drops</h3>
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So for a couple of years Linked Data has been around the back of my mind in place where I felt like the hype around it suggested I should be paying more attention. A couple of weeks ago I signed up for and watched a webinar chaired by Novelist, called <a href="https://www.ebscohost.com/novelist-the-latest/blog-article/webcast-getting-your-library-visible-on-the-web" target="_blank">Getting Your Library Visible on the Web</a>, simply out of interest.</div>
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It turns out that Novelist (Ebsco) offers a <a href="https://www.ebscohost.com/novelist/our-products/linked-library-service">Linked Data service</a> where they will convert your bibliographic data to Linked Data and publish it online via the <a href="http://library.link/">Library.Link</a> network. I could be wrong about this part, but I gather that the actual work to convert the data and the hosting and running of Library.Link is done by a company called <a href="https://zepheira.com/solutions/library/">Zepheira</a>, formed out the various collaborative efforts to get library linked data up and running. To make it possible Ebsco are also collaborating with various library vendors to get the data; and at least one, Innovative Interfaces, is offering a similar Linked Data Service directly to their customers.</div>
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So you can pay for your library data to be converted and published as linked data through a selection of different vendors, but they all seem to be working together and ulitmately I think Zepheira does the data conversion and publishing via Library.Link. That solves the HOW but still not the WHY.</div>
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Ulitmately, the WHY is simple. Discoverability.</h3>
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Publishing your library collection information as linked data allows it to be harvested by Google and other search engines. It gets your collection information out of the closed silo that is your libary catalogue and in to the world where searchers are looking.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqhW1fFlJ61bEI-G73_l_SUZk4oGtAmjrm_iHtkX6ktHTNPTOrwtg-081g9_lpxpFlYXjZSJvoLm4jmadWy4k1Pko5B8QTvlSdDQEDqtUUQN22LA-XPii0i6njMDmcZxkdoMMSYoNFG9wW/s1600/dan-brown-denver.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqhW1fFlJ61bEI-G73_l_SUZk4oGtAmjrm_iHtkX6ktHTNPTOrwtg-081g9_lpxpFlYXjZSJvoLm4jmadWy4k1Pko5B8QTvlSdDQEDqtUUQN22LA-XPii0i6njMDmcZxkdoMMSYoNFG9wW/s400/dan-brown-denver.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The first two results in this search link to Denver Library's catalogue data</td></tr>
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The possibility that items from a library catalogue might show up in Google search results is an enticing proposition, for sure. But it doesn't end there.</div>
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You have probably already seen an example of how Google is using Linked Data, probably without even knowing. Have you ever searched for a movie and been presented with something like this, showing cinemas and session times along with information about the movie?<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHrj7VatwIO-9TTL8Mnf15ZmV6u8btUs0Ob8w5q1VjK2cyNaZGS7M47v2pafLLUn7pQcwYIwDno0jNj_HYPNy8tiL-2PyVC5pZ1rA5CmXrm_D-4U1Ur8ZBh_Pi6iWG4Rqpun6bLJtW3rWn/s1600/google-movie-listing.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHrj7VatwIO-9TTL8Mnf15ZmV6u8btUs0Ob8w5q1VjK2cyNaZGS7M47v2pafLLUn7pQcwYIwDno0jNj_HYPNy8tiL-2PyVC5pZ1rA5CmXrm_D-4U1Ur8ZBh_Pi6iWG4Rqpun6bLJtW3rWn/s400/google-movie-listing.png" width="336" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Google Search results for the movie Magnificent Seven showing session time, and movie information</td></tr>
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Google shows these data cards for all types of search terms - people, places, things. We are seeing the search industry moving from simple lists of results matching search terms to being answer engines. Google is aggregating data from all available sources and trying to present answers to searchers.<br />
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Even in a library context it is evident that people are becoming used to this sort of result. But at present, Google sees libraries as roughly the equivalent of small business. Here's the Google search result for my library. Users can see the location, opening times and contact details right on Google in addition to getting a link to our website, even if they can't yet get collection results. They can get directions, or telephone the library simply by clicking on a link.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv1IZwMx9OMGhZYWgWHrdVOk-CalmGwtHT5zhboJ2VwcjBgTBJ6kUmrs_kZX563ClOZlVhLbvuEmpsj4fMFHaErq6OsNKSDOrxlXdR2drMRK4IsqiLdMjOdNZFDS2QmBoFBaZ5WPeEzqdF/s1600/sutherland-library-google.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv1IZwMx9OMGhZYWgWHrdVOk-CalmGwtHT5zhboJ2VwcjBgTBJ6kUmrs_kZX563ClOZlVhLbvuEmpsj4fMFHaErq6OsNKSDOrxlXdR2drMRK4IsqiLdMjOdNZFDS2QmBoFBaZ5WPeEzqdF/s640/sutherland-library-google.png" width="227" /></a></div>
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And we get analytics from Google that show us people are using that convenience and bypassing our website altogether.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3KESXxOYk2l4ZMFLujOhrd5qnmh5GSGyFaXzQzkK6XmLs_q4Mz7uJoF4owbPtJtUmazJjcHCMh0h7saeCJ9w6Z5edTjsSfQAmrYallwvftngR858cOkKLwjApp97HHpj2Ih5MLycz3b3V/s1600/google-business-insights-sutherlandlibrary.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3KESXxOYk2l4ZMFLujOhrd5qnmh5GSGyFaXzQzkK6XmLs_q4Mz7uJoF4owbPtJtUmazJjcHCMh0h7saeCJ9w6Z5edTjsSfQAmrYallwvftngR858cOkKLwjApp97HHpj2Ih5MLycz3b3V/s400/google-business-insights-sutherlandlibrary.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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What's more, with current generation operating systems we are seeing these answer engines being decoupled from the web and web browsers. <a href="http://www.apple.com/au/ios/siri/" target="_blank">Siri</a>, <a href="https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/17214/windows-10-what-is" target="_blank">Cortana</a>, and <a href="https://www.google.com/search/about/" target="_blank">Google App</a> are all about removing the search process from user and focusing on answers. <br />
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All this relies on the machines having access to the data. "Hey Siri, where can I borrow a copy of Cloudstreet by Tim Winton?"<br />
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Martin Boycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05550567367127437402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6462585764943342016.post-18899622834449584372016-02-25T04:00:00.000+11:002016-02-29T20:04:03.528+11:00Mashing up the Flickr API with Google Maps<i>This post is 3rd and final post in a series documenting my experience <a href="https://ramblibrarian.blogspot.com/2016/02/learning-google-maps-api.html">Learning the Google Maps API</a>.</i><br />
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My final experiment in learning the Google Maps API involves using the <a href="https://www.flickr.com/services/api/" target="_blank">Flickr API</a> as a data source for a set of map markers and info windows.<br />
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The <a href="https://ramblibrarian.blogspot.com.au/2016/02/first-steps-with-google-maps-api.html">first post in this series</a> focused on loading a set of markers, with associated info windows onto a map. In that post I mentioned that in a production environment I would be looking at loading the data for the markers from an external source. Using the Flickr API to fetch the data about my public photos is one way that I could develop an example of how this would in practice.<br />
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Separating the data from the code</h3>
Why is it necessary to store the data to be mapped separately from the code that creates the map? Think about the alternative. In my first example the data for the markers and info windows was written directly in the JavaScript code that created the map. But what if the data changes? I would need to edit the code to add the new data.<br />
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In a library context, where I might be mapping a collection of photos (or other geotagged material), that data is likely to change regularly as items are added or removed from the collection. Someone is already managing the metadata about those items. If I have to change my code every time there is a change in the collection it is unnecessary extra work.<br />
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A much better solution is to have the expert create and maintain the metadata about the items in the collection (including the location data). Then your map code can request whatever data is available and generate the necessary markers and related information.<br />
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This is a perfect illustration of why it is important for libraries who want to make their collections accessible publicly should consider taking an open data approach. When making choices about how collection data is stored and what software is used, libraries might want to prioritise the need for systems that provide structured access to the data contained therein. <a href="https://ramblibrarian.blogspot.com/search/label/data%20liberation">I've written other stuff about open data</a> if you're interested.<br />
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Creating the map</h3>
Without going into the actual javascript code, there are 3 steps to creating this map:<br />
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<li><b>Create the base map</b><br />This was straightforward and covered in the first example</li>
<li><b>Fetch the photo data from Flickr</b><br />The Flickr API documentation and the associated API Explorer make generating the request URL very simple, which may not be as straightforward using other applications with less well developed APIs.</li>
<li><b>Loop through each photo in the data that is returned and create a corresponding marker on the map</b><br />The data about each photo contains the lat/long coordinates for the marker and all the information required to generate an info box with the title, thumbnail and a link back to the image on Flickr.com</li>
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And here's the result.<br />
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<div class="codepen" data-default-tab="result" data-height="600" data-slug-hash="yeQzdg" data-theme-id="0" data-user="boycetrus">
See the Pen <a href="http://codepen.io/boycetrus/pen/yeQzdg/">Google Maps + Flickr API mashup</a> by Martin Boyce (<a href="http://codepen.io/boycetrus">@boycetrus</a>) on <a href="http://codepen.io/">CodePen</a>.</div>
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Notes on the map</h3>
In this example I was only retrieving my own public photos from Flickr, and thus avoided having to deal with authentication. Many parts of the Flickr API do require authentication and that adds a lot more complexity.<br />
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There was a limited number of photos returned in the data set from Flickr. This was a proof of concept and limiting the number of photos ensures the request doesn't slow down the loading of the map, however, I feel like I could increase the number substantially before I noticed any significant impact on performance.<br />
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The Flickr API documentation is excellent. I used the <a href="https://www.flickr.com/services/api/flickr.photos.search.html" target="_blank">flickr.photos.search</a> endpoint, which has many different arguments that you can append to get at just the photos I wanted. Limiting to photos that have been geotagged, for instance, is one way to restrict the data. The associated <a href="https://www.flickr.com/services/api/explore/flickr.photos.search" target="_blank">API Explorer</a> has a nice user interface for generating and testing requests. You don't need to be a developer to play around with it and you can access the API Explorer from the bottom of every page in the documentation.<br />
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So that's the end of my journey in to the Google Maps API. It was easier than I thought it was going to be and, like everything, the more I did the easier it became. I am very pleased with what I created and think that I have the fundamentals to create almost any map.<br />
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I would be interested to hear any ideas you have for maps that could be relevant to libraries or based on library collections and data.<br />
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<br />Martin Boycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05550567367127437402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6462585764943342016.post-39410668636336620162016-02-24T09:00:00.000+11:002016-02-29T20:06:09.512+11:00Overlaying Historical Maps using the Google Maps API<i>This post is part of a series documenting my experience <a href="http://ramblibrarian.blogspot.com/2016/02/learning-google-maps-api.html">Learning the Google Maps API</a>.</i><br />
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Straight up, overlays were the main reason I wanted to learn the Google Maps API. Markers are cool and all, but there are number of ways you can generate maps with a set of markers and info windows and embed them on a website, even with limited JavaScript skills, without having to code them from scratch.<br />
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When it comes to Overlays, however, we're talking unique custom maps. It also has direct, immediate relevance to libraries that have historical maps in their collection.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>Where I work we have digitised a set of Real Estate Subdivision Maps that cover the local area. Here's an example of what they look like.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9DszVX5jdESzgz5vCf0FoXDhyjhDJWsKqiMVxyQ84N8Si1YplVS-awFRvfdt5VhigAG8aMgcqj7puDp-TTb0NMQ6V06BxsXjoLhExEhQ2Pj9u4DLxnVZ2MuQGi3iBUulqWuZAiQh-R1C1/s1600/como-map-sml.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9DszVX5jdESzgz5vCf0FoXDhyjhDJWsKqiMVxyQ84N8Si1YplVS-awFRvfdt5VhigAG8aMgcqj7puDp-TTb0NMQ6V06BxsXjoLhExEhQ2Pj9u4DLxnVZ2MuQGi3iBUulqWuZAiQh-R1C1/s400/como-map-sml.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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These maps are really useful for people researching house histories as they can tell you when an individual plot of land was first sold. As such anyone looking at these would typically have a location as their starting point for finding the map (their house), making a map based interface perfect.<br />
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So my idea was to <a href="https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/examples/maptype-image-overlay" target="_blank">take this image and overlay it on a Google Map</a>. This involves resizing and rotating the image until it aligns perfectly over A Google Map. I also wanted the user to be able to control the opacity of the overlay so that they can adjust how much of the base map is visible through the image, as well as zoom in and out on the map to see the detail on the subdivision map.<br />
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Here's the final result.<br />
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<div class="codepen" data-default-tab="result" data-height="600" data-slug-hash="MKPvvN" data-theme-id="0" data-user="boycetrus">
See the Pen <a href="http://codepen.io/boycetrus/pen/MKPvvN/">Google Maps API Custom Overlay</a> by Martin Boyce (<a href="http://codepen.io/boycetrus">@boycetrus</a>) on <a href="http://codepen.io/">CodePen</a>.
