Hackfest 2007 Results

I posted a little while back about Hackfest, a one-day event during the Access Conference where people get together and brainstorm solutions to some of the tech-oriented problems facing libraries. 2007’s results were not easy to find, but I found its hiding spot, thanks to the K-State Libraries blog. Out of the 24 listed items, 8 were chosen for the event. A couple worth checking out:

Fantastic Folksonomy Validator:
(slide #2 text)-

Scenario: Users tag their documents with uncontrolled vocabulary terms: e.g. bunnies, sugar beets, combine harvester. These terms are compared manually to existing thesauri, and if necessary corrected. The result is a hybrid: not a folksonomy, but not a rigidly controlled vocabulary.

Problem: All of the manual checking that is required! Right now, the user goes to several web sites, searches for a term, views the results, pulls them all together, and decides what to do with the submitted term given how it is (or isn’t) handled in the authoritative thesauri.

Object: Make machines do the manual work!

Specification for user-contributed enhancements:
(Slide #1 text)

Develop a specification for user-contributed enhancements to digital collections, entries in a library catalogue, entries in a bibliography management system, or any other type of objects that users comment on in libraries. ‘User-contributed enhancements’ include comments, tags, ratings, etc. The goal of this specification is to define ways of describing user-contributed enhancements so they can be migrated to new host systems, counted for statistical reporting, clustered for analysis, etc., or to guide libraries in selecting systems for implementation.

 Face the Facebook Facts:
(Slide #3 text)

• Make an application package for “non-coders” — other libraries (i.e. Ryerson) have documented their Facebook app process, but we wanted to build on that, making something as close to “ready-to-run” as possible
• Make a “pull” NOT “push” application — don’t try to push a library app out over a Facebook network
• Keep users in Facebook environment for as long as possible (i.e. viewing catalogue results in Facebook “wrapper”)

Sedona Public Library and “Playaway” Audiobooks

Coincidentally related to the previous SLISIT post…

This story profiles a library that’s started a program with Playaway audiobooks: portable matchbox-sized audio players that come preloaded with a single book.

If you’d like to know more about the Playaway audiobook format, The Gadgeteer did a review about a year ago.

I can’t help but wonder how many of these things will end up accidentally being lost between seat cushions, sent through the washer or, well, flushed away.

Blind Turning the Page on Audiobook Format

This news story discusses technology and literacy issues for the visually impaired.

The Library of Congress is helping to develop a new eBook/iPod-style audio reader, which will replace the aging cassette-based audiobook format.

The article raises an interesting point about another venerable technology: Braille. The increasing popularity of audiobooks is diminishing Braille’s caché, and a visually impaired person who can’t read Braille is actually illiterate.

And the next SLISIT post is related to this one…