A post on the LITA Blog noting open registration for their Forum on September 29–October 2 reminded me that I haven’t posted that I’ll be attending this event for the first time. W00t!

The main reason I am going this time is because I’ll be co-presenting a session about databases and RSS with John Law from ProQuest. Back in September, I posted about going to the Illinois Library Association conference and giving every database and ILS vendor a handout about RSS. The only two companies to follow up with me after the conference were Innovative and ProQuest. John and Kent Kanipe called me and we talked at length about what they could do with RSS, and they “got it” right away. They’ve been working on it ever since, and you can see the first baby step at http://www.il.proquest.com/proquest/rss/.

The examples are great for illustrating how libraries can make use of such feeds. The only feeds they have running right now are on the Curriculum Match Factor page. It’s a static page of some pre-built, keyword feeds designed for a specific curriculum (in this case, a business one). It’s mostly a proof-of-concept, but again, I think it helps illustrate how this type of service will benefit any type of library.

The good news, and the reason I’m co-presenting with John at the LITA Forum, is that they are working on dynamic keyword feeds, as well. While they probably won’t be ready before the Forum, they’re scheduled for Q4, so I’m pretty excited. This is exactly the kind of thing I want from our vendors, so loud applause for ProQuest!

This is so awesome that it deserves its own post! Eli Neiburger from the Ann Arbor District Library caught last night's post about their site and has this to add:

"A few things I wouldn't want you to miss... our materials blogs at http://aadl.org/catalog/blogs, the new home of the axis blog at http://axis.aadl.org/, and the fact that we offer RSS of checkouts and holds, which local blogger (and member of our tech advisory board) Ed Vielmetti has already used to add a live 'my requests' sidebar to his blog at http://vielmetti.typepad.com/.

The new site is powered by the amazing, vibrant, open-source CMS drupal http://drupal.org/, and we made a custom drupal module that accesses our new III catalog based on drupal authentication, so all our users, in the process of signing up for their new catalog access, got themselves the ability to comment on threads and log in with a username and password. =)

We just launched last Wednesday, so the content cycle is still getting warmed up, but the goal is to have posts from staff members from every department, (not just the 'public service' ones), and to eventually hand-pick frequent commenters to promote to contributors as well. We passed 5000 registered users last night."

Wow, double wow, and triple wow! I also had briefly caught a glimpse of a wiki thing going on, but hadn't had time to investigate it.

You can bet I'll be showing this to Dean and the SWAN folks, along with begging Eli for the scripts that are generating the RSS feeds, as well as the custom Drupal module! The bolded text above is for my emphasis, because I'm going to propose that we offer Drupal hosting for our member libraries (we already host Movable Type blogs for free for any MLS member library) so that SWAN libraries could duplicate this!

And make sure you visit Ed Vielmetti's blog to see the display of the RSS feed of his queue on the right-hand side of this blog. At first it's a tad difficult to spot, but it's under "del.icio.us links" and it shows all of the titles, plus what number he is in the queue (or if it's awaiting pickup), the pickup location, and the date the hold will be canceled. Earlier this year, I wrote that patrons would indeed add this kind of display to their sites if we just let them, so there's your proof. I'm off to get screenshots of this for my presentations, too!

I also want to point you to the trackbacks at the bottom of last night's post, because so far others are agreeing with the adjective "perfect" as a description of AADL's site. I especially like how Richard Wallis from Talis' Panlibus blog worded his praise.

"The cross between a traditional library web site, a library blog, and the catalogue interface, produces a whole experience which is definitely greater than the sum of its parts. It's clean simple visual style, coupled with the natural [personal] style of content which naturally emanates from blogging to their customers (as against broadcasting at them), delivers an interface which I think that the citizens of Ann Arbor, Michigan should be delighted to be part of. Using the blog commenting facilities, which their customers certainly are, gives the impression that the library is not only providing a service to, but is also part of the, community.

Just scanning the site gives you the feeling that there are humans behind it."

An ILS vendor other than AADL's praising their web site for its authenticity and functionality? Yeah, blogging totally rocks!