The scripting library: Combining data and information in the library

Stelline 2009 The Scripting Library Combining data and information in the library I servizi messi a disposizione con e per l'utente Cenfor Seminar Milan, March 12th, 2009

Changing needs
Rise of quantity, quality and diversification of information
Desire and need of the users of manipulating (modifying, trasforming, remixing) data
In the point of interaction between users and data lies the mashup technology
Mashup idea match Web 2.0 concepts of data as intel inside, hackability, the right to remix, user-generated content, users as co-developers

Mashup architecture
Combine data and information from two or more sources to build new applications and services
Often “mashup” is used to represent also a manipulation of data from only one source, utilized in new ways (or opened or (better) interlinked with information from other sources)
Structured information
Non structured information transformed in structured information
Non structured information used at its best (e.g. screen scraping)
Publishers begin to open their data: The Guardian docet! “The cost? Free. 'We feel like we are fueling an ecosystem'"

API – Application Programming Interface
Set of functions , procedures and methods to access an online application
There are also APIs for offline applications
API expresses:
the logic with which the application is built
its informative resources
operations that can be performed from outside the application / service
From a software -not human- point of view

How practically invoke functions provided by an API, utilize its resources, manage the data and / or information exchange?

Web Services
“ A software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network” (W3C)
The exchange takes place between a service that exposes its information, data or services
Service Provider
And a service that asks for them
Service Consumer
Request formatted in XML or in other languages and sent usually via HTTP
Response formatted in XML, JSON, HTML or other languages and sent usually via HTTP

RESTful Web Services
Resource-oriented architecture
The client performs the request through a method of the HTTP protocol
Often GET
The request of information or operations is built and launched by the program through a simple Url
Information sent in the response are formatted in HTML or in other languages
They can be rendered as web pages or sent to other applications

(RESTful) Information Exchange
Web application (Service Provider)
API (what resources, operations, Url language etc.)
REST Interface
Mashup client (Service Consumer)
Builds request Url following REST interface parameters
Sends it via HTTP method(s)
Gets information to display or push to other applications

Hooks (and how to make your website mashable!)
RSS / Atom Feed
Image (Flickr)
Video (YouTube)
Map
Website (XHTML/CSS)
Open APIs XML OAI-PMH JSON MicroFormats (iCal, CoinS etc.) RDFa/RDFe OpenUrl UnAPI (Open) Linked Data

Client-side scripting languages
Vital role of JavaScript in (closed) applications
Template
Application logic
Middleware layer
How to effect the closed applications' web pages:
DOM
JavaScript and JSON
Callback
Dynamic Script Tag

The directory of Programmable Web

Examples...

MetaBib @ Bicocca

Bibliobar (1)

Bibliobar (2)

Bibliobar (3)

Library Lookup @ Bicocca

Library Lookup by Jon Udell
Javascript:var re=/([ /-]|is[bs]n=)(d{7,9}dX])/i;
if(re.test(location.href)==true)
{var isbn=RegExp.$2;
void(win=window.open('http://opac.biblio.unimib.it'+'/F/?func=scan&scan_code=ISBN&scan_start='+isbn,'LibraryLookup','scrollbars=1,resizable=1,location=1,width=575,height=500'))}
http://opac.biblio.unimib.it/F/?func=scan&scan_code=ISBN&scan_start=1591585376
The power of bookmarklet

Biblioteche Oggi REST interface

Free usage data
University of Huddersfield Libraries: data of
Circulation
Suggestions
ISBN linking (via LibraryThing ISBN API )
With an Open Data Commons license
Offered as XML files on the Web to everyone for
Global ranking of OPACs results
Augmented recommendation services
More effective collection development policies
...

From APIs to Linked Data?
RDF Book Mashup
Integrates Web 2.0 data sources in the Semantic Web
Makes information about books, authors, reviews and bookshops available as semantic data
Turn XML responses from Web 2.0 web services into RDF
LIBRIS : the Linked Bibliographic Data
Dublin Core
SKOS
FOAF
Bibliontology
Home made ontology for holdings, FRBR relations

“ Weaving the Web ” on Tabulator (1)

“ Weaving the Web ” on Tabulator (2)

The Scripting Library means...
Requiring APIs or other standardized ways to access information from vendors and commercial suppliers (libraries are users theirselves)
Getting a more transparent, standardized and Web-like approach to data (the Web is simple)
Commitment to open library data and information, sharing them (i.e. making them hackable) and letting users, stakeholders and applications (e.g. Course Management Systems, Facebook Apps, browser toolbar etc.) access them (openness, addressability, discoverability)
(Right to) Manipulate, enhance, mash-up, remix, re-invent
Using immagination and participation – together

What's for?
The Scripting Library might become a means of renewal and innovation
Offering all the richness of the data (also) in a machine-readable format allows for data
Re-use
Enhancing
Showcasing
And for better cooperation between libraries
And between libraries and other organizations

Towards a library *data* portability
From
"It isn't the cables, it is the computers which are interesting"
To
“ It isn't the computers, but the documents which are interesting”
To
“ It's not documents that are important but the things they are about which are important”
Tim Berners Lee dixit

Thank you! This talk is in memory of Alberta Zanella (for that story of November 29th...) Bonaria Biancu a.k.a. The Geek Librarian Library of the University of Milano-Bicocca Blog: http://bonariabiancu.wordpress.com/ E-mail: [email_address] Websites were accessed last time on March 10th, 2009 This presentation is proudly made with Open Office Impress and it is released under a Creative Commons License

Mashup Editors
Yahoo! Pipes
Open Kapow
Microsoft Popfly
Google mashup Editor (on the way to be shut down)
MashMaker
Dapper
...
Enterprise software

Credits & Notes
I got inspiration for the “Scripting Library” concept from Bruce Sterling's “Scripting Architecture”
The script for Gbooks and LThing in Metalib is made by Ere Maijala
Bibliobar was developed by Salvatore Vassallo
Piero Cavaleri is the author of “Biblioteche Oggi” web service
--------------------------------------------
Suggested readings :
Library Mashup: exploring new ways to deliver library data , edited by Nicole Engard, Information Today, 2009 (in press) *
Pro Web 2.0 Mashup: remixing data and web services , Raymond Yee, Apress, 2008
*Disclaimer: I am the author of one chapter of the book :-)

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The scripting library: Combining data and information in the library

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