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You can <a href="http://codepen.io/boycetrus/full/MKPvvN/" target="_blank">view this example full screen on Codepen</a>.<br />
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How did we get here?</h3>
So what's involved in getting something like this working? I'm not going to explain the code - if you want to learn how to write the javascript I would recommend working your way through the tutorial that I used: <a href="http://webdesign.tutsplus.com/series/the-google-maps-api-for-designers--webdesign-15635" target="_blank">Google Maps API for designers</a>.<br />
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Rather, the rest of this post will discuss the strategy or techniques used and the implications for doing something like this on a large scale (we have hundreds of these Real Estate Subdivision maps digitised).<br />
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Problem 1 - Aligning the Map</h4>
The subdivision map shown above is not oriented with north at the top. I couldn't just layer the map over the base map as it would never line up. So the first step is to create a new image from the original digitised map that is rotated and resized to fit perfectly over a scaled Google Map. This involves a a reasonable amount of fiddling with Photoshop (or something similar). First I created a screenshot of the right area from Google Maps and scaled it up (as the original image needs to be quite large to allow for zooming in). Then I layered the subdivision map image over the top, rotated and aligned it so that it sat as close as possible to perfectly over the Google Map base layer. Finally, I created a transparent png image from the aligned subdivision map.<br />
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What I ended up with was a very large version of an image that looks like this.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbTOsarb44RR0RGTjnXp7VHbwzxZxD7dreeWFT5nnW7xzjBjD01_qB6eg-Q9ncHga2y_V6B5gwV4BQoHwmhupJG8n23gkfRSbogrZrFPZJyDFAHXuVcjcYWvyj1qZcB093LPAmVwkwbmhw/s1600/como-overlay-sml.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbTOsarb44RR0RGTjnXp7VHbwzxZxD7dreeWFT5nnW7xzjBjD01_qB6eg-Q9ncHga2y_V6B5gwV4BQoHwmhupJG8n23gkfRSbogrZrFPZJyDFAHXuVcjcYWvyj1qZcB093LPAmVwkwbmhw/s320/como-overlay-sml.png" width="225" /></a></div>
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Problem 2 - Creating Map Tiles</h4>
Google maps is made up of millions of individual image tiles, each one being a 256 x 256 pixels square. For each zoom level on Google Maps there is a separate set of map tiles. You need to cut the original image in multiple sets of square tiles for each zoom level the overlay is displayed on. So the rotated image shown above was used to generate the necessary tile images, one set for each zoom level. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8qbJHkzM3SoOTsBtyF7OJWHSrdkjgPhzYInYG33dihOGNEi-ukIDFw_phGJkYWfJj8OccOvvAj8V037h3pjM9c-ki0c_fpGAH2aXCkBKAI25h3m6enkTpi2lZiq73o67etZvp5odtmLYK/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-02-20+at+1.54.17+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8qbJHkzM3SoOTsBtyF7OJWHSrdkjgPhzYInYG33dihOGNEi-ukIDFw_phGJkYWfJj8OccOvvAj8V037h3pjM9c-ki0c_fpGAH2aXCkBKAI25h3m6enkTpi2lZiq73o67etZvp5odtmLYK/s400/Screen+Shot+2016-02-20+at+1.54.17+PM.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Folder structure of the image tiles after processing. Each top level folder corresponds to a zoom level on Google maps.</td></tr>
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There ends up being hundreds of individual images. Thankfully there is software to do the job. I used MapTiler (<a href="http://maptiler.org/">maptiler.org</a>) as recommended in the tutorial. I guess there would be other options but when I grokked what was involved I just went with Maptiler. I used the free version and if you check out the finished map you can see that each tile is watermarked. If I was going to do more I would just purchase the software as it isn't that expensive and <strike>it will save you hours and hours of work</strike>. it is just not something you would do manually.<br />
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Problem 3 - Hosting the Map Tiles online</h4>
In order for Google maps to be able to use the newly created map tiles all those hundreds of 256px x 256px images need to be available on the web. I used our public folder of our dropbox account to store and serve the tiles. If we were to create tiles for the hundreds of subdivision maps we have in our collection we would need quite a bit of storage space for images and may need to find an alternative hosting arrangement.<br />
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Problem 4 - Writing the Code</h4>
Once all the required map tiles are prepared and online I could start writing the actual code that displays the custom overlay on the map. It turns out that it wasn't that difficult to get the code working and it was possibly the quickest part of the whole process. Preparing the images and map tiles is far more laborious.<br />
<br />
All that was left was to add some sort of control interface that allows users to adjust the opacity of the overlay. It took a little digging in the API documentation and around the web to work out how to control the opacity of the overlay but once I figured that out it was straightforward to hook that up to the range slider as the user interface.<br />
<br />
And in the end I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Doing this on a larger scale</h3>
It's one thing to do this for a single map but is it feasible to do this on a larger scale? We have hundreds of these maps that cover the Sutherland Shire in Sydney. There are literally thousands of man hours involved in orienting all those maps to the Google Maps base layer and subsequently generating the tiles.<br />
<br />
Once I realised this I started looking around the API documentation and discovered an alternative. It's possible to create what Google calls a <a href="https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/examples/groundoverlay-simple" target="_blank">Ground Overlay</a>. Instead of creating individual tiles for each zoom level, you can just overlay a single image aligned to a box of lat/long coordinates. I've created a version of our <a href="http://codepen.io/boycetrus/full/adQyrZ/" target="_blank">Como Subdivision Map as a Ground Overlay</a> on Codepen.<br />
<br />
The problem with using this method is that the image file being overlaid has to be very large<br />
in order to maintain sufficient detail when a user zooms in to the map. In this case I think the original png image is over 5Mb, which means that the map is much slower to load than using individual 256 x256 tiles. And it is still necessary to spend time rotating and orienting the original scanned image to find the coordinates needed for the map.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Towards a functioning interface for subdivision maps</h3>
With so many individual maps it's not possible to overlay them all on a single Google Map. When the map is zoomed out there will be too much overlap between maps to be usable.<br />
<br />
It is necessary to create some other way for users to find the subdivision map they are looking for and then before displaying the map as an overlay. I think this would require some metadata being created for each map and then a method (or multiple ways) to search and filter the maps to locate the appropriate map.<br />
<br />
Once again, this probably involves hundreds of man hours working through each map to create necessary metadata.<br />
<br />
Putting aside the number of hours required, her's an initial idea.<br />
<br />
Provide an interface for users to search for a street address.<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>Google Maps has the ability to Geocode addresses and return lat/long coordinates.</li>
<li>Compared the returned lat/long pair with the bounding box of each map and find maps that contain the location.</li>
<li>Then generate the overlay on a map.</li>
</ol>
<br />
<br />
I'd love to hear what you think of the example I've created or if you have any ideas for an interface for lots of maps, ways to improve, etc. Let me know in the comments.Martin Boycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05550567367127437402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6462585764943342016.post-50538356494768842142016-02-23T09:08:00.000+11:002016-02-29T20:05:57.623+11:00First Steps with the Google Maps API<i>This post is part of a series documenting my experience <a href="https://ramblibrarian.blogspot.com/2016/02/learning-google-maps-api.html">Learning the Google Maps API</a>.</i><br />
<br />
The most basic thing you can do with the Google Maps API is to load a map onto your website that is centered on a custom location and set to your choice of zoom level. But a map by itself is not particularly useful - you probably want to mark the location of something on the map. And you may even want to display some extra information related to those markers. So that is where my journey into the Google Maps API began.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>There are some pretty obvious candidates for this type of custom map such as:<br />
<ul>
<li>locations of branches in your library service</li>
<li>a map showing the location of an event, or list of events</li>
<li>a map of a set of photos from a collection</li>
</ul>
and I'm sure you can think of many more.<br />
<br />
Indeed, here's an example of this type of <a href="http://www.sutherlandshire.nsw.gov.au/Community/Library/Libraries" target="_blank">map on the Sutherland Shire Libraries website</a>, showing the location of all the libraries.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a alt="google map showing sutherland library branches" href="http://www.sutherlandshire.nsw.gov.au/Community/Library/Libraries"><img border="0" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioYRGRTmyZNI5HpLyjlaG8DG_kXElp9yEzzzQC84nDrx0Ggok7ewq49UBEnPi7hyphenhyphenKb5z6bQQhIXyUhaOTBaJJ61ad1mLBPpR3PDzd_r4vofJHK2N9rAI3q9qwTUUMbI3UjpEBHqNnxBhpE/s640/website-map.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
The first thing I set out to do was to hand roll a similar map, using the <a href="http://webdesign.tutsplus.com/tutorials/getting-creative-with-the-google-maps-api--webdesign-13380" target="_blank">Google Maps for Designers tutorial</a> as a guide.<br />
<br />
<h3>
First things first</h3>
There's 3 distinct concepts required to produce a map such as this.<br />
<ol>
<li><b>Load a base map at the correct location and zoom level.</b><br />I want to be able to see all the library markers, which are spread across the Sutherland Shire, but I don't want to be zoomed out so far that the markers aren't separated on the map.</li>
<li><b>Load a set of markers, one for each library. </b><br />The latitiude/longitude coordinates must be supplied for the different markers and then the markers are shown on the base map from step 1.</li>
<li><b>Show some extra information to users when they click on a marker. </b><br />In this example I wanted to show the library name, a picture and contact details with a link to more information about the selected library. These pop-up info boxes are called <a href="https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/examples/infowindow-simple" target="_blank">Info Windows</a> in Google Maps land</li>
</ol>
<br />
While I have hand coded all the information for a couple of libraries as I was learning, if I was producing this type of map in a real world scenario I would be looking to grab this data from somewhere else, allowing the data to be updated independently from the map code. But we'll look at how that might work in a later post.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Stylin' up</h3>
I'm sure you are all familiar with the look of a standard Google Map. It turns out, however, that you can customise the colour of almost any part of the base map layer to create your own map. This is something I didn't know you could do with the API until I started the tutorial.<br />
<br />
Fortunately, Google has provided a <a href="http://gmaps-samples-v3.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/styledmaps/wizard/index.html" target="_blank">nifty wizard</a> that lets you define the styles of your custom map and then spits out the JSON code you need to make it work. The best bit is that you don't need any coding knowledge to play with the wizard. You can have a go at creating a map with custom styles yourself. You can even use the wizard to spit out a <a href="https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/static-maps/" target="_blank">Static Map</a> (an URL that display a static image of your map) with your custom style.<br />
<br />
So, of course I included a custom styled map in my example. Here's what I came up with. Not bad for a first crack at using the Google Maps API.<br />
<br />
<div class="codepen" data-default-tab="result" data-height="600" data-slug-hash="EPmrLr" data-theme-id="0" data-user="boycetrus">
See the Pen <a href="http://codepen.io/boycetrus/pen/EPmrLr/">Google Maps API test</a> by Martin Boyce (<a href="http://codepen.io/boycetrus">@boycetrus</a>) on <a href="http://codepen.io/">CodePen</a>.</div>
<script async="" src="//assets.codepen.io/assets/embed/ei.js"></script>
<br />
You can <a href="https://codepen.io/boycetrus/full/EPmrLr/" target="_blank">view this example full screen on Codepen</a>.<br />
<br />
<h3>
One last note…</h3>
Before anyone can begin using the Google Maps API they must first obtain an API Key. This is a common requirement on many publicly available APIs. An API allows the service provider to track who is using the API and place limits on the amount of requests a user can make and/or charge for usage above the free limits. Don't worry, it's free to get a key for the Google Maps API and it's unlikely you'll go over the limit for free access.<br />
<br />
So that's the basics of my first Google Maps experiment. In the next post I'll look at <a href="http://ramblibrarian.blogspot.com/2016/02/overlaying-historical-maps-using-google.html">creating Map Overlays</a>.<br />
<br />
<br />Martin Boycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05550567367127437402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6462585764943342016.post-12004338127218077922016-02-22T13:19:00.000+11:002016-02-29T20:09:40.216+11:00Learning the Google Maps API<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFIL5EWbgC1zNsnDpQFsyQ4c1SaVQqyk9SggQCxeuXOHFZavl1SjSe_DUKY-r5CZnL78u8z3HnnbWRb6q8piuIO8c0Tlbv4bXMH2tECtTIHREqFkw_y4wKwN7peBNBtSSoXtPnQVeHLhni/s1600/custom-map.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFIL5EWbgC1zNsnDpQFsyQ4c1SaVQqyk9SggQCxeuXOHFZavl1SjSe_DUKY-r5CZnL78u8z3HnnbWRb6q8piuIO8c0Tlbv4bXMH2tECtTIHREqFkw_y4wKwN7peBNBtSSoXtPnQVeHLhni/s400/custom-map.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
