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I think that having each student use their own Koha instance is a great way to go. Assuming that they all have computers with reasonable specs, they can use VirtualBox (free) to import the Koha .ova file. The obvious caveat is that the teacher would presumably need to be conversant with Koha. Cary On Sat, Aug 4, 2012 at 11:35 AM, Margaret Kipp <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > I've been using Omeka for about a year now in my information > organisation and metadata classes. I have the students enter metadata > using the normal entry form, but also installed the GenericXMLImport > plugin and have them upload hand-created XML files to Omeka through > this plugin. I think it depends on what sort of XML work you want to > do in the class. > > Omeka also has plugins for OAI-PMH (harvesting and acting as a > harvestable repository). I usually have students create OAI-PMH query > URLs by hand as well as through the provided form. I have also had > them run this through Yahoo Pipes since it has a simple XML parser. > > I'm currently trying out a copy of a Koha Virtual Appliance > (http://kylehall.info/index.php/projects/koha/koha-virtual-appliance/) > to see if this will give students a chance to work with MARC records, > but I've only just started looking at this so I can't comment on its > usability for class yet. Blacklight sounds like an interesting > alternative though. > > Margaret > > -- > Margaret E.I. Kipp, PhD > Assistant Professor > Information Organization Research Group > School of Information Studies > University of Wisconsin Milwaukee > [log in to unmask] > https://pantherfile.uwm.edu/kipp/public/ > http://www4.uwm.edu/sois/research/iorg/ > > > On 4 August 2012 10:30, john passmore <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >> What about something from the archives/museums world? Something like >> CollectiveAccess or even Omeka? >> John >> >> On Fri, Aug 3, 2012 at 11:45 AM, Owen Stephens <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >> >>> On 3 Aug 2012, at 15:56, Joseph Montibello < >>> [log in to unmask]> wrote: >>> > search, you could probably do worse than to install Blacklight. It >>> > probably doesn't really meet the "simple" criteria - there's a lot more >>> to >>> > it than I could talk about. But getting it out of the box, turned on, >>> and >>> > searching against a few records is something that you and students could >>> > probably manage. I've got a year of unix/ssh/command line experience and >>> > with a bit of mucking about, googling, and asking for help I was able to >>> > get a local (non-production) instance up and running, so it's definitely >>> > easy enough. >>> >>> I'd agree - either Blacklight http://projectblacklight.org or VuFind >>> http://vufind.org are straightforward to get running. I've found >>> Blacklight setup using the Ruby Gem very easy both on Windows and OS X. >>> Since they are both powered by Solr and use SolrMARC there are a lot of >>> similarities on the indexing/searching side. However on the interface side >>> they differ in terms of setup - so it might be this that would sway you one >>> way of the other (or a preference for PHP (VuFind) or Ruby (Blacklight)). >>> >>> >>> >>> >> >>> >> Lesson: Interfaces, usability, accessibility >>> >> Exercise: Use the OPAC, populate it with some data, assess its usability >>> >>> Once you've got VuFind/Blacklight setup populating with data is a matter >>> of uploading some MARC21 records - Blacklight comes with some test records >>> bundled, I suspect VuFind does to but can't remember >>> >>> >> >>> >> Lesson: HTML/CSS >>> >> Exercise: Use CSS to skin the OPAC, customize the HTML for your "site" >>> >>> This is slightly more complex I guess - both systems can be highly >>> customised, but in either case it isn't necessarily just a matter of >>> editing CSS or HTML. Both use templating systems and both have >>> configuration files that control certain aspects of the interface (e.g. >>> what is searched, how facets display). CSS is probably more straightforward >>> - VuFind you can just drop in CSS to override the default - not sure about >>> Blacklight >>> >>> >> >>> >> Lesson: Data management, search, IR >>> >> Exercise: See if we can peak under the hood about how the OPAC's search >>> >> works >>> >> >>> >>> I think this would be the real strength of using Blacklight/VuFind - >>> Solr/Lucene is a powerful combination, and used widely outside the library >>> sector. You can also configure the indexing to a high degree - lots of >>> options, the most basic of which I explore in >>> http://www.meanboyfriend.com/overdue_ideas/2012/07/marc-and-solrmarc/ >>> >>> The thing I really like about this is students would see some of the >>> complexity of MARC as well as some of it's utility - and where it doesn't >>> work well >>> >>> >> Lesson: Interfaces to data: databases, XML, SQL >>> >> Exercise: Use the OPAC as an living example to work with those >>> interfaces >>> >>> This is less well served by Blacklight/VuFind - no database, no SQL. >>> >>> >> >>> >> This idea primarily came from trying to get some simple XML/SQL >>> >> exercises that didn't suck (the setup for these environments is almost >>> >> as involved as any exercises itself), and the fact the previous classes >>> >> really liked dissecting the nextgen catalogs we've explored from a >>> >> software selection and 2.0 integration perspective. >>> >>> Unfortunately it may be that Blacklight/VuFind don't work for your >>> scenario because they don't provide an environment for SQL. You could do >>> some XML stuff (there is configuration files, and Solr can be updated via >>> XML messages) - but I'm not clear whether this is the kind of XML work you >>> want. However, I do think they open up some other avenues that are well >>> worth exploring, and use technologies that are going to become more >>> relevant in the future. >>> >>> Another option might be BibServer, which uses elastic search rather than >>> Solr - but I've never tried installing it >>> http://bibserver.readthedocs.org/en/latest/install.html >>> -- Cary Gordon The Cherry Hill Company http://chillco.com