(with apologies for cross-posting, especially if you have already received
the news!)
It is my pleasure to announce that Issue 16 of the Code4Lib Journal has
been published.
Please go to http://journal.code4lib.org/issues/issue16 for these excellent
articles:
Editorial Introduction <http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/6616>
Carol Bean
The winter months bring us festivities like Mardi Gras. Here at the
Code4Lib Journal, we present you with a veritable feast to indulge in as
our mid-winter festival offering. Consume slowly, to fully appreciate the
myriad flavors and enjoy the richness of the fare.
Creating a Seamless Cross-Platform Online Experience for Mobile
Users<http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/6223>
Katherine Lynch
In creating a mobile-optimized website for Drexel University Libraries, we
have strived to preserve the seamless transition between platforms that our
desktop users experience. We employ separate technology and coding
solutions to make Drupal, WordPress, and HTML sections mobile optimized,
while continuously improving the mobile user experience in terms of design,
usability, and site performance. This paper details how, through extensive
research, design, and development, we found the best solution for creating
a steady mobile experience for our users.
HTML5 Microdata and Schema.org <http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/6400>
Jason Ronallo
On June 2, 2011,
Bing<http://www.bing.com/community/site_blogs/b/search/archive/2011/06/02/bing-google-and-yahoo-unite-to-build-the-web-of-objects.aspx>
, Google<http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/introducing-schemaorg-search-engines.html>,
and Yahoo!<http://developer.yahoo.com/blogs/ydn/posts/2011/06/introducing-schema-org-a-collaboration-on-structured-data/>
announced
the joint effort Schema.org <http://schema.org/>. When the big search
engines talk, Web site authors listen. This article is an introduction to
Microdata and Schema.org. The first section describes what HTML5, Microdata
and Schema.org are, and the problems they have been designed to solve. With
this foundation in place section 2 provides a practical tutorial of how to
use Microdata and Schema.org using a real life example from the cultural
heritage sector. Along the way some tools for implementers will also be
introduced. Issues with applying these technologies to cultural heritage
materials will crop up along with opportunities to improve the situation.
Using VuFind, XAMPP, and Flash Drives to Build an Offline Library Catalog
for Use in a Liberal Arts in Prison
Program<http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/6225>
Julia Bauder
When Grinnell College expanded its Liberal Arts in Prison Program to
include the First Year of College Program in the Newton Correctional
Facility, the Grinnell College Libraries needed to find a way to support
the research needs of inmates who had no access to the Internet. The
library used VuFind running on XAMPP installed on flash drives to provide
access to the Libraries’ catalog. Once the student identified a book, it
would be delivered from the Libraries to students on request. This article
describes the process of getting VuFind operating in an environment with no
Internet access and limited control of the computing environment.
Improving the presentation of library data using FRBR and Linked
data<http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/6424>
Anne-Lena Westrum, Asgeir Rekkavik, Kim Tallerås
When a library end-user searches the online catalogue for works by a
particular author, he will typically get a long list that contains
different translations and editions of all the books by that author, sorted
by title or date of issue. As an attempt to make some order in this chaos,
the Pode project has applied a method of automated FRBRizing based on the
information contained in MARC records. The project has also experimented
with RDF representation to demonstrate how an author’s complete production
can be presented as a short and lucid list of unique works, which can
easily be browsed by their different expressions and manifestations.
Furthermore, by linking instances in the dataset to matching or
corresponding instances in external sets, the presentation has been
enriched with additional information about authors and works.
Presenting results as dynamically generated co-authorship subgraphs in
semantic digital library collections<http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/6381>
James Powell, Tamara M. McMahon, Ketan Mane, Laniece Miller, Linn Collins
Semantic web representations of data are by definition graphs, and these
graphs can be explored using concepts from graph theory. This paper
demonstrates how semantically mapped bibliographic metadata, combined with
a lightweight software architecture and Web-based graph visualization
tools, can be used to generate dynamic authorship graphs in response to
typical user queries, as an alternative to more common text-based results
presentations. It also shows how centrality measures and path analysis
techniques from social network analysis can be used to enhance the
visualization of query results. The resulting graphs require modestly more
cognitive engagement from the user but offer insights not available from
text.
On Dentographs, A New Method of Visualizing Library
Collections<http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/6300>
William Denton
A dentograph is a visualization of a library’s collection built on the idea
that a classification scheme is a mathematical function mapping one set of
things (books or the universe of knowledge) onto another (a set of numbers
and letters). Dentographs can visualize aspects of just one collection or
can be used to compare two or more collections. This article describes how
to build them, with examples and code using Ruby and R, and discusses some
problems and future directions.
Using XSLT’s SQL Extension with Encyclopedia
Virginia<http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/6486>
Matthew Gibson
This paper explores how to integrate data across a hybrid relational
database and XML-based management system. It examines specifically how
XSLT’s SQL extension can be used to communicate information between SQL
tables and TEI-conformant XML documents to make data-centric content more
manageable and flexible and thereby leverage the strengths of both systems.
In what follows, one will learn about some of the methods, benefits, and
shortcomings of XSLT’s SQL extension in the context of Encyclopedia
Virginia, an open access publication of the Virginia Foundation for the
Humanities that utilizes a suite of digital humanities and digital library
XML vocabularies such as TEI and METS.
Ref2RIS: Importing Word-Processed Bibliographies into Bibliographic
Management Software <http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/6286>
Deborah Fitchett
Many who would benefit the most from timesaving bibliographic managers
hesitate to adopt the technology due to the difficulties in importing
legacy bibliographies developed over years. Existing shortcuts rely on
manual reformatting or on re-searching online databases for the records –
often almost as laborious as retyping the references. Ref2RIS was developed
to automate the task of converting a bibliography in specific citation
styles from common word processing document formats into the widely used
RIS format. It uses the Unix stream editor sed and the conversion options
of Apple’s textutil. It can be invoked as a series of simple shell commands
on any Linux terminal, or more simply as a drag-and-drop Applescript
application on MacOS 10.4 or higher.
Purposeful Development: Being Ready When Your Project Moves From ‘Hobby’ to
Mission Critical <http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/6393>
Terry Reese
Throughout the library community examples can be found of development
projects evolving into mission critical components within an organization’s
workflow. How these projects make that move is unique and varied, but
little discussion has been had about how these projects impact their
developers and the project community. What responsibilities does a
developer have to ensure the long-term viability of their project? Does
simply freeing the code meet those long-term responsibilities, or is there
an implied commitment to provide long-term “care and feeding” to project
communities built up over time? Code4Lib represents a group of developers
consistently looking to build the next big thing, I’d like to step back and
look at some of my own experiences related to the long-term impacts that
come with developing successful projects and communities, and try to
provide library developers food for thought as they consider their own
ongoing responsibilities to their projects and user communities.
--
Carol Bean
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