I've been working on library websites for a long time but as a self taught coder JavaScript has been my stumbling block. My HTML and CSS skills have allowed me to do most of what I wanted over the years but increasingly of late I have found myself dipping my toes in to the JavaScript waters to get certain things done.<br />
<br />
It was high time I got a bit more proficient in JS land and over the last year or so I have taken a more structured approach to tying to teach myself the language. I've been learning a lot. Part of the what has driven me to learn this stuff is the potential I see in some of the APIs available from different web services that can benefit libraries.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>I've <a href="http://ramblibrarian.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/the-inside-out-library.html">held the view for some time</a> that the future of public libraries relies in part on their collection of uniquely local materials - maps, photos, local newspapers, etc. In most cases, this material is not available anywhere else; the library has a monopoly on its distribution. There are some very interesting examples of libraries using web services and their APIs to showcase their local collections.<br />
<br />
And that is where the Google Maps API comes in. Every time I look at some of the material my library has been digitising from our local studies collection I start thinking about how a map based discovery interface would be interesting and useful. Of course, that isn't a new idea and many libraries have done interesting things with maps. It wasn't until now, however, that I've had enough of an understanding of javascript to be able to tackle the Maps API documentation.<br />
<br />
So I am putting together a couple of posts about my experience learning how to use the Google Maps API, showcasing a couple of the experiments I have created.<br />
<br />
I relied heavily on the <a href="http://webdesign.tutsplus.com/series/the-google-maps-api-for-designers--webdesign-15635">Google Maps API for Designers</a> learning guide from Tuts+. Interestingly, not everything in that tutorial works perfectly as described but in hindsight I think that was ideal. By troubleshooting some of the parts that weren't working I had to delve into the API Documentation and sample code from Google. This definitely gave me a much better understanding of what each piece of the code was doing. It allowed me to strip back the code from the tutorial and really try and write lean code. If necessary I can layer the prettys on later to enhance the user interface.<br />
<br />
So over the next week or so I will be adding a couple of posts that document my journey.<br />
<br />
<table style="width: 100%;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><h3>
<a href="https://ramblibrarian.blogspot.com/2016/02/first-steps-with-google-maps-api.html">Custom Maps</a></h3>
<a href="https://ramblibrarian.blogspot.com/2016/02/first-steps-with-google-maps-api.html"><img border="0" height="120" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr0J9rtrqhMCkStueSBYiq-0faGNvpPKhJPKTcSKJeL0Y-Af9OdpgPdsm2xL7h19thy6mfz_AaoRa24s9FF5H58Z_6G4jE_mf6VkvnJjzTbJrBDpQfyCmop5Y5FaZcpLe78XEN3mlKgMr9/s320/custom-map-thm.jpg" width="120" /></a></td>
<td style="text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><h3>
<!--<a href="http://ramblibrarian.blogspot.com/2016/02/overlaying-historical-maps-using-google.html">--><a href="https://ramblibrarian.blogspot.com.au/2016/02/overlaying-historical-maps-using-google.html">Map Overlays</a><!--</a>--></h3>
<img border="0" height="120" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGU1GKhMxSEbh3KLmxR71goF83L8KtMxNfM_SDPr_1ezpXTYIxL3nps5OS_V5UaqD6nEp1mHDeUqfTSlBWwmt7ju_EXSwb-8GVWKnpE4AFe3RQNCRq5QElO3ZhJlFVvJwcPWmf1SqAQtwg/s200/overlay-thm.jpg" width="120" /></td>
<td style="text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><h3>
<a href="https://ramblibrarian.blogspot.com.au/2016/02/mashing-up-flickr-api-with-google-maps.html">Flickr Mashup</a></h3>
<img border="0" height="120" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtZa9Q_QLi0zYJRCuqF0GcejjlVizQgh4PlErssbp1wuOTRwsUUylStwJDyvHTFZuHDAWZZlumk7n6H2FXGVookkjOyN973OaMPWhB26swCCvyT-CGMQVTxgU2AcIOisEsN5NvEBB331al/s320/flickr-map-thm.jpg" width="120" /></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
If you want to jump ahead and see what I made you can see my <a href="http://codepen.io/collection/nvOxRO/">collection of Google Maps API experiments</a> on Codepen.<br />
<br />
<br />Martin Boycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05550567367127437402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6462585764943342016.post-57374504893824201652015-09-04T16:58:00.000+10:002015-09-04T16:58:09.098+10:00Your website is no place for promoting your servicesWhen a colleague comes to me and asks if we can promote [insert name of thing] on my organisation's website I almost immediately think to myself. 'this is a waste of time'. The web is such a task oriented medium that by the time a visitor has our website on their screen they already know why they are there and most promotion just gets in the way of what they are trying to do.<br />
<br />
OK, that might be a bit of a generalisation, but let me explain...<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<h3>
Setting the Scene</h3>
<br />
Members of the library can access the online version of Encyclopedia Britannica from the website. The pages for Britannica (and Britannica Image Quest) are currently located in a section title Digital Collections. This section includes our online services and databases that people can access from home. People can select either Research Databases or Encyclopedias & Reference Books and they will see Britannica in the list of options, as shown below.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB4fIFmZX9FjXZRqYhOKsE4Z8uHn2jySwVskoVij-Tgquoq9cnY3cfbr4EcYv0rC7zHooXInMzK-1cpm2Ou_UD3_YWCP3VRtdm2oaxAE-X0l1pj1SZh8BiIciuUgIOvIJI2lLRB4aWG0R_/s1600/britannica.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Screen shot showing the location of Encyclopedia Britannica on the library website" border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB4fIFmZX9FjXZRqYhOKsE4Z8uHn2jySwVskoVij-Tgquoq9cnY3cfbr4EcYv0rC7zHooXInMzK-1cpm2Ou_UD3_YWCP3VRtdm2oaxAE-X0l1pj1SZh8BiIciuUgIOvIJI2lLRB4aWG0R_/s400/britannica.jpg" title="" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Encyclopedias & Reference Books page on the library website</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
A couple of months ago I was asked about moving the Encyclopedia Britannica (and Britannica Image Quest) pages on the library website from their current location under Digital Collections to the Kids and Parents section. The thinking was that staff in the Children's section were often recommending Britannica as a resource for school homework and assignments and in this context it might get more use if people could find it under Kids and Parents.<br />
<br />
As an ego-maniac I immediately thought that I was right and that Britannica belonged where it was, because I decided that it should go there. Of course that kind of thinking doesn't help anyone. But I did firmly believe that Britannica's location in the site would not impact use greatly, providing it was in a reasonably logical location, for reasons which I will come to shortly. But you can never be sure and I thought it would be a good opportunity to test my assumptions.<br />
<br />
Rather than jump straight to moving the Britannica pages, we started with an unmissable promo for Britannica on the landing page for the Kids and Parents section of the site with a view to measuring the impact on the use of these two resources. We figured that if the promotional content had a discernible impact on the use of Britannica it would indicate that a move would be warranted.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJyF_ymmS2hZL8cLq3-jUuT7yLBvbEloSDZj1RiWQcaQssklTx-dnR81cjBjPe0J93vXt0Vxcp8z8SNRkqRKEACIzwvFXpWnJaeZsZyWald_9KwrDdC4BWVm9UapGPqpDIEX7iqnqZQWea/s1600/britannica-promo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJyF_ymmS2hZL8cLq3-jUuT7yLBvbEloSDZj1RiWQcaQssklTx-dnR81cjBjPe0J93vXt0Vxcp8z8SNRkqRKEACIzwvFXpWnJaeZsZyWald_9KwrDdC4BWVm9UapGPqpDIEX7iqnqZQWea/s400/britannica-promo.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Kids and Parents page showing the links to Britannica and Image Quest</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The Encyclopedia Britannica promo ran on the website for over 6 weeks from the end of May 2015, giving us enough time I think to measure the impact of the promotion.<br />
<br />
<h3>
The Numbers</h3>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Total Sessions for Encyclopedia Britannica</div>
<div align="center">
<table border="1" cellpadding="7" cellspacing="0" class="table table-bordered">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td></td>
<th>2014</th>
<th>2015</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>April</th>
<td><div style="text-align: right;">
336</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: right;">
408</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>June</th>
<td><div style="text-align: right;">
262</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: right;">
251</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Change (%)</th>
<td><div style="text-align: right;">
-22%</div>
</td>
<td><div style="text-align: right;">
-38%</div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<br />
I looked at the figures for April (when there was no promo) and June (when the promo was live). In April 2015 we had 408 sessions on Britannica, which dropped to 251 sessions in June (while the promo was on the site). This represents a 38% decrease from April to June.<br />
<br />
Based on the normal pattern of use our resources get, however, I would expect a drop in use from April to June as a seasonal trend. Our resource usage typically peaks mid-semester; around March/April and September/October. So I compared this year with the previous year.<br />
<br />
In April 2014 Britannica had 336 sessions, which dropped to 262 sessions in June 2014, representing a 22% decrease in use. That means that the decrease in usage of Britannica was greater from April to June 2015, when the promotion was on the site, than it was in 2015.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, the promo had no discernible positive impact on Britannica usage.<br />
<br />
<h3>
How can that be? Did our promo negatively effect usage?</h3>
I don't think that the promo acually had a negative impact on usage, despite the decrease being larger when the promo was live. Rather I think it demonstrates that having the britannica links in the digital collections section of the website is not negatively impacting its use.<br />
<br />
More importantly, I think it also illustrates that 'advertising' things on the website actually has very little effect. In my opinion, the promotion has to happen elsewhere - through staff interaction directly with customers, through posters, email marketing and social media. It's only when people already know that something exists that they go looking for it on the website. Virtually no one is browsing the library website just to see what's on offer.<br />
<br />
In fact, you can extrapolate that as more general trend for the web itself; as I said before the web is very task focused. When was the last time you visited a company or organisation's website without knowing what you were looking for? With a few notable exceptions, that is rare behaviour.<br />
<br />
In fact, once someone knows that they want to use Encyclopedia Britannica from the library, where the page that contains the login link lives within the structure of the site is, to a large extent, irrelevant. You see, somewhere over 60% of our website traffic comes from Google searches. It's much more important to create the Britannica pages on our site in such a way that they are easily indexed by Google and match up to the search terms people who are looking for Britannica will use. This is how you promote your services - make sure you have good content that performs well in search results. I'm not talking about paid search results here either, just well crafted content with good structure that includes key search terms.<br />
<br />
If you search for some combination of the words sutherland, library and britannica the first matching result will be the Britannica page on our website. You don't need to look through our site and find it and you will bypass and promotional efforts we make on other parts of the site.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRop41ASusQh3XtKA2ad7zGzqgNdtKGPQGCYdyUWxhTNCOLSw9Cp-GD7jiXAH7RrYaUHp3fUC5rYqCspBHrE88XG51pEakYZU0GNCkmgECY7w9uKWgQAw-0vNt9_lmRFXN1ukLv_tyhn9Q/s1600/google-britannica.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Google search for 'britannica sutherland library'" border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRop41ASusQh3XtKA2ad7zGzqgNdtKGPQGCYdyUWxhTNCOLSw9Cp-GD7jiXAH7RrYaUHp3fUC5rYqCspBHrE88XG51pEakYZU0GNCkmgECY7w9uKWgQAw-0vNt9_lmRFXN1ukLv_tyhn9Q/s400/google-britannica.jpg" title="" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Google search for 'britannica sutherland library'</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<h3>
So, no marketing on the website?</h3>
Generally speaking I don't think that your website is a great place to do marketing. There are some exceptions though. The home page is very valuable real estate. If we had promoted Encyclopedia Britannica on the home page I'm confident that we could increase usage. However, this sort of increase is for the most part temporary. In my experience, homepage promotions work while they are on the homepage. They even have some lingering effect after the promotional content has been removed. Those effects gradually ebb away over time though. And you can't put everything on the home page forever.<br />
<br />
It's a much better long term strategy to work on improving your content and making it search engine friendly. Spend your time finding out what people want to do and make sure it is clear for visitors how to do those things.Martin Boycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05550567367127437402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6462585764943342016.post-43904498552162050342015-05-05T06:42:00.001+10:002015-05-05T06:45:23.370+10:00Digital Engagement in Public LibrariesBetter late than never…<br />
