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Mike Rylander | 1 Dec 2007 15:51
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Equinox Software is hiring

Apologies for cross-posting...

**** NOTICE OF IMMEDIATE OPENING ****

Equinox Software, Inc.  /  The Evergreen Experts  /  http://esilibrary.com

WHAT: Systems Developer, Library Automation Applications

WHERE: Equinox Software, Inc. located in Norcross, GA.  Atlanta area locals
preferred, but 100% teleworking is possible for the right set of candidates.

WHEN: ASAP, for 3 to 9 month contract with probable full time hire.  These
positions will be available until filled.

WHO:  Programmers with at least 3 years of systems (non-web) development
experience.

Preferred skill set:
 * Strong, demonstrated experience with large RDBMS backed systems software
 * Strong, demonstrated experience with one or more of C, Perl, Python or Java
 * OfBiz or OpenTaps experience
 * Strong Postgresql experience
 * Library Acquisitions experience
 * Library Serials management experience
 * Familiar with the Evergreen ILS
 * Experience contributing to Open Source projects

Equinox is looking for self-motivated, enthusiastic software developers to join
the Equinox R&D team.
(Continue reading)

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Anders Ericson | 2 Dec 2007 11:34
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Google Books and Amazon - influence on book sales?

Both Google Books and Amazon have since 2004 offered "Search Inside"
digitized books. Has anybody seen statistics or qualified guessings on
the alleged positive influence on book sales? (Apart from their own
statements)

Anders Ericson
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Jonathan Gorman | 2 Dec 2007 17:51
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Re: Google Books and Amazon - influence on book sales?


I think this would be a subtle and tricky thing to really measure.

There's the most immediate and practical benefit which would be making a person comfortable enough with
their purchase to actually buy an item.  I suspect this does happen, but there's some other advantages to consider.

The first is just the fact it's there.  Sometimes it can be worth having features that are rarely used just for
the fact it helps build a conception of Amazon and Google as knowing the most about an item.  Think of the
technique of having comfy furniture in a store.  People aren't likely to use it frequently or consciously
choose a store because of it. However, after visiting a store with such furniture they might have a better
sense of comfort or security.

Another advantage is that some of the information could be use internally as well.  The text stats of Amazon
is a good example here.  I imagine part of the recommendation algorithm could incorporate reading levels
at some point.  (If it doesn't already).  If there's a statistically significant trend in books purchased
and reading levels, you could not recommend any books too far above or below it.  Or, if you keep track of a
person's reviews and all items over a certain reading level are negative, that can be feed into an
algorithm of areas to avoid.  Since you have the information already, why not make it available for those
who are willing to dig through a couple of screnens for it.

I would also wager some of the parts of inside the book are actually test grounds for future work by Amazon and
their developers.  They're picturing an age of increased access to digital versions of things that they
want to be the best at crunching and extracting what's needed to sell to people.  And it's something to keep
their various employees interested.

The biggest advantage is of course it is a way to attempt to get over one of the biggest hurdles of the
Internet.  There's no way to physically examine the item, so the more information given the better it can
reassure people that they're making the right choice and cut down on returns and complaints.  Customers
are reassured, staff time is cut, and savings can be passed on to the customer.
(Continue reading)

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Steve Toub | 2 Dec 2007 23:26
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Re: Google Books and Amazon - influence on book sales?

This Reuters article from October 2006 covers this issue.

Jeffrey Goldfarb, Reuters "Book Sales Get a Lift from Google Scan Plan". 
eWEEK. October 2006. FindArticles.com. 02 Dec. 2007. 
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_zdewk/is_200610/ai_n19413112

Mostly guessings but it does mention that Amazon's program has increased 
Penguin's sales by 7 percent the US.

	--SET

Anders Ericson wrote:
> Both Google Books and Amazon have since 2004 offered "Search Inside"
> digitized books. Has anybody seen statistics or qualified guessings on
> the alleged positive influence on book sales? (Apart from their own
> statements)
> 
> 
> Anders Ericson
> _______________________________________________
> Web4lib mailing list
> Web4lib@...
> http://lists.webjunction.org/web4lib/
>
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libconsult | 3 Dec 2007 17:27
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Top PL Websites? (cross-posted)

 (Please excuse cross-postings)
In a recent  posting, a library was advertising for someone to develop a "dynamic, accessible, highly
functional, and aesthetically
pleasing ..... patron interface,"  
website. I have been searching for Public Library websites that could fall under these criteria; 
does anyone know of a listing (website or article) of Public Libraries that  are the "Top 10, 50, 100", if not
by these criteria, others...?

If not, please send along any public library website that you consider is the "Best of the Best" and why.
Any information as to how they were designed would be helpful, i.e.

