Tools: iBookshelf &Alexandria: ILS

iBookshelf is an application for cataloging your book collection and designing bookshelves based for it. Written in C#/Mono using the Gtk# graphical toolkit. This project is specifically an experiment in computer aided design

Features

• ISBN entry using CueCat, standard barcode scanner, or manual entry.
• Automatic data fetch using Amazon web services
• Manual book entry for non-catalogued books
• Bookshelf design based on most efficient book order

Alexandria:




Download: here

Features

Alexandria:

Alexandria is a GNOME application to help you manage your book collection.

• retrieves and displays book information (sometimes with cover pictures) from several online libraries, such as Amazon, Proxis, Barnes and Noble, the Spanish Ministry of Culture, Amadeus Buch, Internet Bookshop Italia, the US Library of Congress and the British Library ;
• allows books to be added and updated by hand ;
• enables searches either by EAN/ISBN/UPC, title, authors or keyword ;
• supports the Z39.50 standard and allow you to manage your own sources ;
• saves data using the YAML format ;
• can import and export data into ONIX, Tellico and EAN/ISBN/UPC-list formats ;
• generates from your libraries XHTML web pages themable with CSS ;
• allows marking your books as loaned, each with the loan-date and the name of the person who has borrowed them ;
• features a HIG-compliant user interface ;
• shows books in different views (standard list or icons list), that can be filtered and/or sorted;
• handles book rating and notes ;
• supports CueCat (C) barcode readers ;
• includes translations for several languages ;
• is documented in a complete manual (at the moment in English only).

Toll:Libstat: Web-based System for Tracking your Library Reference Queries

Libstats is a simple, web-based system for tracking library statistics and questions your librarians have answered. For recording simple question counts, Libstats is as fast as making hash marks on paper. The knowledge base for your Reference section. Reports generation in different parameters

You can track from multiple locations or branches.

Developed in the University of Wisconsin's library system

Libstats is open-source software: it's free for anyone to download and use. In fact, if Libstats doesn't fit your needs, you're free to modify it and make it exactly what you need.

System Requirements

Server:

• A web server. I recommend Apache.
• PHP. Versions 4.3+ and 5.0.2+ are recommended.
• MySQL 4.0 or greater.

Client:

• Any reasonably modern web browser.

Charles Darwin's works now available online

The project run by Cambridge University has digitised some 50,000 pages of text and 40,000 images of original publications - all of it searchable.

Other texts appearing online for the first time include the first editions of the Journal Of Researches (1839), The Descent Of Man (1871), The Zoology Of The Voyage Of HMS Beagle (1838-43) and the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th editions of the Origin Of Species, the pivotal tome that elucidated his thoughts on evolution. There is no charge to use the website

Wedgets: personalized information homepages

With widgets, users are able to customize a page to be able to get their sites and services in personalized homepages.Similar to feeds and syndication, widgets can save a user time by making everything they care about on the web easily accessible in one place.Opera web browser offers desktop widgets. Google Gadgets.Microsoft also offers Gadgets for Windows Live. IAmAlpha.com is an AOL widget initative for AIM Pages which launched with a makeover in May 2006, Widgetbox

"The idea really rings clear on a personalized homepage which allow users to aggregate and create their own configuration of widgets. In a recent TechCrunch article Mike Arrington explained the value in a widget-driven personal homepage, Netvibes, as it positions all your favorites in front of you in at one time in saying:

“Like Google search, the best thing about Netvibes is that it has no problem with me quickly leaving the site to take care of other business. And that’s why it’s earned my loyalty as a user.”

"librfid" : Free Software RFID library

librfid is a Free Software RFID library. It implements the PCD (reader) side protocol stack of ISO 14443 A, ISO 14443 B, ISO 15693, Mifare Ultralight and Mifare Classic. Support for iCODE and other 13.56MHz based transponders is planned.

librfid currently supports the following readers:

• The Omnikey CardMan 5121 RFID
• The OpenPCD reader (recommended

Presentation:

RFID - overview of protocols, librfid implementation and passive sniffing

The number of deployments of RFID based solutions is growing every day. Still, detailed low-level knowledge of the involved protocols is rare, even within the hacker community.