On Friday, 27 February 2015 I gave a presentation at the <a href="http://www.nswnet.net/blog/nswnet-digital-engagement-and-user-experience-seminar">NSW.net Digital Engagement and User Experience Seminar</a> at the State Library of NSW.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
I discussed some of the data available in Google Analytics that we use at Sutherland Shire Libraries to determine what people do on our website, and how that informs what we do to make the website and the experience of using our library better for those users.<br />
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This is a version of the talk that I recorded as I was getting ready to give the presentation. You can also <a href="http://www.nswnet.net/blog/digital-engagement-and-user-experience-seminar-martin-boyce">watch the video of the actual presentation on the NSW.net website</a>, however the video is recorded from the back of the room and some of the slides may be easier to see in the version shown here.<br />
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<br />Martin Boycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05550567367127437402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6462585764943342016.post-868391886099097932014-08-09T10:54:00.000+10:002014-08-09T10:56:53.648+10:00Pew Research: a new way of looking at public library engagement in AmericaI saw this tweet this morning by <a class="u-url profile" data-scribe="element:user_link" href="https://twitter.com/myleejoseph"><span class="p-nickname" data-scribe="element:screen_name" dir="ltr">@<b>myleejoseph</b></span></a> and thought it sounded like it was worth a read. Well, it sure was. I encourage you to go and <a href="http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/28a54223?page=8#/28a54223/8">read the whole article</a>.<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
A new way of looking at public library <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/engagement?src=hash">#engagement</a> in America <a href="http://t.co/CRxiC5SECU">http://t.co/CRxiC5SECU</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/libraries?src=hash">#libraries</a><br />
— Mylee Joseph (@myleejoseph) <a href="https://twitter.com/myleejoseph/statuses/497521523196837890">August 7, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
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This is really interesting research by the Pew Internet & Libraries people. It goes beyond reporting on use of libraries toward trying to look at the impact that public libraries have on the community. Going beyond measuring use and trying to measure impact is something that Simon Tanner talks about a lot. If you want to read more about this you can check out <a href="https://twitter.com/SimonTanner">@SimonTanner</a> on Twitter or his blog, <a href="http://simon-tanner.blogspot.co.uk/">When the Data hits the Fan!</a><br />
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There are a couple of really important messages here for public libraries to grab on to and share.<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"The two groups that are highly engaged with public libraries include people who are also active in other parts of their communities."</blockquote>
<br />
What Pew found is that people who are highly engaged with libraries tend to be more engaged generally in their communities. They are, "more likely to know their neighbors, visit museums and attend sporting events, and socialize with families and friends on a regular basis. On the other hand, those who are less engaged with public libraries may be less engaged in their communities overall."<br />
<br />
While it's not a direct link, it seems to me that if governments of all levels want highly engaged, active communities they would do well to ensure public libraries are well funded and well run.<br />
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They go on to make a link between the engagement of public library users and their socioeconomic status:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Broadly speaking, adults with higher
levels of education and household
income are more likely to use public
libraries than those with lower household
incomes and lower levels of
education. However, <b>among those who
have used a library in the past year,
adults living in lower-income households
are more likely to say various
library services are very important to
them and their families than those
living in higher-income households</b>.<br />
(emphasis mine)</blockquote>
<br />
For those people in lower income, lower education households who do use public libraries regularly the library plays a key role in their life. And that's a fantastic impact to have and key reason to exist.<br />
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Once again, if governments want to improve the lives of the people they could do a lot worse than ensure well funded, vibrant, innovative public libraries that offer services and programs for all members of the community.Martin Boycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05550567367127437402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6462585764943342016.post-18899090011357995942013-11-18T11:35:00.000+11:002013-11-18T11:35:18.828+11:00Are All You can Read Services like Oyster a Threat to LibrariesI was just reading <a href="http://www.infodocket.com/2013/11/12/mike-kelley-e-books-in-libraries-2013-has-been-a-year-of-small-victories-and-bigger-battles/">a post from Gary Price</a> on InfoDocket regarding this <a href="http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/libraries/article/59942-check-it-out-with-michael-kelley.html">article on Publisher's Weekly</a> about how librarians feel about ebooks in 2013. In that article Michael Kelley describes a mood of <i>'mild optimism and lingering concern'</i>.<br />
<br />
These concerns are commonly talked about - the technological barriers forced on library patrons through DRM, above market pricing for libraries and restrictions around concurrent use or number of loans - all of which you can read about in many other places.<br />
<br />
Gary Price added some of his own comments and one idea in particular grabbed my attention.<br />
<br />
He suggests that one of the threats to libraries from subscription
based services like Netflix, Spotify, Amazon and now Oyster and Scribd, is not that it makes the use of ebooks harder for libraries and their customers, but rather that they…<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"take mindshare away from the library as a source for all types of content
and overall, promote the idea that libraries and librarians are not
relevant"<br />Gary Price: <a href="http://www.infodocket.com/2013/11/12/mike-kelley-e-books-in-libraries-2013-has-been-a-year-of-small-victories-and-bigger-battles/">“E-Books in Libraries, 2013 Has Been a Year of Small Victories and Bigger Battles”</a>. InfoDocket, November 2013.</blockquote>
<a name='more'></a>In my opinion, while the current issues with ebook lending for libraries are a real problem they will eventually be sorted out satisfactorily. Many others have argued the case that ebook lending does not equate to lost sales for publishers and indeed may actually lead to increased sales.<br />
<br />
Every year that it takes to solve the current technical problems is a year that Oyster and Amazon have to win the hearts and minds of digital readers.<br />
<br />
We have seen it happen. We know that almost everyone tries Google first before they think of the library as far as seeking information goes. The library is almost a last resort when other channels have failed.<br />
<br />
I doubt that most of these subscription services have the capital and the commitment that Google has to reducing friction in the transaction between people and their content. But they have all learned from Google the importance of making it cheap and easy for their customers to use their service - every online startup knows that.<br />
<br />
My biggest concern is that if it takes libraries 5 years to sort out our differences with publishers and technology will the horse have bolted? <br />
<br />
New all you can read services will always have to charge for access. In that sense, I believe there will always be a segment of the population that will rely on libraries for free access to content. But will books still be the library brand or could we be consigned to a niche market for books as well?Martin Boycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05550567367127437402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6462585764943342016.post-50929123022402303922013-10-17T19:07:00.000+11:002013-10-17T19:27:30.431+11:00Digital Engagement in Public LibrariesOn Friday, 6 September I gave a presentation to staff from the State Library of NSW titled <i>Digital Engagement in Public Libraries</i>. I wanted to make the point that I believe there is a difference between experimentation and engagement when libraries are using social media.<br />
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<a name='more'></a><br />
If you don't measure the impact that your digital engagement activities are having (and I mean more than just counting Facebook likes) then how will you know if the time you spend is worth it? Libraries must give consideration to the reason they are engaging online and work out ways of measuring whether their efforts are providing a worthwhile return. Tweeting, Pinning and Sharing all take time that could be (and once was) spent doing other things and you want to make sure that the time spent is helping your library achieve its goals. <br />
<br />
I also share some of the ways that my workplace is engaging online along with how we measure the results. By measuring our activities we have learned that digital engagement works best when supported by in-person / in-library efforts. To round out the talk there are some examples of outstanding digital engagement from other libraries.<br />
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Thanks to the staff from the State Library, you can hear the talk. I was filmed while giving the presentation and they have kindly given me permission to take a copy of the video, to which I've added my slides. You can find it on Vimeo.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="290" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/74691562?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0&color=ff9933" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="470"></iframe>
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<a href="http://vimeo.com/74691562">Digital Engagement in Public Libraries</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user13527120">martin boyce</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.Martin Boycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05550567367127437402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6462585764943342016.post-54883871029083151902013-06-03T13:15:00.001+10:002013-06-03T13:19:24.762+10:00Google Analytics - More than just visits and pageviewsOK library folks, hands up you have Google Analytics installed on your website?<br />
<br />
Leave them up if you only ever report your numbers for Pageviews and/or Visits to your management?<br />
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If you still have your hand up, Stop it. Now!<br />
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Google Analytics will serve you much better if you use it to answer questions you have about how your site is used. The answers you can get from analytics will allow you to make better decisions about improving your site.<br />
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Today I was wondering about how often people who regularly use our website visit. I was interested because we have some promotional space on our home page, which we use to highlight particular collections, events or services. We change them regularly (about once a month) but it occurred to me that perhaps that was not the best period. Maybe they should be rotated more or less often, to ensure that our regular visitors saw them (at least potentially) on our home page.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSkIZ19IjFZLAtQVZYf07CG9WEndkDHWBAiSaLP3HcPE7Jd8qhX9dO9_t7E6JZzGTBhNYE94eAMYVpe28SatUb0HuFpPn9WyzxfxpGeAtP42tA0uvPJOeQSILdZ03KAQMd4S1bH_lkgM6U/s1600/featured-promos.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="155" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSkIZ19IjFZLAtQVZYf07CG9WEndkDHWBAiSaLP3HcPE7Jd8qhX9dO9_t7E6JZzGTBhNYE94eAMYVpe28SatUb0HuFpPn9WyzxfxpGeAtP42tA0uvPJOeQSILdZ03KAQMd4S1bH_lkgM6U/s400/featured-promos.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">the section of our homepage dedicated to promoting services</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />
Enter Google Analytics...<br />
<br />
I started by creating an advanced segment to show only those visitors to the site who matched both the following criteria<br />
<ul>
<li>Returning visitors (this was not their first visit)</li>
<li>Visited the home page (they had viewed the page with the promo section)</li>
</ul>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLxeBme0QM4mPVls29zNCLQgahBAFPsUTtEiYhWPbrDegxxxzbxSZrg1RMMZ9_UtgQZbag0EtYCDFv-3lBxXfB7piRZLUvzn6JwFBAZklHpPKEtO_mrFLBx5qV82f0g_UxMTjhDHCyxfBI/s1600/AdvancedSegment.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLxeBme0QM4mPVls29zNCLQgahBAFPsUTtEiYhWPbrDegxxxzbxSZrg1RMMZ9_UtgQZbag0EtYCDFv-3lBxXfB7piRZLUvzn6JwFBAZklHpPKEtO_mrFLBx5qV82f0g_UxMTjhDHCyxfBI/s400/AdvancedSegment.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Creating the advanced segment in Google Analytics</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
After applying that filter I could see more about the behaviour of those people. There is a report in Google Analytics called Frequency vs Recency (under audience > behavior), which shows how often people visit your site.<br />
<br />
By loading the Frequency vs Recency report with my custom segment and switching the focus to 'days since last visit' I can see distribution of how often repeat visitors visit our site.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCssufjMKFfI2GdKJypIwUh-t2ysqGZon58eug79pOUM2eWZHp8Jvx3fJwrYErfIc735_hW4dX_twPSSEuMbi0ZKb8PMZ3X_N7JNlqthEFjVf4-Bei7b3rUo_F6JA9b4JXeXR6dpFEzAT6/s1600/frequencyvsrecency.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCssufjMKFfI2GdKJypIwUh-t2ysqGZon58eug79pOUM2eWZHp8Jvx3fJwrYErfIc735_hW4dX_twPSSEuMbi0ZKb8PMZ3X_N7JNlqthEFjVf4-Bei7b3rUo_F6JA9b4JXeXR6dpFEzAT6/s400/frequencyvsrecency.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The frequency vs Recency report showing the bulge in visits between 2-6 weeks</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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You can see from the graph that the largest number of visitors viewed the site more than once a day. This seems to suggest our internal visits as staff visit the site many times a day for various reasons.<br />