In-house designer;

Library committee;

Friends of the Library;

Website designer company;

~Marie Monteagudo
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Eric Hellman | 3 Dec 2007 18:46

ISBN linking to Wikipedia

A bit more than a year ago, Lars Aronsson suggested to the Web4Lib  
list that it would be really nifty to have a "reverse lookup" facility  
to enable links to Wikipedia based on ISBNs cited in Wikipedia  
articles. Many of us thought this suggestion was really exciting- Tim  
Spalding did some nice things with it, for example- but I think the  
idea of ISBN-Wikipedia lookup is just the nub of an idea that will  
dramatically change the way we organize, navigate and think about our  
libraries.

Last week, we quietly announced the addition of a Wikipedia article  
lookup facility to OCLC's Worldcat xISBN service. The xISBN service  
groups ISBNs into works based on the entire Worldcat data set. This  
means that the service will connect Wikipedia citations to any of the  
ISBNs associated with the cited work. xISBN is an xml-based "grid  
service" designed to help libraries plug into the data without  
worrying too much about the wiring.

For more information on using the Worldcat xISBN service to get  
Wikipedia articles, see http://xisbn.worldcat.org/xisbnadmin/doc/api.htm
Here's an example of how to access the service:
http://xisbn.worldcat.org/webservices/xid/isbn/9789574760442?method=getEditions&format=xml&library=wikipedia&fl=*

During the implementation, Xiaoming Liu, the developer who is  
continuing to enhance the xISBN service, suggested that instead of  
working on a Wikipedia-specific service, we should generalize the  
functionality to encompass any sort of identifier-based collection. So  
that's what we did. We're offering wikipedia as our first production  
"library". To demonstrate how this functionality might be useful,  
we've also created "libraries" out of two of the most popular book- 
sharing websites.
(Continue reading)

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Santucci, Lisa E. Ms. | 3 Dec 2007 21:01

Position announcement: Miami University Libraries

Miami University Libraries is looking for an Information Services Librarian/User Experience Librarian.
Full job description is available at http://www.lib.muohio.edu/employment/user-exp.pdf .

Lisa E. Santucci
Head, Center for Information Management
Miami University
Oxford, OH 45056
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Gerry Mckiernan | 3 Dec 2007 21:26
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LibGuides Library: A New Facebook Application

***APOLOGY FOR RECEIPT OF DUPLICATE POSITIONS

Friends/

New Facebook Pages Application - LibGuides Library As many are aware, Facebook recently announced
Facebook Pages
that allows libraries and other organizations to create a corporate Facebook profile

[ http://www.facebook.com/business/?pages ]

Springshare [ http://www.springshare.com/], the makers of LibGuides
[http://www.springshare.com/libguides/index.html], recently announced the development of a new
Facebook App for Facebook Pages called LibGuides Library.

Once added to a library's Facebook Page, the LibGuides Library App provides a link to the library's
LibGuides system and also invites users to Add The App to their individual profiles. As an added bonus,
visitors to a library's FB Page are able to search the local library OPAC.

[ http://support.springshare.com/?p=41]

For A Screenshot and a Link to the LibGuides Library App Visit

[ http://onlinesocialnetworks.blogspot.com/2007/12/libguides-library-new-facebook.html ]

Happy Monday!

/Gerry

Gerry McKiernan
Associate Professor
(Continue reading)

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Dan Lester | 3 Dec 2007 21:50

Re[2]: Network certifications

Hello David,

Thursday, November 29, 2007, 12:45:49 PM, you wrote:

> Certifications generally indicate that an employee can read a book and
> take a test. Some certifications are harder than others to obtain. 

No argument with that comment.  However, to me the most important
thing is to know, or decide what KIND of networks he is going to work
on.  Windows?  Novell?  Internet beyond the internal network?
Something else?  MCSE?  CNA?  CCNA?  (and on and on)

And, despite the comment that the certs don't necessarily prove real
world skills, they're still often the union card, just like the MLS or
PhD in other worlds, which also don't prove that one can function as a
librarian or teach a college class.

--

-- 
Best regards,
 Dan                            mailto:dan@...
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Cloutman, David | 3 Dec 2007 22:11
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RE: Re[2]: Network certifications


-----Original Message-----
From: Dan Lester [mailto:dan@...] 
Sent: Monday, December 03, 2007 12:51 PM
To: Cloutman, David
Cc: web4lib@...
Subject: Re[2]: [Web4lib] Network certifications

> Hello David,

> Thursday, November 29, 2007, 12:45:49 PM, you wrote:

>> Certifications generally indicate that an employee can read a book
and
>> take a test. Some certifications are harder than others to obtain. 

> No argument with that comment.  However, to me the most important
> thing is to know, or decide what KIND of networks he is going to work
> on.  Windows?  Novell?  Internet beyond the internal network?
> Something else?  MCSE?  CNA?  CCNA?  (and on and on)

With regards to that, I would say it's a balance between what interests
him, the needs organizations he is looking to work for, and the
marketability of the software in question. That's something that an
individual needs to figure out themselves before investing the time in a
certification.

> And, despite the comment that the certs don't necessarily prove real
> world skills, they're still often the union card, just like the MLS or
> PhD in other worlds, which also don't prove that one can function as a
(Continue reading)

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Gmane