[Web4lib] Code4Lib Journal Issue 14 is now available!

[Tim McGeary]

(apologies for the cross posting)

It is my pleasure to announce that Issue 14 of the Code4Lib Journal has 
been published.  Please go to 
http://journal.code4lib.org/issues/issue-14 for these excellent articles:

Editorial Introduction: Prioritizing the Future, Collaborating in the 
Present, and Archiving the Past
Timothy M. McGeary
This is an exciting time for libraries and technology, and libraries 
have the opportunity now to build strong collaborations that both 
preserves our rich history and prioritizes our future. This issue shines 
a light on a unique blending of priorities old and new, detailed 
analysis of our past, and creative solutions that enhance the mission of 
libraries. Libraries big and small have the chance to impact our 
communities for the better. Come along, it’s going to be a great ride.

A Novel Method for Creating a Distributed, Collaborative Commenting 
Environment for Bibliographic Items
Rurik Thomas Greenall
This paper discusses a novel approach to adding user comments to 
existing platforms for bibliographic information, such as library 
catalogs. The application is built using simple and free services that 
support advanced functionality at a low price without requiring 
high-level technical skills. The strength of the approach described here 
is that it increases the number of comments available for display in any 
local catalog by consolidating comments from multiple sites and by 
clustering comments at the FRBR Work level. To do this, a central store 
of comments from multiple sites is created. In addition, the application 
uses ISBNs and OCLC’s Work IDs to consolidate comments from different 
publications (FRBR manifestations) for the same work.

How to Provide Live Library Information via SMS Using Twilio
Mike Beccaria
Paul Smith’s College provides library hours and workstation availability 
using SMS Text Messages. The service was implemented using an easy and 
affordable web-based API for SMS sending and receiving, from twilio.com. 
A new class of ‘cloud-based‘ SMS vendors make simple SMS-based services 
efficient and cost-effective to implement, and have many possible 
applications in the library environment. A simple PHP example is 
provided which supplies workstation availability over SMS based on a 
database of computer availability from a previous Code4Lib Journal Article.

Diva.js: A Continuous Document Viewing Interface
Andrew Hankinson, Wendy Liu, Laurent Pugin, and Ichiro Fujinaga
Diva.js is a multi-page browser-based document viewer designed to 
present high-resolution digitized document images as a continuous, 
scrollable item. This article examines the current state of the art in 
online document display technologies, and presents a list of functional 
requirements the authors used to guide the creation of this new online 
document viewer. The authors then discuss the image processing 
infrastructure necessary for deploying the Diva.js viewer, and present a 
brief discussion of how the viewer is currently deployed in their 
organization.

Using ImageMagick to Automatically Increase Legibility of Scanned Text 
Documents
Doreva Belfiore
The Law Library Digitization Project of the Rutgers University School of 
Law in Camden, New Jersey, developed a Perl script to use the 
open-source module PerlMagick to automatically adjust the brightness 
levels of digitized images from scanned microfiche. This script can be 
adapted by novice Perl programmers to manipulate large numbers of text 
and image files using commands available in PerlMagick and ImageMagick.

Book Review: 3 Titles from A Book Apart
Nathan Mealey
Three recently published books by A Book Apart, the book-publishing arm 
of the website A List Apart, offer concise, high-impact introductions to 
three tools that can be employed in facing this challenge: HTML5, CSS3, 
and content strategy. This article reviews the books “HTML5 For Web 
Designers” by Jeremy Keith; “CSS3 for Web Designers” by Dan Cederholm; 
and “The Elements of Content Strategy” by Erin Kissane.

MARC21 as Data: A Start
Karen Coyle
The forty-five-year-old MARC format, currently at version MARC21, is an 
obvious barrier to the provision of library services in a web-based 
environment. There is a growing consensus that the time has come for 
libraries to move to a new format. We cannot, however, decide on a new 
data format until we at least have an inventory of the data elements 
that are carried in our current one. Listing those data elements is not 
simple: over the years this record format has undergone constant change 
that has pushed the limits of the record structure and introduced 
inconsistencies in the way that data is coded. This article describes 
one person’s attempt to decode the content of MARC21.

Using Authority Data in VuFind
Demian Katz, Ralph LeVan, and Ya’aqov Ziso
The use of keyword-oriented next-generation catalogs in libraries has 
diminished the perceived value of the structured authority data that 
played a more crucial role in earlier OPACs. However, authority data can 
still be combined with modern discovery in useful ways. This article 
examines several ways in which the open source VuFind environment 
provides information to its users, showing how these mechanisms can be 
combined with authority data to enhance discovery. Topics covered 
include autosuggestion, context-sensitive recommendations, use of APIs, 
and means of harvesting and locally indexing authority data.

mapFAST: A FAST Geographic Authorities Mashup with Google Maps
Rick Bennett, Edward T. O’Neill, Kerre Kammerer, JD Shipengrover
When looking for information about a particular place, it is often 
useful to check surrounding locations as well. FAST geographic subjects 
provide clean access points to this material, and a Google Maps mashup 
allows users to see surrounding locations that are also FAST subjects. 
Moreover, the Web Service to the underlying data is also open and 
available for use. The map interface allows for simple selection of a 
location, with links to enter it directly as a search into either 
WorldCat.org or Google Books.

Joining an Open Source Community: Creating a Symphony Connector for the 
XC NCIP Toolkit
Michelle Suranofsky
When the Pennsylvania Academic Library Consortium, Inc. (PALCI) decided 
to upgrade its resource sharing software (EZ-Borrow) all of the 
participating libraries – among them Lehigh University – were 
responsible to have in place an implementation of the NCIP protocol to 
provide communication between the new EZ-Borrow software developed by 
Relias International and their respective ILS. This article presents the 
process of Lehigh choosing to adopt the eXtensible Catalog NCIP Toolkit, 
and the technical details about building a connector with the SirsiDynix 
Symphony ILS.

Web-Based Software Integration For Dissemination Of Archival Images: The 
Frontiers Of Science Website
Gary Browne
The Frontiers of Science illustrated comic strip of ‘science fact’ ran 
from 1961 to 1982, syndicated worldwide through over 600 newspapers. The 
Rare Books and Special Collections Library at the University of Sydney, 
in association with Sydney eScholarship, digitized all 939 strips. We 
aimed to create a website that could disseminate these comic strips to 
scholars, enthusiasts and the general public. We wanted to enable users 
to search and browse through the images simply and effectively, with an 
intuitive and novel viewing platform.

Time and resource constraints dictated the use of (mostly open source) 
code modules wherever possible and the integration and customisation of 
a range of web-based applications, code snippets and technologies 
(DSpace, eXtensible Text Framework (XTF), OmniFormat, JQuery Tools, 
Thickbox and Zoomify), stylistically pulled together using CSS. This 
approach allowed for a rapid development cycle (6 weeks) to deliver the 
site on time as well as provide us with a framework for similar projects.

-- 
Tim McGeary
Team Leader, Library Technology
Lehigh University
610-758-4998
tim.mcgeary at lehigh.edu

timmcgeary at gmail.com
GTalk/Yahoo/Skype: timmcgeary