<br />
Apart from that, we have a cluster of return visitors that visit in the 8-14 days, 15-30 days and 31-60 days that stand out in the distribution, with a slight leaning toward the lower end of that spectrum. Let's say there's a bulge in the repeat visitors at 2-4 weeks. That makes sense as our loan period is 3 weeks. It seems probable that many people are visiting the site around the end of their loan period to renew their loans or look for more books, etc.<br />
<br />
This is good news for me as it confirms my hunch that we should rotate our promotional messages about once a month to ensure that the most number of people see them, but that they don't see them over and over again. It's always good to know that your best guess is backed up by the data.<br />
<br />
Based on the insight gained here, the next step might be to consider which of the many links we place in the promo section is generating the most engagement? What are the things that entice people to click through for more information? That will have to wait for another blog post.<br />
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<br />
So for what it's worth, I recommend that you approach Google Analytics with questions rather than simply using it to gather high level metrics that don't help you improve your site.<br />
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If you've used Google Analytics to answer questions or gain insight I'd love to hear about it in the comments.Martin Boycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05550567367127437402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6462585764943342016.post-76775806564001668212013-05-24T07:13:00.001+10:002013-05-24T07:14:53.994+10:00From conversions to task completions | Gerry McGovern<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Converting people is really hard. It's much easier to allow the already converted to do what they came to your website to do.<br />
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Let’s say you’re running the website for a local church. What should your core focus be? Should it be to get new converts for your church or to help those who are already converted?<br />
<br />
Converting people from one religion to another is really hard. In fact, the whole idea of conversion has an archaic, almost medieval feel to it. What a good church website will probably do is have opening times, times for the next services, contact details. Basic functional stuff that meets the needs of the already converted members. Interestingly, while meeting the needs of members it also meets needs of non-members who might like to visit the church and see what a sermon is like.</i></blockquote>
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As libraries create their future with new programs and services, spaces and collections, we may be well served to keep this idea in mind. We should keep an eye on making it easy and enjoyable for our existing members to use the library and ensure that we do not alienate our biggest fans.<br />
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Read the whole article, <a href="http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/new-thinking/conversions-task-completions">From conversions to task completions by Gerry McGovern</a>Martin Boycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05550567367127437402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6462585764943342016.post-83387926360430753912013-02-12T08:00:00.000+11:002013-02-12T08:00:04.009+11:00Progressive Enhancement for Library CataloguesI've just been reading <a href="http://layervault.tumblr.com/post/42361566927/progressive-reduction">Progressive Reduction</a>, a post on LayerVault about a technique they use when designing web apps.<br />
<br />
The principle goes something like this...<br />
When new users start with the app the interface has lots of helping hands; signposts showing how to do things. For instance, the buttons might have an icon and a label. As people use the app more and more those signposts start to recede out of the design. After you have used a feature a number of times, for example, maybe the label drops out and the button only has an icon. Keep using the app and the icon might subtly change to be less obvious. The idea being that less clutter on the interface allows users to be more productive, but only once you know how the app works.<br />
<br />
I started thinking about how this design principle might be implemented in library catalogues.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
While I was contemplating how useful such an approach might be it occurred to me that the opposite approach could be be far more useful. Much has been written about the bad user experience on display in most out-of-the-box catalogues supplied by library system vendors, including attempts to propose improvements to <a href="http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2013/02/opinion/aaron-schmidt/catalog-by-design-the-user-experience/">simplify the design of our catalogues</a>. And I thought that maybe a progressive enhancement approach might be a good solution.<br />
<br />
What if we could provide a simplified interface to new users who are unfamiliar with the catalogue, showing only the most important functionality - the ability to search by keyword, a simple results display with location information and the option to reserve a title for instance.<br />
<br />
Then, as you use the catalogue more, new features are introduced over time. It would even be possible to include some game like dynamics with rewards or badges as you achieve usage targets.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="100" src="http://aboutfoursquare.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/college-bookworm_big.png" width="100" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Credit: <a href="http://aboutfoursquare.com/foursquare-badge-list/foursquare-badges/">foursquare core badge list</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Imagine returning to a library catalogue for the 10th time to be greeted with a message along the lines of "Congratulations! You've achieved the level of bookworm. Advanced Search has been unlocked.", with some accompanying instruction on how to access and use the the new features. <br />
<br />
There are all sorts of functions in most library catalogues that many people will never use - saved searches, book reviews, saved bibliographies, etc. Even the full bibliographic record can be overwhelming. If they are too prominent in the interface they become confusing for the occasional library user. If they are hidden too deeply in the design our power users can't find them. Perhaps progressive enhancement could be a solution that benefits all library users.<br />
<br />
So what do you think? Could this approach work?Martin Boycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05550567367127437402noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6462585764943342016.post-17361748315647106112013-01-09T10:00:00.000+11:002013-01-09T10:00:04.716+11:00The Inside Out LibraryI've just been reading a recent post by Lorcan Dempsey that I wanted to share. <a href="http://orweblog.oclc.org/archives/002206.html">Discovery and discoverability</a>, go read it...<br />
<br />
Two sections particularly resonated with me.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
If I want to know if a particular book exists I may look in Google Book Search or in Amazon, or in a social reading site, in a library aggregation like Worldcat, and so on. My options have multiplied and the breadth of interest of the local gateway [ie. the catalogue] is diminished: it provides access only to a part of what I am potentially interested in.</blockquote>
<br />
Essentially, discovery increasingly happens outside the library, especially for public libraries for whom the stock in trade has been recreational reading. So where does that leave the future of public libraries?<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The challenge is not now only to improve local systems, it is to make library resources discoverable in <b>other</b> venues and systems, in the places where their users are having their discovery experiences.These include Google Scholar or Google Books, for example, or Goodreads, or Mendeley, or Amazon. It is also to promote institutionally created and managed resources to others.</blockquote>
<div class="p1">
This is what Dempsey is calling the inside out challenge for libraries.</div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
And this is where I see a real opportunity for libraries; in unique local collections - material that is unavailable elsewhere and that has particular interest to people with connection to our location and community.</div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
Don't get me wrong. Supporting recreational reading and learning needs as well as local groups and events will remain the major focus of public libraries for some time. But we need to be looking at making our local collections accessible to the network. This is our niche market. Something that we have that can't readily be satisfied elsewhere. </div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
This means digitisation programs and associated metadata creation. I don't mean MARC records either. We need to look at making collections available on the web with high quality metadata that can be easily indexed by network discovery tools. We need to embrace high quality web design, search engine optimisation and open data. </div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
Let's move away from entrusting the creation, indexing, hosting and discovery of our records to 3rd party commercial services simply so we don't have to do it ourselves. Let's engage partners to help build these digital collections in ways that allow libraries retain control over the structural design, the quality control and the licensing of the content.</div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
Let's build these collections with APIs and open feeds that allow the content to be harvested into our catalogues and discovery layers, and make it possible for them to be discoverable by Google. Let's encourage others to mash them with other data to create cool new things that we can't even imagine.</div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
That's the future library I want to see.</div>
Martin Boycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05550567367127437402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6462585764943342016.post-12980751406482065452012-05-08T20:59:00.002+10:002012-05-08T20:59:37.380+10:00Slides from my Lightning Talks at #RISG2012Here are the slides from a talk I gave today at the Reference @ the Metcalfe Seminar at the State Library of NSW. If you <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/boycetrus/open-library-data">view it on Slideshare</a> you can get my speakers notes as well.<br />
<br />
Honestly though, for more sensible coverage of what I'm talking about <a href="http://ramblibrarian.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/open-library-data-invitation.html">you would be better off reading this post</a>.<br />
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<div id="__ss_12845571" style="width: 478px;">
<strong style="display: block; margin: 12px 0 4px;"><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/boycetrus/open-library-data" target="_blank" title="Open Library Data">Open Library Data</a></strong> <iframe frameborder="0" height="399" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/12845571?rel=0" width="478"></iframe> <br />
<div style="padding: 5px 0 12px;">
View more <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/boycetrus/presentations" target="_blank">Presentations</a> from <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/boycetrus" target="_blank">Martin Boyce</a> on Slideshare. </div>
</div>Martin Boycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05550567367127437402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6462585764943342016.post-61410699354815949512012-05-08T16:32:00.000+10:002013-01-09T09:32:00.338+11:00Open Library Data: an InvitationSince attending <a href="http://ramblibrarian.blogspot.com.au/2011/12/digital-december-wrap-up.html">Digital December</a> at the State Library of NSW last year I've been contemplating how libraries can collaborate on sharing their data. This post is an attempt to explain the concept of open data to those unfamiliar with the term, along with an invitation to anyone who would like to get involved.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br /><br />
Open data as a concept is relatively straightforward. In this digital era every library I know has a website, usually paired with an online catalogue allowing users to search the library's collection, and increasingly there are more libraries engaging users via the many social media channels available. I'm sure almost everyone has heard the phrase 'content is king!' It's clear we understand that it is necessary to present our libraries online.<br />
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Open data takes the idea of publishing content online one step further. Instead of simply publishing content online, champions of open data are encouraging the publication of data - structured, machine-readable information. <br />
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So what's the difference? Let me give you an example. Say you want to find out whether a particular journal is available in full text in any of your library's databases. Sure you can visit Ebsco's website and download the title lists for each of their products in a number of formats (a grab from the PDF for ANZRC is shown below) but which database is it in? The title you are looking for may be in any of their products and you need to download them all one at a time and read through each one to find out. This is what I call content.<br />
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<a href="http://www.ebscohost.com/titleLists/anh-coverage.pdf" imageanchor="1" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0TPWztsuPjhV4UHil87XS4Xk4QHFbcxv29U41o_FhmWSWpZLimoCe5mKKoHg7x6SONO4zQfrz9JVwOA4FK28rmIncIc1g7v5T0Obyv6tttEhRzVznYG_AOswCFhJWkj_qtH_WF_pGXTX4/s400/titles.pdf.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Data, on the other hand, is far more useful. If you were looking at this table in MS Excel for instance, you would be able to sort the information by different fields or filter for titles based different criteria. Indeed Excel understands that the indexing and full text fields are dates and they have specific properties that differ from the title field, and that you could perform calculations using these values. In essence, data can be understood and manipulated by machines.<br />
