Mashing libraries to build communities

Editor's Notes

• #3: What is a mashup? “a digital media file containing any or all of text, graphics, audio, video, and animation, which recombines and modifies existing digital works to create a derivative work.” For me - creativity meets technology. While I think it is arguable that technology is not an essential part of this, I believe it is the ease with which digital content can be repurposed latter not essential but enables? Probably earliest ‘mashups’ were musical (term coined around 2001 as far as I can tell) - the Grey Album being a high profile example (2004) - remixing JayZee’s Black Album with samples from the Beatles White Album. With the increasing availability of video in digital form, as well as ways to share the results easily (i.e. YouTube), video mashups also became common However the mashups I’ll be talking about today mashup not music or video, but information
• #4: So much data has a geographic aspect - when you combine that with map data, powerful way to visualise things Google Maps has clearly led the way here, but with the Ordnance Survey opening up their data, this opens new opportunities in the UK
• #5: So much data has a geographic aspect - when you combine that with map data, powerful way to visualise things Google Maps has clearly led the way here, but with the Ordnance Survey opening up their data, this opens new opportunities in the UK
• #6: So much data has a geographic aspect - when you combine that with map data, powerful way to visualise things Google Maps has clearly led the way here, but with the Ordnance Survey opening up their data, this opens new opportunities in the UK
• #7: So much data has a geographic aspect - when you combine that with map data, powerful way to visualise things Google Maps has clearly led the way here, but with the Ordnance Survey opening up their data, this opens new opportunities in the UK
• #9: About releasing data in suitable FORMAT and with appropriate LICENSING
• #10: What happens? My local council (Warwickshire) released a number of data sets and ran a competition to encourage local developers to build applicaitons on top of this data. One set of data with a list of new books in the library - and a local developer (nothing to do with libraries) built this - shows books, covers (from Amazon) and links to previews in Google books. This WON the competition. Not the only example. Rewired State is an organisation which “runs hackdays where developers show government what is possible”, recently ran a ‘Youth’ event - and one of the winners was based around integrating library services into Facebook Believe it or not Library Data is SEXY!
• #11: Not just about pretty things for library customers though The Getting It System Toolkit (GIST) is a customizable set of tools and workflows that will enhance interlibrary loan and just-in-time acquisitions services; purchase request processing; and cooperative collection development efforts. Developed at the State University of New York College at Geneseo Brings together disparate information sources with key data, such as: uniqueness; free online sources; reviews and rankings; and purchasing options and prices
• #12: The mashup described in this presentation is documented in more detail at http://www.meanboyfriend.com/overdue_ideas/2010/04/putting-warwickshire-libraries-on-the-map/
• #13: The mashup described in this presentation is documented in more detail at http://www.meanboyfriend.com/overdue_ideas/2010/04/putting-warwickshire-libraries-on-the-map/
• #14: The mashup described in this presentation is documented in more detail at http://www.meanboyfriend.com/overdue_ideas/2010/04/putting-warwickshire-libraries-on-the-map/
• #15: The mashup described in this presentation is documented in more detail at http://www.meanboyfriend.com/overdue_ideas/2010/04/putting-warwickshire-libraries-on-the-map/
• #16: The mashup described in this presentation is documented in more detail at http://www.meanboyfriend.com/overdue_ideas/2010/04/putting-warwickshire-libraries-on-the-map/
• #17: The mashup described in this presentation is documented in more detail at http://www.meanboyfriend.com/overdue_ideas/2010/04/putting-warwickshire-libraries-on-the-map/
• #18: The mashup described in this presentation is documented in more detail at http://www.meanboyfriend.com/overdue_ideas/2010/04/putting-warwickshire-libraries-on-the-map/
• #19: The mashup described in this presentation is documented in more detail at http://www.meanboyfriend.com/overdue_ideas/2010/04/putting-warwickshire-libraries-on-the-map/
• #20: The mashup described in this presentation is documented in more detail at http://www.meanboyfriend.com/overdue_ideas/2010/04/putting-warwickshire-libraries-on-the-map/
• #21: The mashup described in this presentation is documented in more detail at http://www.meanboyfriend.com/overdue_ideas/2010/04/putting-warwickshire-libraries-on-the-map/
• #22: Gary Green (@ggnewed) said via twitter - it’s all about looking at Information from a different point of view. This struck a chord with me. When you see the best mashups, you wonder why you didn’t think of it first! Then you wish you could do it You can! Stop thinking of information as a body of work, but something that you can disaggregate and recombine. Look for the sources and tools that help you do this. Librarians always manipulated information - it is a key skill set. The difficult part of mashups is not the tech stuff - it is about identifying information that can be sensibly mashed and presenting it in a compelling and accessible way. Have to assess provenance of information. Have to know the boundaries of what we are doing.
• #23: How can we find the resource to do this type of innovation? Doesn’t have to be ££££ Barcamps and Unconferences The final push to do something was an event organised by Mike Ellis - previously at the Science Museum, now at Eduserve - the ‘Mashed Museums’ event. So I shamelessly reappropriated the name and so... Mashed Libraries After I got back from ALA, I wrote a speculative post for my blog suggesting the idea, and got a really enthusiastic response. Luckily I was at a meeting with Paul Walk from UKOLN that same week, and he encouraged me to press ahead and offered support from UKOLN to make the first event happen. I setup a ning to enable discussions and get some idea of who might come along and what they’d like to see on the day. We got a venue provided for free (by David Flanders, then at Birkbeck, now at JISC) , the catering costs covered by UKOLN, and speakers who all gave their time for free - and about 30 people came along. There were problems (not enough power, and me failing to organise vegan options on the catering) - but overall it was fun, and the response was positive, and Dave Pattern quickly volunteered to run a 2nd event in Huddersfield - Mash Oop North. This was quickly followed by Middlemash at Birmingham City University in the same year, followed by ‘Liver and Mash’ (Liverpool). The next event is at the end of this month (MashSpa in Bath - still time to sign up), and currently Haggis and Mash in Edinburgh in January 2011 being planned, with a further one being hosted at the University of Lincoln at some point in 2011 For me as much as the events is the ongoing sense of community - I think we are starting to build a community of tech interested and able librarians - and others (not just about librarians!) - twitter key for me.
• #24: Mashedlibrary.com Lists of tools on the wiki at mashedlibrary.com in the cookbook Ideas and examples: Enid, Paul, Tony, Dave, Chris, Gary, others, me Enhancing Reading Lists with Yahoo Pipes Horror mashup F1/Election visualisations
• #25: Mashedlibrary.com Lists of tools on the wiki at mashedlibrary.com in the cookbook Ideas and examples: Enid, Paul, Tony, Dave, Chris, Gary, others, me Enhancing Reading Lists with Yahoo Pipes Horror mashup F1/Election visualisations
• #26: Organising a Mashed Library event is simple. 6 Steps described here, see also http://mashedlibrary.com/wiki/index.php?title=Organise_a_Mashed_Library_event
• #29: Don’t need much money, best sponsorship may be getting the venue donated!
• #30: Cake is very important
• #31: Charging? Maybe good to have nominal charge - makes people commit. But not necessary.
• #33: Acknowledgements
• #34: Acknowledgements
• #35: Acknowledgements