New Web-based Wi-Fi Discussion Forum

"In conjunction with the launch of my book on wireless networking... my co-author and I have launched a discussion forum for Wi-Fi issues, as well as issues from the book. I've been longing to set up a simple threaded forum for quite a while, and finally found the right package and approach. Join us!" [80211b News]

There is a forum here devoted to Wi-Fi and Academia and even though it doesn't focus on just libraries, this could be another good resource (in addition to The Wireless Librarian, of course).

The Librarylookup Bookmarklet continues to take on a life of its own. Jon expanded the number of included Voyager libraries, Michael Pate whipped one up for some Polaris libraries (not new, but I'm not sure I've highlighted it before), Howard Hansen tweaked the regexp to work with Powells.com, and Jonnosan made it work with O'Reilly's Safari service. BUT....

Art Rhyno is thinking up even more fun, based on discussions at October's Access conference.

"So what's the deal here? Well, the only change to Jon's approach is that I am tinkering with a mechanism to indicate a book's status without leaving the web page. So for the ISBNs below, if you select the link for either the IE version or Mozilla version of the bookmarklet, you should get an icon background put behind the ISBN. By default, it's green if the item is in the library, and red if it's not.

ISBN: 0385259956
ISBN: 0686223780
ISBN: 0771055676

...Extend this to circulation status and multiple libraries, and things start getting really interesting. Maybe the image could say 'available at Windsor Public' or 'due at Leddy Library on Jan 2.' and so on. The servlet uses HTTPClient to pull together web pages, and it is what the bookmarklet calls to draw the image. It could pull out almost anything that is in the web page, for example, authentication at Windsor Public Library is done using this method, and the servlet could probably get the user to any web display of an item, even if the library system itself requires a series of links and forms to be navigated before yielding up this information. It could also try to use a ISBN registry to pull together things like numbers for the paperback and hardcover editions of titles before moving on to the library.

This is all  'proof of concept', the servlet needs some of the session tracking tools built for the co-browser added in. Right now, clicking on the image takes you to the web display for the last ISBN, even if you have dozens of ISBNs on the page. One way to get around this is to use a session identifier and pass the mouse or page position co-ordinates to the servlet when selecting a link and it could resolve which one you wanted. More importantly, maybe you want to check dozens of web sites and have a summary at the end. Drifting Layers might be one way to keep a toolbar available with a status toggle and summary buttons.

Anyway, just some more possibilities, maybe even fodder for Access 2003 in Vancouver."

Fodder, indeed! I hereby nominate this project for the Access 2003 Hackfest! I don't know anything about DHTML, but I'll have to see if I can hack this for SWAN. Art also thinks this may be a way to bring in Sirsi libraries, so it would be interesting to pursue that angle, something Art says he will do when time permits (hopefully in January).

My next question remains, can we then pull bookmarklets together in a Google-like, searchable toolbar for each library to offer to its patrons?

Way to go, Art!

Lori Bell, now at the Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center, is moving ahead with an Audible purchase for visually impaired readers in central Illinois.

"The new service is being launched in mid-January 2003 as a memorial to Eileen Sheppard Meyer, former director of the Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center. Using funds donated in honor of Eileen Sheppard Meyer, the Center will be among the first talking book centers in the country to offer digital audiobooks to its readers through the Audible.com program, a private company and the Internet’s leading provider of digital, downloadable audiobooks....

The pilot project will offer current popular titles in copyright secure audio formats in CD audio quality from Audible.com on a portable digital audio player, the Audible.com Otis. The Otis digital audio players available for loan from the Talking Book Center will each hold 2-3 audiobooks which will be mailed to interested, eligible readers. Currently, the Talking Book Center offers thousands of titles to readers on audiotape and free playback equipment to approximately 5000 readers in central Illinois. This service will begin to introduce readers to audiobooks in digital format, which is the eventual goal of the talking book program at the national level."

This is great news, and I hope other TBCs and service providers for the visually impaired follow suit. Congratulations, Lori!