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Open data is simply content that is published as machine readable data, in such a way that other people can use it to make new things. Taking our example above, open data about which journal titles are indexed in which databases would be far more useful to anyone trying to answer our question. A simple title or ISBN search could provide the answer we're looking for.<br />
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David Eaves' <a href="http://eaves.ca/2009/09/30/three-law-of-open-government-data/">Three Laws of Open Government Data</a> is one of the most widely quoted articles on what makes data open and it is worth repeating those laws here.<br />
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<blockquote>
The Three Laws of Open Government Data:<br />
<ol>
<li>If it can’t be spidered or indexed, it doesn’t exist </li>
<li>If it isn’t available in open and machine readable format, it can’t engage</li>
<li>If a legal framework doesn’t allow it to be repurposed, it doesn’t empower</li>
</ol>
</blockquote>
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Of course, when looked at in this way, the information about materials in library collections has been stored as data ever since we've had automated library systems. Indeed, users can visit our catalogues and query our collection data. The information about our collection is stored in a machine readable format - the MARC record.<br />
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MARC records, hmmm...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu1yuTg562XA44Po4tAp0JqZJh2THYxOvN7Abs_1J9kqBVx1Gtkn7Dm402BZptKezVGsiMr0EXxw9R8STWZYgtXFM3FXMlVdCWWdcR9nLYaP1aJAYM99-ihqetBP-gT7k5Y5ZG2FzkVVih/s1600/marc-record.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu1yuTg562XA44Po4tAp0JqZJh2THYxOvN7Abs_1J9kqBVx1Gtkn7Dm402BZptKezVGsiMr0EXxw9R8STWZYgtXFM3FXMlVdCWWdcR9nLYaP1aJAYM99-ihqetBP-gT7k5Y5ZG2FzkVVih/s400/marc-record.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Sure MARC is a machine readable format, it says so in the name (machine readable catalogue) but it's a bit of an antiquated format that no other industry uses. It is a structured format designed to describe books. <i> </i>In my opinion though, it is outdated and of little relevance to the current trend of sharing on the web. MARC is extremely granular in the structure it provides for describing books with its leaders, fields and subfields for things like the number of pages of plates or whether the book has an index. But it is woeful at describing the other types of materials that are now part of library collections, particularly the digital materials that are increasingly prevalent. In fact some of the more desirable information attached to your catalogue records, such as summaries, excepts, tables of content, reviews, permalinks, etc., is consigned to notes fields and the like as MARC is so old this information was not even a consideration in its design.<br />
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To web developers that are used to working with APIs providing data in web ready formats like XML and JSON, MARC records may as well be a PDF. This is so evident, and the need for a better format is so clear, that many library system vendors are now baking in RSS (a widely used xml format) as an output format for searches performed against the data in their system. <br />
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<a href="http://nypl.bibliocommons.com/search?t=smart&q=harry%20potter&commit=Search&searchOpt=catalogue" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIr3m4TUv6xzJQymiayRD0dTglSdS8l7Zj7kSjPlRMzs30GGKBznouGaNkO_mUjfHf3Y2_ilEk4L4eNTsYfi1rM2WPWYltrANMWKlQOfkQjT0a8Tvht9yeB_jBF2MtNEAUTCM3E4-CBW3S/s400/nypl-rss.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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The difference between searching an online library catalogue and viewing the results on a web page versus receiving those same results as an RSS feed is the difference between content and data. Don't get me wrong, content is still important and most library users will interact with our collections through the content that is accessed via the online catalogue but data can have a life of its own.<br />
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Although the term may be new to some librarians, the concepts shouldn't be much of a stretch to accommodate. But why should libraries make the effort to provide open data? In my opinion, there is a simple answer.<br />
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You just can not imagine the cool things other people can and will do with your data.<br />
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There are parts of our collection that are under-used because they are inaccessible or poorly described, and thus difficult to discover. There are hyper-local things that public libraries in particular collect that just aren't available anywhere else. This material when provided as open data can be made far more interesting and useful by people that are cleverer that you or me.<br />
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There are web developers out there who can take your data out of the bubble of your library and give it new life; put it to use in exciting new contexts and create entirely new ways to discover and experience your collection.<br />
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There is a worldwide push for governments to open up their data. We are seeing data catalogues appearing in <a href="http://data.gov.uk/">several</a> <a href="http://www.data.gov/">countries</a> including <a href="http://data.gov.au/">Australia</a>. And we are seeing a new type of event spring up around all this newly available data - the Hack Day.<br />
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Libraries are getting into the act as well. The first <a href="http://libraryhack.org/">Library Hack</a> event was held in 2011 and the winner produced a series of <a href="http://www.talkingmaps.com.au/">talking maps</a> that combined photographs, audio recordings and other data and superimposed them onto a map to create a story.<br />
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<a href="http://libraryhack.org/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPQObA1lVexqWdABPx6Vfs_WVMaa1XbNhcPuzL8CFM_pAwQG-zEX03ktJpr7AX14XW9NNhyKXgZ_t04kZmCJ_WeJ6sxjSkQMbYP-kD90ZKppViy-ft7H_cr9EU9wibWBOFYwjrBusIGYwr/s400/libraryhack.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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We are seeing some libraries experiment with new ways to present their collections online. The New York Public Library's <a href="http://maps.nypl.org/warper/">Map Warper</a> project takes digitised historical maps from their collection and overlays those maps on Google Maps to give a then / now type experience. And our own National Library of Australia's efforts to combine different data sets into the mother of all cultural discovery tools, <a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/">Trove</a>, is making headlines around the world.<br />
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<a href="http://maps.nypl.org/warper/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxANkKB7hw2CYJ5idCvOswi4cMppkXx0HVBe-bDi7uArJpSwI69sz5azQ9aUX_Dy1ahkp_ODKJuyJzI2FgryQdsWUF-wlMGm9X3QysXHimPuQcJtOwj1m3qQFWlx8UZxhjHV0IWl_OiVaJ/s400/nypl_map_warper.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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There are many more examples of interesting things happening online with open data. My biggest problem is that I'm not a developer and I'm extremely frustrated that I don't have the skills to build some of these interesting projects myself. What librarians are good at however is classifying objects.<br />
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What I can do is create data models and classify objects. And you can help. Together we can create the data sets that people who can do the programming can then turn into unique applications and experiences.<br />
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I've started a tumblr to collect our ideas and have conversation about how we can define and create some data sets. I've started it off with an idea of my own but I'm sure you've got plenty more. You can add your own posts and everyone can discuss the ideas right there. Hopefully, we can come up with some projects that will result in something tangible. Maybe someone out there will be able to make something amazing with out data.<br />
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So head over to <a href="http://openlibrarydata.tumblr.com/">openlibrarydata.tumblr.com</a> and share your ideas, join the conversation and help open our data to the world.<br />
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<br />Martin Boycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05550567367127437402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6462585764943342016.post-25123618590304821602011-12-07T17:40:00.001+11:002011-12-07T18:06:23.314+11:00Digital December: The Wrap Up<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Photo Credit: Ellen Forsyth (<a href="http://twitter.com/#!/ellenforsyth">@ellenforsyth</a>)</div>
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What a thought provoking day we had today at the State Library for Digital December, a seminar featuring Michael Lascarides (<a href="http://twitter.com/#!/mlascarides">@mlascarides</a>), John Allsopp (<a href="http://twitter.com/#!/johnallsopp">@johnallsopp</a>) and Tim Sherratt (<a href="http://twitter.com/#!/wragge">@wragge</a>).<br />
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Here are my Top Five Take Aways from today.<br />
<ol>
<li><b>Local content is where libraries have pulling power. </b><br />Your users can't get this stuff anywhere else and it's interesting.</li>
<li><b>The best way to expose your collection is one item at a time. </b><br />A digital narrative can be a powerful discovery interface. Telling a story with passion using one item from your collection is a great way to encourage people to explore more deeply.</li>
<li><b>Obliterate the line between physical & digital. </b><br />Which items in your collection wanted to be something else all along?</li>
<li><b>Make sure you're not getting in the way of the passion of you users. </b><br />The catalogue is a great place to have a conversation about books. Your data is a great source of material for developers. Don't put policies and protocols in place that discourage users from collaborating with you and each other.</li>
<li><b>Data is fuel for the imagination. </b><br />Don't worry about the format. Release your data because <i>you can't possibly imagine what others will do with it!</i> Folk will work with it however you provide it.</li>
</ol>
And just as a bonus, here's my thoughts from discussions about how to encourage the use of all this data we're trying to open up.<br />
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<ul>
<li>Think about what data you have that might be of interest.</li>
<li>Arrange for volunteers & community programs to help libraries turn content and collections into data.</li>
<li>Annual library hack day (perhaps a collaborative project across libraries). Ideas are as important as building apps.</li>
<li>Seed developer interest in your data with a proof of concept or even better, finished projects (maybe you have to pay for this) . Show them you value this stuff!</li>
</ul>
If you went along I'd love to hear what you got out of the day in the comments...Martin Boycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05550567367127437402noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6462585764943342016.post-58378052754990361362011-11-15T18:08:00.001+11:002011-11-15T18:48:59.756+11:00Mo Disgusting - Mr Twit for Moreads<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="text-indent: 0px;">OK, so what about something for you gents to read to your children during Movember? What better way to spend some time with them than over a story.</span><br />
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<span style="text-indent: 0px;"><a href="http://openlibrary.org/works/OL10561746W/The_Twits">The Twits by Roald Dahl</a> is a perennial favourite in our house. There's plenty of books I've read to my kids over & over again, most of which I would gladly never pick up again. But the Twits is one of the few books I'm happy to keep re-reading to them.</span><br />
<span style="text-indent: 0px;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="text-indent: 0px;">Added to that, it has arguably the finest description of facial hair ever...</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="text-indent: 0px;">We can also, if we are careful, eat
our meals without spreading food all over our faces. But not so the
hairy man. Watch carefully next time you see a hairy man eating his
lunch and you will notice that even if he opens his mouth very wide, it
is impossible for him to get a spoonful of beef-stew or ice-cream and
chocolate sauce into it without leaving some of it on the hairs.</span><br />
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Mr Twit didn’t even bother to open his mouth wide when he ate. As a
result (and because he never washed) there were always hundreds of bits
of old breakfasts and lunches and suppers sticking to the hairs around
his face. They weren’t big bits, mind you, because he used to wipe those
off with the back of his hand or on his sleeve while he was eating. But
if you looked closely (not that you’d ever want to) you would see tiny
little specks of dried-up scrambled eggs stuck to the hairs, and spinach
and tomato ketchup and fish fingers and minced chicken livers and all
the other disgusting things Mr Twit liked to eat.<br />
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If you looked closer still (hold your noses, ladies and gentlemen), if you peered deep into the moustachy bristles sticking out over his upper lip, you would probably see much larger objects that had escaped the wipe of his hand, things that had been there for months and months, like a piece of maggoty green cheese or a mouldy old cornflake or even the slimy tail of a tinned sardine.
