Mobile Applications

Thursday April 2nd, 2009, 2:00 - 3:00 pm, Central Time

At this webinar we'll be talking about libraries and mobile, why it's important, why OCLC decided to explore a mobile option. Cindy will touch on some other mobile efforts by other libraries, too. It seems fitting for OCLC's role to figure out a solution that benefits all libraries by putting WC.org online. Cindy will talk about how the pilot has gone, what they've learned--going mobile is ALOT more than just getting the information onto a small screen!--and where they're going next.

Information on Worldcat Mobile can be found at:
http://www.worldcat.org/mobile/default.jsp

Cindy Cunningham, Director of Partner Programs for OCLC since January 2007, works with non-library companies and entities to develop partnerships that benefit the OCLC cooperative. Before that she worked for Corbis.com, Amazon.com, and at the University of Washington Libraries, Kitsap Regional Library and at the Library of Congress. She lives in Seattle, WA.

WordPress as a CMS

Thursday March 26th, 2009, 2:00 - 3:00 pm, Central Time

Download the slides as a PDF here

Karen A. Coombs serves as the Head of Web Services at the University of Houston Libraries. Her duties include development and maintenance of the libraries’ web site and virtual presence for 35,000 plus students, faculty and staff. She has presented at many national conferences including ALA Annual, LITA Forum, and Internet Librarian; she has written articles for Computers in Libraries, Library Journal, Library Hi Tech, and Journal of Academic Librarianship. With Jason Griffey , she is the co-author of the book Library Blogging. She is past-chair of the LITA Special Interest Group for Blogs, Wikis and interactive media, a member of the LITA Top Technology Trends panel, and the author of the Library Web Chic weblog.

Do you have a small library or association website that needs to be managed and most of your content contributors know little or no HTML? Think a full fledged content management system like Joomla or Drupal is too much to take on? Then Wordpress as a CMS might be for you.

Wordpress is on open source blogging tool, used by libraries, associations and other organizations to run their blogs. However, it also includes functionality such as Pages, Links, and Media Management, which make it capable of supporting small to mid-sized websites. By adding plugins, Wordpress can be extended to support the content on most library websites:

• News
• Events
• Database Lists
• Book Reviews
  

Unlike many CMSs, Wordpress has a low learning curve, which enables library staff to easily contribute and maintain contente. Additionally, extending its functionality via plugins is simple. Come to this session and learn the tools, tips and tricks to creating a library website using Wordpress.

Relevant Resources:

Plugins

• Blogroll Links
• Google Maps for Wordpress
  
• Inline Feed
  
• OpenBook Book Data
  
• Widget Logic
• Event Calendar 3
• NextGen Gallery Tool
• Scriblio
  

Themes

• http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/
• http://www.templatesbrowser.com/wordpress-themes

Libraries Using Wordpress as a CMS

• Atchison Public Library
  
• California State University East Bay
  
• Dartmouth Public Libraries
  
• Millsaps College Library
  
• Park County Library
  
• Patagonia Public Library
  
• Stevens Memorial Library
  

BitNami Sandboxes with Mark Beatty

Thursday March 19th, 2009, 2:00 - 3:00 pm, Central Time

So you want to try out an open source system like Drupal or WordPress, but don't know where to start and you're worried both about your level of technical knowledge as well as what might happen to anything else running on your network and PC? BitNami Stacks to the rescue!
What is a BitNami Stack?

http://bitnami.org/

A BitNami Stack is an easy to install package of software that includes everything you need to run the primary application. BitNami Stacks are completely self-contained and they won't interfere with any other software installed on your system, so everything you're already running will continue to work normally. BitNami stacks are easy to install, multiplatform, and open source. BitNami makes installing wikis, blogs, CRM systems a simple and enjoyable process. Popular stacks include: Drupal, Joomla, MediaWiki, WordPress, Coppermine, and Moodle as well as many others.

Mark Beatty knows next to nothing about Linux or PHP or even MySQL and still managed to create useful sandboxes for WiLS to try out Drupal and WordPress. If he can do, you can bet you can too. When Mark is not pretending to know what he's doing with open source solutions he's busy training librarians on how to do new things and wrangling the virtual reference consortium, AskAway. Some how or other enough folks voted for him to be a recent President of LITA, go figure.
http://www.wils.wisc.edu/
http://askaway.pbwiki.com/

Register now for this sure to be lively and interesting session. Go to:
http://www.wils.wisc.edu/events/opsolutions_reg.html

The Social OPAC with John Blyberg

Thursday March 12th, 2009, 2:00 - 3:00 pm, Central Time

John Blyberg is the Assistant Director for Innovation and User Experience at theDarien Library in Connecticut. He was formerly the System Administrator and Lead Developer for the Ann Arbor District Library (AADL) in Michigan. John was named a Library Journal “Mover and Shaker,” took first prize in Talis’ “Mashing-up the Library” competition, and speaks nationally and internationally about libraries, user experience, innovation, and technology. He has written for Library Journal, American Libraries, and several other trade journals and has contributed chapters to several published books. He also blogs at:

http://www.blyberg.net/

SOPAC (Social Online Public Access Catalog) is a next-generation catalog system as a Drupal module that provides true integration of your library catalog system with the power of the Drupal content management system while allowing users to tag, rate, and review your holdings. User input is then incorporated into the discovery index so that SOPAC becomes a truly community-driven catalog system. Other features include:

