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Interesting. Thanks for doing that. I'm going to check later to see if they reply to your latest tweet. I posted a comment to them on Indiegogo two days ago (below). No response yet. Their comments are set to private it seems, so they haven't posted it - probably won't. Maybe I overdid it ... Their actual organization site (http://www.caravanstudios.org/#!range/c1ht6) does say it's for "public" libraries but I don't know if it always had made that distinction. <<< Hello, I hope you'll take the time to address a few things. You say you'll add the hours for "all" libraries and that "Libraries offer a space anyone can enter, where money isn't exchanged, and documentation doesn't have to be shown." How is this true for all libraries? Money is exchanged in the form of fines and even sometimes for just getting a library card when one is out-of-county or not a student of a particular institution, etc. Library cards and student IDs are forms of documentation. Access is often restricted to students at certain hours at academic libraries. Special libraries and archives often don't just let anyone in. Also, you mention 17k libraries, but from what I've found on the IMLS site, that number only applies to public libraries. In citing recent crisis, how does a static set of library hours assist when hours can become volatile in times of crisis? Lastly, in terms of safety, it's not unheard of for sexual predators to hang out in public libraries because of the fallacy that they are inherently safe for many of the youth that spend time there. ps: Since the Flexible Funding allows you to keep the money even if you don't raise $10K, are you planning a partial implementation if you don't raise all the money? thanks in advance, >>> On Thu, May 7, 2015 at 10:23 PM, davesgonechina <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > I contacted the group behind the Indiegogo campaign on Twitter: > > https://twitter.com/davesgonechina/status/596148115465371649 > > > 1. > 1. *Caravan Studios* @*caravanstudios* > <https://twitter.com/caravanstudios> May 2 > <https://twitter.com/caravanstudios/status/594226589631533056> > > Help us raise $10K to put #*libraries* > <https://twitter.com/hashtag/libraries?src=hash> locations & hours > in > #*Rangeapp* <https://twitter.com/hashtag/Rangeapp?src=hash> & help > youth find free #*summermeals* > <https://twitter.com/hashtag/summermeals?src=hash> & #*safeplaces* > <https://twitter.com/hashtag/safeplaces?src=hash> http:// > bit.ly/rangecampaign <http://t.co/Pq9Nmi8nQT> > <https://twitter.com/caravanstudios/status/594226589631533056> > 11 > retweets 8 favorites > 1. > > *davesgonechina* @*davesgonechina* > <https://twitter.com/davesgonechina> > > @*caravanstudios* <https://twitter.com/caravanstudios> also, library > hours change often, budgets get cut. Is $10K enuff 2 run regular scrapes > for years, or is this a one-off? > 0 retweets 0 favorites > 11:02 AM - 7 May 2015 > Tweet text > Reply to @caravanstudios <https://twitter.com/caravanstudios> > > 1. *Caravan Studios* @*caravanstudios* > <https://twitter.com/caravanstudios> 7h7 hours ago > <https://twitter.com/caravanstudios/status/596400357242077184> > > .@*davesgonechina* <https://twitter.com/davesgonechina> this is a > one > time push for this summer. We'll open up the system so librarians can > update their own data next year. > <https://twitter.com/caravanstudios/status/596400357242077184> 1 > retweet 0 favorites > 2. > > 3. *davesgonechina* @*davesgonechina* > <https://twitter.com/davesgonechina> 3h3 hours ago > <https://twitter.com/davesgonechina/status/596461555710955520> > > @*caravanstudios* <https://twitter.com/caravanstudios> that presumes > librarians have the bandwidth/inclination to update ur $10K DB. Just > sayin. > <https://twitter.com/davesgonechina/status/596461555710955520> 0 > retweets 1 favorite > > > > On Thu, May 7, 2015 at 1:33 AM, Dan Scott <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > > > On Wed, May 6, 2015 at 8:15 AM, Ethan Gruber <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > > > > > +1 on the RDFa and schema.org. For those that don't know the library > URL > > > off-hand, it is much easier to find a library website by Googling than > it > > > is to go through the central university portal, and the hours will show > > up > > > at the top of the page after having been harvested by search engines. > > > > > > Hi, so this is an area that I've done, and am doing, a fair bit of work. > > See http://stuff.coffeecode.net/2015/ola_white_hat_seo/#/1/10 for some > fun > > slides from a presentation I gave in January at the Ontario Library > > Association SuperConference that show some ways data gets into > > Google/Yahoo/Bing and concludes that the OCLC Registry "manually maintain > > yet another copy of your data elsewhere" approach isn't working. (Hit "s" > > to get speaker notes). > > > > The rest of the presentation goes into depth on how to use RDFa to mark > up > > a real library web page with location, contact info, opening hours, and > > event info. And I've posited that crawling library sites to pull > > single-sourced data (e.g. you update your website to provide updated > hours > > to humans, and the machines automatically benefit) would be a much more > > effective, accurate, and usable approach than maintaining copies of the > > data in Google+, OCLC Registry, etc. We could produce results like > > http://cwrc.ca/rsc-src/ that stay accurate, rather than being one-off > > efforts that decay over time. (It would be great if the OCLC Registry > had a > > "crawl this URL" option so that it could keep all of its data up-to-date > > and incentive libraries to publish the data in a machine-readable format > > such as RDFa + schema.org.) > > > > On the "but that's technically challenging" front, I tried pursuing some > > grant funding to produce templates for publishing that structured info in > > Drupal, Joomla, and other commonly used CMSs. Sadly, my application was > > recently denied, but that will only slow me down; I'm not going to give > up > > on the goal. I have a paper in the works that will expand on the content > of > > the presentation for those sites that have the ability (technical and > > administrative) to modify their own web pages. > > > > Sites running the Evergreen library system already generate a page for > each > > of their libraries that contains this structured data (e.g. > > https://laurentian.concat.ca/eg/opac/library/OSUL), which is single > > sourced > > from the data that has to be maintained in the library system anyway. > > > > I'll happily acknowledge that getting search engines to harvest the right > > data is not easy, though: right now, for example, if you search for "J.N. > > Desmarais Library" it currently shows that the library is open 24 hours a > > day, which is completely false--probably maliciously > > submitted--information. *sigh* I've edited that info in the Google+ page > at > > https://plus.google.com/+JNDesmaraisLibraryGreaterSudbury but even > though > > it is a verified place and I am a manager of the G+ page, the edits still > > go through approval by Googlers. There appears to be no good way to tell > > Google "Hey, *this* is the URL you are looking for!". Somewhat amusingly, > > the entire reason I started working with schema.org dates back to an > > presentation I attended about Google Places years ago, where I whined > about > > having to maintain yet another copy of data in yet another place, and the > > response inferred that schema.org might be the solution to that problem. > > > > Also, due to the structure of university web property ownership, we > > currently don't have the ability to modify our actual library home page > to > > include any RDFa, which is a *wee* bit frustrating given my work in the > > field. Heh. > > > > Dan Scott > > Laurentian University > > > -- Nitin Arora nitaro74 (at) gmail (dot) com "Hope always, expect never." humaneguitarist.org blog.humaneguitarist.org