Because of all this, Mr Twit never went really hungry. By sticking out his tongue and curling it sideways to explore the hairy jungle around his mouth, he was always able to find a tasty morsel here and there to nibble on.<br />
<i>Roald Dahl, The Twits.</i></blockquote>
The Twits is one of Dahl's shorter stories, recounting the disgusting Mr Twit, his old hag of a wife, Mrs Twit and the awful (but cleverly funny) things they do to each other, the local birds and children and poor Mugglewump the Monkey and his family. Fear not though, for in the end Mr & Mrs Twit reap what they sow in a gloriously ironic demise.<br />
<br />Martin Boycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05550567367127437402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6462585764943342016.post-80548502084165854512011-10-26T21:18:00.001+11:002011-10-26T21:24:36.501+11:00NSW.net eResources Seminar 2011Yesterday I spoke at the above named conference. It was a good day with some interesting reports about how public libraries are dealing with the challenges of everything electronic - eBooks, databases, discovery layers and federated search tools.<br />
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My presentation was titled, 'Creating Great Content for Library Websites'. It dealt with the fact that most content on library sites is created and maintained by librarians who don't have any professional experience in the web design or development, and that often it shows. <br />
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A show of hands in the room confirmed my suspicion - while about 80% of people had responsibility for creating and maintaining web content, not a single person was dedicated solely to web duties. All had other duties and no one had any formal web design or development qualifications.<br />
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Despite these stats it was pointed out a number of times by different speakers the importance of having a professional web presence when it comes to increasing usage of our resources.<br />
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As I pointed out in my presentation, fortunately it's not that hard to create good content if you focus on what your audience wants and needs from your slides. Anyway, here are my slides.<br />
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<strong style="display: block; margin: 12px 0 4px;"><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/boycetrus/creating-great-content-for-library-websites" target="_blank" title="Creating Great Content for Library Websites">Creating Great Content for Library Websites</a></strong> <iframe frameborder="0" height="395" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/9868604?rel=0" width="475"></iframe> <br />
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View more <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/" target="_blank">presentations</a> from <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/boycetrus" target="_blank">Martin Boyce</a> </div>
</div>Martin Boycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05550567367127437402noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6462585764943342016.post-19880882121286289542011-08-30T21:28:00.000+10:002011-10-26T21:22:09.085+11:00Local Government Web Network 2011 Conference Wrap<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lgwebnetwork/6067121765/" style="float: left; margin: 0 20px 20px 0;" title="LGWN2011 003 by Local Government Web Network, on Flickr"><img alt="LGWN2011 003" height="240" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6184/6067121765_4b00204f90_m.jpg" width="180" /></a>
This year's <a href="http://lgwebnetwork.org/Conferences/2011/Program">LGWN conference</a> was a thought provoking couple of days with some very interesting speakers and themes. I throughly enjoyed it and want to start by extending a warm thank you to Reem Abdelaty (<a href="http://twitter.com/reemski">@reemski</a>) and James Purser and (<a href="http://twitter.com/purserj">@purserj</a>) for all their work organising the conference. The <a href="http://lgwebnetwork.org/Conferences/2011/Program/Audio">audio from most of the speakers</a> are now available on the LG Web Network site and many of the presentations have also been made available as well.<br />
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As always a large amount of ground was covered but for me a couple of key themes emerged.<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Crisis Response</span><br />
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This was a big one this year with talks from <a href="http://lgwebnetwork.org/Conferences/2011/Presentations/crisis-communications-inside-red-zone">Jason Dawson</a> (<a href="http://twitter.com/WebTaniwha">@WebTaniwha</a>) about the information response to the earthquakes in Christchurch and <a href="http://lgwebnetwork.org/Conferences/2011/Presentations/crisis-response-google-and-you">Anthony Baxter</a> (<a href="http://twitter.com/anthonybaxter">@AnthonyBaxter</a>) from Google's Crisis Response team. <br />
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Jason related his experiences in the aftermath of the disaster in Christchurch as the Public Information Manager. The challenges their team faced with so much damaged infrastructure, including the official Christchurch City website were enormous but the way they managed was inspiring. His talk served as a warning for us all to give more time and thought to preparing for the worst and also reminded us of the value of social media in such situations. <br />
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Anthony Baxter introduced us (or me at least) to <a href="http://www.google.org/crisisresponse/">Google's Crisis Response Project</a>, which I had no idea existed. Google swings into action in the immediate aftermath of disasters to ensure that critical information remains accessible. I hadn't thought about it but not many local governments (or, I suspect, state or federal governments for that matter) have the infrastructure to deal with the massive amount of web traffic generated as a result of these crises. Anthony showed examples from the Victorian Bushfires (locating fires on a map, etc) and the Japan Earthquake and tsunami (which roads are open and the amazing crowd sourced people finder). Understandably, the first thing that happens when everyone goes online for information is that the official sites crash under the load. He outlined how Google goes about collecting and re-publishing critical information as they have no trouble handling the server load.<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Openness and Accessibility</span><br />
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Anthony Baxter ended his presentation with a plea to us to make our data available in open formats with re-use licenses, ie. Open Data. They can strip data from PDFs if necessary but from the sound of it, if he has to do that for your data in a crisis situation, Anthony will be ready to track you down and kill you! However, if we work on making our data open, accessible and licensed now then reacting to a crisis becomes exponentially easier. <br />
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On a related theme, a presentation by <a href="http://lgwebnetwork.org/Conferences/2011/Presentations/pdfs-and-accessibility-can-they-really-be-made-accessible">Gian Wilde</a> (<a href="http://twitter.com/accessibilityoz">@accessibilityoz</a>) on the accessibility problems associated with PDFs provided another reason (if we needed one) to move away from closed formats toward open ones. A quick look around any local government website will illuminate our ridiculous reliance on PDFs as a way to publish information. Imagine the panic if a local government was successfully sued for a breach of discrimination legislation due to their use of PDFs!<br />
<br />
What makes it worse for me is that I believe it comes down to our own inertia and laziness - being stuck in the 'way we have always done it'. How many publications are prepared by local government with the expresses intention of creating a PDF to upload to the website? When we realised we could outsource the printing costs of our publications to our community we jumped right on board. But when will we realise that if it's not going to be printed then it doesn't need to be a publication. Create that information in a format suited to the medium in the first place - is that too much to ask?<br />
<br />
It might be timely to reaffirm the <a href="http://eaves.ca/2009/11/29/three-laws-of-open-data-international-edition/">Three Laws of Open Government Data</a>:<br />
<ul>
<li>If it can’t be spidered or indexed, it doesn’t exist</li>
<li>If it isn’t available in open and machine readable format, it can’t engage</li>
<li>If a legal framework doesn’t allow it to be repurposed, it doesn’t empower</li>
</ul>
Picking up on the last point above, <a href="http://lgwebnetwork.org/Conferences/2011/Presentations/open-access-policies-creative-commons-and-local-government">Professor Anne Fitzgerald</a> spoke about how 'open content licences - specifically, Creative Commons (CC) licences - can be used by governments as a simple and effective mechanism to support the reuse of their copyright-protected Public Sector Information'. As is often the case with conferences, this was one presentation that I didn't actually get to sit in on as it was on at the same time as another talk I wanted to hear.<br />
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Finally on the theme of openness, <a href="http://lgwebnetwork.org/Conferences/2011/Presentations/does-online-community-engagement-work">Matt Crozier</a> (<a href="http://twitter.com/MattCrozier">@MattCrozier</a>) from <a href="http://www.bangthetable.com/">Bang the Table</a> gave us the benefit of his experience with online consultation and how, if done well, it can be an effective tool for getting your local community engaged. I certainly felt the vibe in the room pick up as he spoke about how online engagement can help decision makers put the sqeaky wheel minority in perspective. With many traditional forms of consultation often responses are received only from a relatively small number of people in the community. An easy way to respond online can elicit feedback from people who may not otherwise be bothered.<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Mistakes are Inevitable</span><br />
<br />
One thing that Matt's presentation did reveal is that in any new area you learn by taking risks and trying new things. While not strictly from mistakes, it was clear that many the lessons he has learned about running an effective online engagement program came from trial and error. In the online world it's simply not practical to expect to do anything perfectly first time. The benefits of jumping in a trying new things far outweigh the risks associated with making a mistake.<br />
<br />
A couple of the other speakers indicated that they had made mistakes in the way they used the web or the things they said. Indeed it was one of the major themes of <a href="http://lgwebnetwork.org/Conferences/2011/Presentations/sutherland-shire-council-web-project">my own talk</a>. The web is not like an annual report that you prepare over weeks and get to proof read over and over and having all your tweets approved just doesn't make sense. The web is more akin to a telephone call these days that it is to a printed document. If you don't occasionally make a mistake you're probably not communicating anything of much relevance. But mistakes aren't the end of the world. If you are prepared to accept them, correct them and move on you'll be OK.<br />
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<br />
There were a bunch of speakers I haven't mentioned above that gave us all food for thought.<br />
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I personally really enjoyed <a href="http://lgwebnetwork.org/Conferences/2011/Presentations/live-support-customer-service-through-online-chat">Eric Dinkin's</a> (<a href="http://twitter.com/ask6d">@ask6d</a>) discussion of his trial of Online Chat for live customer service and <a href="http://lgwebnetwork.org/Conferences/2011/Presentations/e-newsletters-%E2%80%93-toyota-camry-communication-channels">Anita Hulme</a> championing that Toyota Camry commas channel - email newsletters. And who could forget Jason Richardson (<a href="http://twitter.com/#!/showcaseJase">@showcasejase</a>) imploring us to stand up for our health and longevity!<br />
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If I had to highlight a couple of personal take-aways from the conference they would be as follows:<br />
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Consider your backup strategy - how would you cope if you lost everything? In a situation like Christchurch, keeping your backups in a different building in the same city is not much help! This isn't just related to earthquakes though, think about widespread flogging, major bushfires, even an interruption to the electricity supply (are both buildings on the same grid?). It's very easy to lose both your primary and backup data in the same incident. Consider partnering with another city in a different part of the country to host each other's data.<br />
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Secondly, Twitter and Facebook have proved robust, redundant and effective communication channels in disaster situations. Between the physical damage and the traffic that it was experiencing in the aftermath, as people were trying to contact friends and relatives, the fixed line network was unreliable at best. The mobile network, on the other hand, was remarkably robust. The widespread adoption of Twitter and Facebook and their availability on the proliferation of smartphones meant that these channels were an effective means of communication and became pseudo official channels. The lesson to be learned here is that you don't want to leave it until there is a disaster to learn about how best to use social media. If you're not already at least experimenting with Twitter, get in and try it out. It's not that difficult and it can be life saving in a disaster.<br />
