Library catalogs should be be like WordPress. That is, every entry should support comments, trackbacks, and pingbacks. Every record should have a permalink. Content should be tag-able. The look should be easily customizable with themes. Everything should be available via RSS or Atom. It should be extendable with a rich plugin API. And when that fails, it would be nice if it were all written in a convenient language like PHP so we can hack it ourselves.
tags: libraries, library, library 2.0, library catalog, library catalogs, library20, opac, wordpress
One Comment
Hi there completely agree with you. However, I am somewhat familiar with WordPress BUT has anyone tried to make one in Movable Type or Drupal. Both these platforms allow for custom fields. Let’s develop one!
7 Trackbacks/Pingbacks
[...] « Library Catalogs Should Be Like WordPress [...]
[...] Fired up? Read more with my library catalogs should be like WordPress post, John Blyberg’s ILS customer bill of rights, and Ryan Eby’s open vs. turnkey discussion. [...]
[...] So while I advocate for change within our libraries, my challenge to vendors is clear: deliver flexible, extensible products that leverage working standards, not just â??library standards.â? There are many examples outside the library space showing the success of such efforts, use those examples, build on them. And the true lesson of Web 2.0 for you is that the vendor who opens up their product wins against others who impose barriers to remixing. [...]
[...] The idea here is that lots of people are blogging, and a good number of them have figured out how to install and maintain their blog management software — even installing plugins and tweaking templates. What lessons can we, as a community of library programmers, learn from that?
Yes, I’m working on a project along these lines, but it’s not yet ready for public consumption. You’ll see more about this in future posts, and if you’ve been watching, you might have picked up on it in previous posts. [...]
[...] I’ve talked about this before (here, here, here, and here, among others), and I’ll be talking about it more yet. Most exciting for me, I wasn’t alone in my plea, as Art Rhyno made some great points about how our acquisitions and accounting processes are substantially similar to what’s called ERP in the outside world. [...]
[...] Library Catalogs Should Be Like WordPress Library catalogs should be be like WordPress. That is, every entry should support comments, trackbacks, and pingbacks. Every record should have a permalink. Content should be tag-able. The look should be easily customizable with themes. Everything should be available via RSS or Atom. It should be extendable with a rich plugin API. And when that fails, it would be nice if it were all written in a convenient language like PHP so we can hack it ourselves. Beside the part about “written in a convenient language like PHP” part, this would make library catalogs much more useful and entertaining. However, it would also add complexity and spam issues. Amazon has recently started a similar approach to their listings including adding a customer wiki. Thanks to Eric Schnell who posted a detailed review of the original thought and some insight into Wordpress OPAC or WOPAC. This is already getting some press in library circles. Technorati Tags: OPAC WOPAC wordpress [...]
[...] Purchase decisions on multi-hundred-thousand-dollar products are big, blunt instruments, but the risk that a current or potential customer might choose some other vendor’s system because it offers better value is an important one. That doesn’t mean that smart vendors won’t join the conversation before things go that far. It’s important to make sure your vendor knows what you want. And it’s important that you tell them. [...]
Post a Comment