The first part of this presentation describes the two commonly-deployed ISO standards 14443 and 15693 - from physical layer up to session layer. It will then continue to look at the typical architecture of RFID readers.

The second part will cover "librfid", the GPL licensed Free Software implemetation of an ISO 14443 and 15693 host-side stack.

The third part will look at our current progress in developing hardware and software defined radio (SDR) based passive sniffing of the RFID radio interface. After all, who wouldn't want to have "tcpdump" like functionality for RFID?

• Authors:

Harald Welte Milosch Meriac

ISO14443, ISO15693, their GPL librfid implementation and passive sniffing hardware

The presentation will cover an introduction into the two popular RFID Standards, ISO14443 and ISO15693, as well as the author's Free Software implementation "librfid"

Attachments

• Slides: RFID - overview of protocols, librfid implementation and passive sniffing (TPP) (binary data - 10.0 KB)
• Slides: RFID - overview of protocols, librfid implementation and passive sniffing (PDF) (PDF file - 2.0 MB)
• Video of the event (Bittorrent - 30.0 KB)

Links

• http://rfiddump.org/
• http://svnweb.gnumonks.org/trunk/librfid
• http://svnweb.gnumonks.org/trunk/libmrtd

Libraries with RSS -Enabled catalog -New Wiki Created

The Shifted Librarian has created a wiki page for adding examples of Library Catalogs that generate RSS feeds. a new section on the LibSuccess wiki for examples of library catalogs that offer live RSS feeds.

MyCoRe Release 1.3.0

MyCoRe Release 1.3.0 - 2006-10-17
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=92005&package_id=97198

MyCoRe is an open source project which provides a system for digital libraries and content repositories (>> CoRe). Different universities participate as part of a cooperation in the MyCoRe project. MyCoRe aims to develop a software core ("core") that can be extended and adapted to different environments ("My" for the local adaptation). MyCoRe will establish Implementations for all key functions of digital libraries so that simple applications can be realized by configuration instead of programming. For more complicated applications on different levels the system will provide interfaces for particular modules or for links to special database-backends.

The system is based on Java-classlibraries, XML-technics and different database-backends - commercial solutions as IBM Content Manager and IBM DB2 as well as open source solutions as MySQL and XMLB-databases. This variety allows Implementations not only for reduced archive-functions on the basis of purely open source solutions but also for advanced solutions on the basis of the IBM Content Manager.

Home page:http://www.mycore.de/content/below/index.xml

Download:http://www.mycore.de/content/main/download.xml

Koha-2.2.6 Released

Koha is the first Open-Source Integrated Library System.

Koha is a full-featured open-source ILS. Developed initially in New Zealand by Katipo Communications Ltd and first deployed in January of 2000 for Horowhenua Library Trust, it is currently maintained by a team of software providers and library technology staff from around the globe.

Koha 2.2.6 has been released & is available at :
http://download.savannah.nongnu.org/releases/koha/koha-2.2.6.tar.gz



Changes:
Many bugs in Acquisitions have been fixed, and online help has been added. Serial items can now be created on the fly. There is a new option to include book covers, description, and reviews for items from Amazon.com.

BUGFIXES

=== ACQUISITION ===
* Acquisition has been deeply investigated & tested. should work
fine. (there was complex problems depending on prices rebates, VAT
charging,...)

=== CATALOGUE ===
* Major bugfixes in encoding handling for MARC21 : there was bugs
using the MARC21 indicators for character encoding. They should have been
fixed for now, and koha 2.2.6 handles MARC21 with unicode correctly.

=== CATALOGUING ===
* result page display was incorrect when searching a biblio before
adding a new one.
* no more saving of an empty field in the DB
* Fix for splitting up fixed fields containing | in them causing
* An item that is on loan can't be deleted anymore.

=== CIRCULATION ===
* minor bugfix : Adding 0 before days and months in order to make
date comparison work.

=== MEMBERS ===
* fixed a but to be able to modify an Institution.

=== PARAMETERS ===
* adding page facility in book funds.

