Extended info from “pewbot”

LibraryThing‘s Tim Spalding has been in touch with me and he made some suggestions that I’ve now added into pewbot.
If you pop /extended onto the end of a request, then pewbot will return a richer set of information – e.g.:
https://library.hud.ac.uk:4128/pewbot/0750603054/extended/
The attributes returned for each ISBN are:

  • count
    the number of borrowers who borrowed both books
  • totalDays
    the total number of days that elapsed been each item being borrowed by all the borrowers
  • sumDays
    the sum of days, taking into account loans before and after
  • ckoBefore
    the number of borrowers who borrowed the second item first
  • ckoSame
    the number of borrowers who borrowed the second item at the same time
  • ckoAfter
    the number of borrowers who borrowed the second item afterwards

Continue reading “Extended info from “pewbot””

Now with added Ajax


We’ve finally got our first bit of Ajax on the OPAC, although it’s not currently working with Firefox.
Thanks to the wonderful Scriptaculous, the “people who borrowed this” suggestions in our OPAC are now powered by Ajax – e.g.:
The printing revolution in early modern Europe

…clicking on the “show more” link brings in the next batch of selections without having to reload the entire page.
The reason why Firefox won’t show anything is that our JBoss/Jetty OPAC runs on webcat.hud.ac.uk port 80, but the Apache mod_perl server that generates the suggestions runs off port 4128 on the same server.  Unfortunately that’s enough of a difference for the Firefox security to block the script from running, although Firefox still seems to happy to bring in other (non Ajax) JavaScript content from the Apache server.  Many thanks to the guru’s on #code4lib for spotting the problem!
To get around this problem, I’m planning to move the OPAC to a different port and set Apache to run on port 80 and then configure it to act as a reverse proxy for the OPAC.  Once I’ve done that, from the web browser’s point-of-view, everything will appearing to be coming from port 80 (which solves the Firefox Ajax issue).
This also helps out with the problem that SirsiDynix don’t seem to provide any security patches for the JBoss/Jetty server that runs their OPAC — by moving the OPAC and placing it behind the Apache server, it means that the OPAC cannot be accessed directly (which provides a degree of “security through depth”).

Superpatron’s Library Camp!

This is such a great idea — Ann Arbor, and their resident Superpatron Ed Vielmetti, have organised a Library 2.0 unconference:
http://wiki.library2.net/index.php/Main_Page
As Ed notes on his blog:

An unconference or “camp” is a way of organizing a conference so that you focus on bringing the right people to the room and don’t stress about who is going to be a speaker or what’s going to be on the agenda.

The sign up page for the event is here.
I’ve love to know how much interest there would be in having a similar Library 2.0 event in the UK?
Although there’s always scope for more formal L2 events and presentations at the upcoming UK conferences, it would be great to know if there’s already a sizeable number of UK Librarians and Library Techies out there who’d like to get together for an informal day of Library 2.0 discussion, idea swapping, and brainstorming?

Tree Trimming Tips

Many thanks to Talis’ Paul Miller for inviting me to take part in their latest Talking with Talis today.
Just before the recording session started this afternoon, workmen from the local council pulled up outside our house to do some tree trimming.  So, if you detect any odd noises in the background then it’s probably their 3 chainsaws and wood chipper rather than the Superpatron suffering a bout of chronic flatulence 😉

If you like pictures of trees getting mutilated, then there’s more here!
I’m not too sure that the local squirrel population will make of the trimming, as there used to be several overhead crossing points for them (where the branches of trees on opposite sides of the road mingled together).

book suggestions from “pewbot”

I’ve put together my first hack using pewbot — suggestions based on an individual’s loan history.
By running a user’s loan history against the “also borrowed” database, it’s possible to build a list of titles that should be of interest to that borrower.
For example, if a student had borrowed the following 4 IT books:

     

…then the top 10 suggestions are:

     

     

 

Continue reading “book suggestions from “pewbot””

IE7 beta 2 and OpenSearch Autodiscovery

I’m on holiday this week, so it’s giving me a chance to catch up on things.
I bit the bullet last night and installed IE7 beta 2 on my laptop — partly to see if all of our library web sites work okay, but mostly to see how it handles RSS and OpenSearch.
After a virtual prod a couple of weeks ago from Richard Wallis @ Talis, I added an OpenSearch interface to our OPAC (webcat.hud.ac.uk/OpenSearch.xml).  The ability to then use the a9.com site to do a MetaLib-like cross search of multiple resources (e.g. Wikipedia and the OPAC) is a pretty cool feature, especially if you’re doing research — just bring up an article from Wikipedia and you get to see relevant library holdings at the same time:

Continue reading “IE7 beta 2 and OpenSearch Autodiscovery”

say hi to “pewbot”!