• Faceted browsing
• Ajax-empowered interface with native jQuery support
• 100% customizable interface via the Drupal template system
• Ability to remove search limiters
• Saved searches
• Integrated renewals, holds placement, and fine payment
• Ability to customize the user experience via the administrative control panel
• Ability to create custom functionality via a Drupal sub-module

http://thesocialopac.net/

Register now for this sure to be lively and interesting session. Go to:

http://www.wils.wisc.edu/events/opsolutions_reg.html

Spring Series Kicks Off

New Spring Series, New Name
We've just about finalized the line up for upcoming Spring 2009 series of Webinars. We also have a new series name. We think it better reflects the range of topics we cover in our webinars. The new name is:
Library Open Solutions Webinars

Sign up now, mark your calendars and pick your favorite topics for this series of weekly webinars offering fun and informative stuff good for libraries. Here's the line-up that's filling out with more great speakers everyday:

3/12 SOPAC - John Blyberg
3/19 Creating Open Source Sandboxes with BitNami - Mark Beatty
3/26 Wordpress as a CMS - Karen Coombs
4/2 Mobile Applications for Libraries - Cindy Cunningham
4/9 LibraryThing for Libraries - Jenny Schmidt and Ingrid Lebolt
4/16 Library Toolbars - Jen Holman and Anne Zarinnia
all sessions are Thursdays, 2:00-3:00 p.m. Central Time

Register now for individual webinars at $25 each, or for the whole series at the bargain rate of $100 for 6, at:
http://www.wils.wisc.edu/events/opsolutions_reg.html

You can keep up on the latest series information and comments from speakers at our series blog:
http://librarywebinars.blogspot.com/

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Library Open Source Webinars Registration and Attendance Details

Each one hour Webinar will present about 45 minutes of content including live web demonstrations, leaving some time in the hour for questions and discussions. Participants use an internet enabled computer to view the content and a phone line to hear and talk. Long distance is via an 800 number. Speaker phones with mute buttons are a good thing for groups.

Register for individual webinars, $25 each, or for the whole series, at the bargain rate of $100 for 6, at:
http://www.wils.wisc.edu/events/opsolutions_reg.html
Upon registration you will receive an email with the log in information for your selected session(s), as well as log in information to access the webinar recordings. Recordings will be available for up at a year and can be registered for and viewed the same as the live sessions.

Registration fees are per site. This approach allows us to share the programming across more participants using fewer "lines". Registrants from the same library site should plan on sharing and using a single log in line saving your library money and saving WiLS resources to provide the Webinars to more libraries. Your log in allows you to share the webinar by "crowding around a PC" or projecting to a screen for a group. It also allows you to share the recording log on at your site. Again speaker phones with mute buttons are a very good thing for groups.

If you have any questions about the Webinar series don't hesitate to contact me at:
mbeatty@wils.wisc.edu, or phone 608.265.5179

New Spring Series, New Name

We've just about finalized the line up for upcoming Spring 2009 series of Webinars. You might have also noticed that we have a new series name.  We hope it better reflects the range of topics we covered in our webinars.  The new name is:

Library Open Solutions Webinars

We think we've put together quite a good series and hope you'll enjoy them too.  See the initial line up in the block on the left. The deal is the same as last fall.  To offset expenses for the webinar system we are charging $25 per registration. Single registrations can be used for a whole library, as long as you view the session together using one web connection and one phone connection.  This is in large part a way of allowing us to provide webinars to more people using less webinar resources.  If you want to project it and use a speaker phone we think that's a good idea and the shared experience with your colleagues will make the webinars even better. 

 

In addition each webinar registration gets you access to the recording of that session. Recordings are accessible at any time, for groups or individuals, and will be available for up to a year after the live presentation.  

You can register for individual webinars at $25 each or for the entire series for $100.  That's like getting 2 webinars for free.  You can also register for a recording after the live presentation or for the whole series after it starts and you will receive the codes to access the recordings.

If you have any questions about the webinar series don't hesitate to contact me at:

mbeatty@wils.wisc.edu or phone 608.265.5719

Google Apps and Sites for Education

presented by Katie Rose
The sixth, and last, in our series of Library Open Source Webinars on:
Tuesday December 16th, 2008, 2:00-3:00pm Central Time

Katie Rose will define what Google Apps and Sites are all about, specifically in the context of the selection and implementation of Google Apps for Education at the University of Notre Dame (ND). She will then present in more detail the applications and their features. Katie will also talk about how ND decided on Google Apps and the subsequent implementation process, following up with information on actual student and faculty use. Finally, she will go over the lessons learned at ND, which should assist others who are contemplating using Google Sites on their campus or in their library.

Katie Rose is Program Manager for Enterprise Initiatives and Special Projects lead for the University of Notre Dame. Her Notre Dame colleagues call her "Google Grrrl".