Homepage:
http://www.koha.org/
Tar/GZ:
http://download.savannah.nongnu.org/releases/koha/
Changelog:
http://www.koha.org/about-koha/news/nr1161090735.html
CVS tree (cvsweb):
http://cvs.savannah.nongnu.org/viewcvs/?root=koha
Bug tracker:
http://bugs.koha.org
Mailing list archive:
http://lists.katipo.co.nz/public/koha/
Demo site:
http://koha.org/showcase/

dbwiz -Federated Search Tool

dbWiz is an exciting federated search tool.dbWiz gives users of library resources a quick and effective means of choosing the right research resource.dbWiz gives librarians the ability to create a customized search profile,any number of databases can then be searched at a single point of access.

dbWiz is accessed via the web. The following web browsers have been tested and work with dbWiz:

• Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 (Windows), 5.0 (Mac)
• Mozilla (Mozilla Firebird 0.6.1)

The dbWiz Search Frontend is a CGI script.

• Written in Perl (5.8)
• Web server: Apache (1.3.27) running mod_perl
• Operating System: Linux 2.4 (RedHat 8)

Parallel Searching Engine

• Written in Perl
• requires the following software:
  • perl module Parallel::ForkManager
  • perl module Net::Z39.50
  • Yaz Z39.50 Toolkit (http://www.indexdata.dk/yaz)

Configuration Database

• User interface written in Perl
• Database MySQL (3.23) (http://www.mysql.com)
• requires the following software:
  • perl module DBI
  • perl MySQL DBD

Instructions on installing dbWiz from our SVN source can be found here: http://cufts2.lib.sfu.ca:8033/trac/dbwiz/wiki

Presentation :http://www.sfu.ca/~kstranac/dbwiz/dbWizPreview.htm

Book:Neal-Schuman library technology companion : a basic guide for library staff "By John J. Burke

1-55570-398-4 . 2000 . 6 x 9 . 200 pp.
View Table of Contents

A wide range of technologies are now available to libraries for both public and technical services. As these technologies proliferate and change, library staff must understand what they are and their uses. This basic primer explains each type of technology and discusses its practicalities in the library environment. Among the topics covered are: evaluation, purchase, troubleshooting, planning, equipment, systems and networks, the Internet, electronic library resources, storage, formats, adaptive and assistive technology, security, and facilities. Burke concludes with a look at the future of information technology and its impact on libraries. An extensive glossary of technology terms and concepts completes the volume. Designed for all levels of library staff, this is both a handy reference and an ideal text for technology workshops and classes.

Reviews

“A basic primer…clear and simple.” Journal of Academic Librarianship
“Excellent…I do see it on the desk of every professional, paraprofessional, and library clerk. It is a companion that will certainly find much use…should be a solid addition to the collections of all types of libraries.” Reference & User Services Quarterly
"Also recommended for the more experienced who need an easy read and a reminder of what should be considered." Business Information Alert
“An excellent textbook for technology classes in library education programs, this book would also prove useful for three different populations. Library staff with little technological experience….Administrators….Solo librarians….Overall, this book is recommended for all libraries with staff who could use some help with technology issues.” Colorado Libraries
“Managers, library technicians, and professional staff who require a quick and readable overview of technological issues will benefit from the manageable size and scope of the handbook.” ARBA
“Anyone interested in developing library technology will find this a beneficial addition to the collection. Recommended.” Library Talk and Book Report

Book: Blogging and RSS A Librarian's Guide

Blogging and RSS
A Librarian's Guide
By Michael P. Sauers

Libraries increasingly use blogs and RSS feeds to reach out to users, while librarians blog daily on a range of personal and professional topics. The way has been paved by the tech-savvy and resource-rich, but any library or librarian can successfully create and syndicate a blog today. In this readable book, author, Internet trainer, and blogger Michael P. Sauers, M.L.S., shows how blogging and RSS technology can be easily and effectively used in the context of a library community. Sauers showcases interesting and useful blogs, shares insights from librarian bloggers, and offers step-by-step instructions for creating, publishing, and syndicating a blog using free Web-based services, software, RSS feeds, and aggregators.

November 006/296 pp/softbound
ISBN 1-57387-268-7
Regular Price: $29.50

XML family of specifications