I’ve knocked together a web service front end for our “people who borrowed this, borrowed that…” data.  For want of a better name, I’ve christened it “pewbot” (people who borrowed this).
To use the pewbot service, call it using a URL in the format:

https://library.hud.ac.uk:4128/pewbot/[ISBN]

…where ISBN is a 10 digit ISBN (sorry – no ISBN 13 support just yet!)
There are 5 possible error messages that might get returned:

  • invalid ISBN
    the ISBN was not valid
  • ISBN not found
    the ISBN was not found on our catalogue
  • not enough data for ISBN
    the ISBN was found on our catalogue, but we don’t have enough circ data to generate any “borrowed that”s
  • time out
    the service timed out before it completed processing the request
  • database unavailable
    the backend database is unavailable

To see a sample error, try https://library.hud.ac.uk:4128/pewbot/garbage.
Assuming you don’t get an error, you’ll get a list of ISBNs and frequency counts in the following format:

<isbn count="[COUNT]">[ISBN]</isbn>

…where ISBN is a “borrowed that” item and COUNT is the number of borrowers who borrowed both that ISBN and the original ISBN that you sent to the web service.
Continue reading “say hi to “pewbot”!”

Live OPAC search terms display

Another shameless hack inspired by the “Making Visible the Invisible” at SPL.
I’ve tweaked HIP to cache keyword search terms and then put together a couple of pages that display successful searches (in tasteful shades of purple and lilac) and failed searches (in gruesome greens). 
IE has a nice CSS blur, so I’ve coupled that with Ajax to provide a constantly updating web page where new terms appear at the front and then drop slowly to the back, becoming more and more blurred and darker as they recede (click to view full size versions):

Dewey DNA Profile your checkouts

It has come to my attention that we have a large number of items being removed from our shelves.  Whoever is doing this is being extremely clever by not removing too many from any one shelf.
I have long harboured suspicions that this is in some way related to all of those people who keep wandering into the Library.  I suspect that our Counter Staff are in cahoots with these so-called “borrowers” as they allow many of them to walk out of the Library unchallenged carrying piles of books.
To aid my investigations of this secretive “Lending Culture”, I have compiled a Dewey DNA Profile of items that were “borrowed” in the last 28 days:

If you wish to create a similar profile for items “borrowed” from your Library, then you may find the Perl deweydna.script can aid you in your sleuthing.
Now, if you will excuse me, I must don my deerstalker hat and re-light my pipe.
————-
Seriously tho, this is kinda inspired by the wonderful “Making Visible the Invisible” at Seattle Public Library.

Curse you Superpatron!

It’s way past my bedtime, but the Ann Arbor Superpatron has been planting ideas in my head again…

Recently Checked Out Books feed (in RSS or otherwise)

I’ve not built a feed, but I have come up with these two representations of the most recent check outs (click for larger versions):
1) The last 30 covers to walk out the door…

2) Word Splat!…

…that particular splat is entitled “And Treacle Challenge Yorkshire” and is now on sale for only $395,000 (serious bidders only please!)
Word Splat! is made up of words from the titles of the most recent X number of check outs (where X is a roughly a handful).
I made a typo when initially coding the Word Splat!, and ended up with a random sub selection of words at the top left.  I kinda like that, so whatever you get at the top left (if anything) is officially the title of that Splat!
update…
I’ve added three more book collages:
1) 30 Overdue Books
2) 30 Most Recent Requests
3) 30 Most Borrowed Books
The “Overdue Books” are a random selection of items that were due back on the previous day, but have yet to turn up.