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And that brings me to the closing keynote by <a href="http://lgwebnetwork.org/Conferences/2011/Presentations/closing-keynote-tweeting-your-way-out-paranoia">Stilgherrian</a> (<a href="http://stilgherrian/">@stilgherrian</a>). His entertaining talk on the paranoia of organisations and how sticking a toe in the water with twitter can be the way out made it seem so easy and obvious as a tool that all local governments should be using. If only all our decision-makers were forced to listen to him speak we might all be in a better place!Martin Boycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05550567367127437402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6462585764943342016.post-54335161294414376172011-08-22T12:50:00.000+10:002011-08-22T13:54:24.792+10:00Local Government Web Network Conference PresentationI recently spoke at the recent <a href="http://lgwebnetwork.org/Conferences/2011">Local Government Web Network Conference</a> about Sutherland Shire Council's Web Project. The project covered everything including selecting a CMS (via tender) &amp; creating our Intranet, but focused mostly on the redevelopment of the website.<br />
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The Prezi is available online and thanks to the good people at LGWN you can also relive the full audio experience. <br />
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<a href="http://lgwebnetwork.org/sites/default/files/conf2010/audio/MartinBoyce.mp3">download mp3</a>
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<a href="http://prezi.com/8hz25tizuzzm/sutherland-shire-council-web-project-a-case-study/" title="
A case study of the SSC CMS, Intranet & Website project given at the Local Government Web Network 2011 conference
">Sutherland Shire Council Web Project: a case study</a> on <a href="http://prezi.com/">Prezi</a></div>
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If you would like any more detail about any aspect of the project, as the presentation really just skimmed the surface, then I would encourage you to contact Adele Ezzy, Manager Online and Business Development at Sutherland Shire Council (<a href="mailto:aezzy@ssc.nsw.gov.au">aezzy@ssc.nsw.gov.au</a>) or let me know and I can put you in contact.<br />
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Look...<br />
There's even a photo of me talking!<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lgwebnetwork/6067669074/" title="Martin Boyce - Sutherland Shire Council by Local Government Web Network, on Flickr"><img alt="Martin Boyce - Sutherland Shire Council" height="500" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6086/6067669074_aaa69c931b.jpg" style="background-color: #f1f1f1; border: 1px solid rgb(255, 153, 0); margin: 8px; padding: 8px;" width="375" /></a>Martin Boycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05550567367127437402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6462585764943342016.post-51721150739054203082011-08-01T11:59:00.001+10:002011-08-01T15:18:15.416+10:00Libraries = Culture, Learning, Knowledge, DelightI came across a nice post by Tom Chatfield called <a href="http://tomchatfield.net/2011/07/24/on-libraries/">On Libraries</a>. The whole thing is worth reading but what really struck me was the following quote:<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">This is not, I think, an argument about books. It’s about what a public building carefully stocked with books represents: a free encounter with culture, knowledge, learning, delight.<br />
<i><a href="http://tomchatfield.net/2011/07/24/on-libraries/">Tom Chatfield, On Libraries. 24 July 2011</a></i></span></blockquote>
I've talked about books being the library brand before, but I think this quote beautifully sums up the role of books in the future of libraries.<br />
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I love that so many libraries are trying so many different things while exploring their future but I do think we need to keep this idea in mind. When we are exploring new programs and services we need to ensure that libraries keep representing a free encounter with learning, knowledge and delight users while doing it.Martin Boycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05550567367127437402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6462585764943342016.post-47977184083182787802011-04-26T17:34:00.000+10:002011-04-26T17:34:46.321+10:00What's Wrong with your Social Media Policy?MPOW recently drafted its first social media policy. I wasn't completely happy with the outcome. It's not terrible by any stretch, and it is similar to many social media policies I've read from other organisations. Here's my thoughts on what's wrong with social media policies in organisations. (please bear in mind that these are my personal professional opinions and do not represent the views of my employer)<br />
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Many social media policies are concerned solely with placing restrictions on <b>what staff can say online, who can say it and who's responsible if someone says the wrong thing</b>, whether as representitives of the organisation or in their personal accounts on social networks. The biggest problem I have with this approach is that nowhere in the policy is there a recognition that social media is <b>social</b>. In my opinion the way the policy is written suggests a fundamental lack of understanding of social networks.<br />
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To be social a network must be a two-way conversation. What if someone went to a meeting (substitute a party or any other social situation) and began to talk without listening to anything anyone else was saying. What would be the point of going? If you are not going to listen to what others are saying then you're missing the point of social media. <br />
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Social networks are different from traditional forms of media such as print, radio and television. By there very nature these are <b>broadcast</b> media - information published centrally and then offered for consumption by the masses, hence the term <i>mass media</i>. Social networks should not be treated as an extension of the broadcast media. <br />
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The raison d'être of social media is as a place for people to come together because they share a common interest. You publish information in reports and websites. You promote things in the advertisements. To use social media effectively you make friends with the people who might find what you're talking about interesting.<br />
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Despite this, the emphasis of many social media policies lean strongly towards ensuring that nothing is said that could damage the organisation's reputation.<br />
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Now, reputation management is crucial as we move increasingly toward a reputation economy - nowhere more so than online - but I don't believe you can control the conversation that is happening online. On the contrary, you develop your reputation online by building trust amongst your connections. In social networks you build that trust, person to person, by being a good citizen. By listening before you speak. In many cases, who you are connected to, friends with or following has as much impact on your reputation as anything you might say. I really like the following illustration of the reputation cycle in social media.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silkcharm/2681008129/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Social Web - Reputation Management Cycles diagram by Laurel Papworth, on Flickr"><img alt="Social Web - Reputation Management Cycles diagram" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3054/2681008129_8f856217cd.jpg" width="475" /></a><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silkcharm/2681008129/">Social Web - Reputation Management Cycles diagram</a> by Laurel Papworth, on Flickr</span><br />
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</div>The nature of social media should be reflected in your organisation's social media policy. Rather than simply setting out the rules, a good social media policy should provide guidance to staff on best practice in social networks. It would be great to hear from anyone whose social media policy at work does address these concerns.Martin Boycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05550567367127437402noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6462585764943342016.post-69491048277859767702011-04-04T20:49:00.000+10:002011-04-04T20:49:39.784+10:00You're only as good as your worst customer experienceIt's funny how a short simple idea can be the jump off for so many ideas. I had one of these moments this morning when I read a post from Seth Godin called, <a href="http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/04/the-worst-voice-of-the-brand-is-the-brand.html">The worst voice of the brand *is* the brand</a>.<br />
<blockquote><i>We either ignore your brand or we judge it, usually with too little information. And when we judge it, we judge it based on the actions of the loudest, meanest, most selfish member of your tribe.</i></blockquote>It's so obvious, yet how many organisations... councils... libraries... give this any thought or attention?<br />
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It has been bugging me all day, how many opportunities we have to provide a bad experience to the people we serve. How many times have you formed a judgement about a company based on one or two interactions? A dispute with over a transaction; a telephone call transferred all over the place; staff who are too busy talking between themselves to notice you; even something as insignificant as staff who's use of language leaves a little to be desired.<br />
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And our websites aren't immune. You can spend all the time in the world on developing your site but if there's a key interaction or transaction that has been designed poorly you can leave your visitors with the impression the site is a waste of time. This was brought home to me when we started receiving feedback about our recently launched site. The feedback was generally positive, however, there were a few key things that didn't work as expected for our site visitors. We hadn't really tested some of the key touch points well enough. Because we understood how things worked we didn't, or couldn't, see where the experience broke down for users.<br />
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I'm not completely pessimistic though. I think that the converse is also true. Going the extra mile to make your customer experience better can have far wider positive influence than one happy customer.<br />
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Going out of your way to satisfy a customer request; taking responsibility for someone's enquiry even if it's not your area of expertise rather than just referring them on; working to make an interaction easier for the customer even if it means more work for the organisation. These are all ways that we can leave our users with a good impression. A good impression will leave them more willing to come back again. Do this enough and your organisation will build trust with our customers and that's something no marketing campaign will achieve.<br />
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How to make sure that all areas of your organisation are on the same page when it comes to this attitude? Well, that I don't know. Any thoughts...?Martin Boycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05550567367127437402noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6462585764943342016.post-54918642247970727892011-03-19T17:30:00.000+11:002011-03-19T17:30:06.544+11:00Don't Leave it to the Vendors!I couldn't agree more with a recent post by <a href="http://www.steptwo.com.au/">James Robertson at Step Two</a> when he suggests that companies <a href="http://www.steptwo.com.au/columntwo/dont-rely-on-vendors-to-meet-your-mobile-enterprise-needs/">shouldn't rely on vendors to supply mobile interfaces</a> for their products.<br />
<blockquote><i>Let’s go back in time to when the web became popular. Enterprise apps all started delivering web front ends for use by staff. What did we end up with? A separate ESS portal from the HR vendor, a web login to the ERP system, a separate interface for the online timesheet, and a standalone staff directory.</i></blockquote>This applies just as much to libraries. Now that we're in an environment where we are sourcing web products and services from multiple vendors - the ILS, online databases, electronic journals, e-book suppliers and so on - libraries are finding their web presence increasingly fractured. We're sending users all over the place.<br />
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The vendors are trying, they offer the option to customise the colours and add your logo to their web products (bless them!) but it never quite looks or works the same as your website. To my mind they are focusing on the wrong place. We need to demand they put more effort into building ways to integrate with their data, rather than try and be the complete solution. As James puts it...<br />
<blockquote><i>We should expect them to provide good integration options, including web services and tailored interfaces. We should demand that they make it easy for us to draw out the information and functionality we need to deliver the mobile solution that staff require</i>.</blockquote><div>But libraries aren't of the hook. We are complicit. We haven't put enough money or effort into recruiting or developing staff that can work with these new technologies and techniques. We invest large amounts of money in web based products but not all that much in making sure our users can take advantage of them - easy user interfaces from a single, well thought out starting point.</div><div><br />
</div><div>Go and r<a href="http://www.steptwo.com.au/columntwo/dont-rely-on-vendors-to-meet-your-mobile-enterprise-needs/">ead the whole article</a> (it's only short).</div>Martin Boycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05550567367127437402noreply@blogger.com0