Comments for Organizing and cataloging a design library: http://organizingdesign.wordpress.com An iSchool capstone Tue, 07 Oct 2008 16:47:52 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 Comment on Moving forward by Gwen Rice http://organizingdesign.wordpress.com/2008/09/22/moving-forward/#comment-18 Gwen Rice Tue, 07 Oct 2008 16:47:52 +0000 http://organizingdesign.wordpress.com/?p=30#comment-18 I really want to like LibraryThing...but our little barcode scanner has arrived and LibraryThing has been down almost all morning. I got one book entered as a trial (I think), and they're back down. I hope it's not a Sign of how it's going to be. I really want to like LibraryThing…but our little barcode scanner has arrived and LibraryThing has been down almost all morning. I got one book entered as a trial (I think), and they’re back down. I hope it’s not a Sign of how it’s going to be.

]]> Comment on Moving forward by Gwen Rice http://organizingdesign.wordpress.com/2008/09/22/moving-forward/#comment-17 Gwen Rice Thu, 02 Oct 2008 16:32:35 +0000 http://organizingdesign.wordpress.com/?p=30#comment-17 We now have our account set up with LibraryThing, and have ordered a barcode scanner, so we are truly moving forward! We've cleaned out the junk books from the collection are are ready to roll. We now have our account set up with LibraryThing, and have ordered a barcode scanner, so we are truly moving forward! We’ve cleaned out the junk books from the collection are are ready to roll.

]]> Comment on Week 2 progress by organizingdesign http://organizingdesign.wordpress.com/2008/09/08/week-2-progress/#comment-8 organizingdesign Fri, 12 Sep 2008 16:58:53 +0000 http://organizingdesign.wordpress.com/?p=14#comment-8 You can actually set up a circulation-type solution on LibraryThing. If you look at the different "styles" you can choose for viewing the library material on the site, there is a pen after the last option. Clicking on that will allow you to edit the style. Choosing, then, style A you can have the book's title, author, and tags show up, as well as a section called "summary" and a section called "comments." There's also an option for "private comments." From all I can tell, when you edit "comments," you don't edit the book's metadata site-wide. My idea was using "comments" for people to edit wiki-style when materials are checked out (so under comments, whoever removes the material from the library would put "Joe has this book at his desk"). The "summary" section as I envisioned would allow the users of the library to add anything valuable there -- if the book would be particularly good for those seeking inspiration on green flooring, for example, someone can add that to the summary (which gives it a very user-centric spin, versus the summary that can be pulled from those in Amazon or the Library of Congress). I suspect, too, that "private comments" might be an additional solution to the check-out system, but rather than make it public to anyone, it'd be just to those who have access to the library or are signed into the library. The MySQL/PHP solution is viable, but my concern with it is that it's not as user-friendly and there is a little barrier to entry for people without tech background. Although I'm not particularly focusing on the social dynamics of LibraryThing, I think that there is some added value to it in an institution that's not going to have a permanent staff member to man the library -- it'd be an additional vault of resources for inspiration, research, and so forth. I've really come to appreciate the value that LibraryThing could have simply in its ability to connect books to other books and to people with similar interests and bookshelves. You can actually set up a circulation-type solution on LibraryThing. If you look at the different “styles” you can choose for viewing the library material on the site, there is a pen after the last option. Clicking on that will allow you to edit the style. Choosing, then, style A you can have the book’s title, author, and tags show up, as well as a section called “summary” and a section called “comments.” There’s also an option for “private comments.” From all I can tell, when you edit “comments,” you don’t edit the book’s metadata site-wide. My idea was using “comments” for people to edit wiki-style when materials are checked out (so under comments, whoever removes the material from the library would put “Joe has this book at his desk”). The “summary” section as I envisioned would allow the users of the library to add anything valuable there — if the book would be particularly good for those seeking inspiration on green flooring, for example, someone can add that to the summary (which gives it a very user-centric spin, versus the summary that can be pulled from those in Amazon or the Library of Congress). I suspect, too, that “private comments” might be an additional solution to the check-out system, but rather than make it public to anyone, it’d be just to those who have access to the library or are signed into the library.

The MySQL/PHP solution is viable, but my concern with it is that it’s not as user-friendly and there is a little barrier to entry for people without tech background. Although I’m not particularly focusing on the social dynamics of LibraryThing, I think that there is some added value to it in an institution that’s not going to have a permanent staff member to man the library — it’d be an additional vault of resources for inspiration, research, and so forth. I’ve really come to appreciate the value that LibraryThing could have simply in its ability to connect books to other books and to people with similar interests and bookshelves.

]]> Comment on Week 2 progress by Joel http://organizingdesign.wordpress.com/2008/09/08/week-2-progress/#comment-7 Joel Fri, 12 Sep 2008 16:44:15 +0000 http://organizingdesign.wordpress.com/?p=14#comment-7 I'm up against a similar problem. I have to create some kind of catalog and classification system that a group of non-librarians will be able to maintain. I've considered LibraryThing as an easy solution but haven't thought of any way to either circulate books or track circulation besides adding a "checked out" tag. So, I'm considering a MySQL/PHP solution since it will allow me to give the users an interface (i.e., IE or Firefox) with which they're familiar. It's scalable as well. I’m up against a similar problem. I have to create some kind of catalog and classification system that a group of non-librarians will be able to maintain. I’ve considered LibraryThing as an easy solution but haven’t thought of any way to either circulate books or track circulation besides adding a “checked out” tag. So, I’m considering a MySQL/PHP solution since it will allow me to give the users an interface (i.e., IE or Firefox) with which they’re familiar. It’s scalable as well.

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