typo(s), tendency and text

Two small community libraries, Fjell folkeboksamling and Meland bibliotek, have said yes to a new experience: Making a film about what people can find in the library.  Two groups of students from a seminar at the Institute for media and informations science, University of Bergen, had the task to find out what the libraries had - and how they could present the material.

The outcome is quite fascinating. While the one about Meland focuses on words and animations with the (very nice and sympathetic) head librarian as, the other one focuses on the youngest target group of potential patrons: A - mostly silent - kid boy with his curious discoveries in the library. Both the films are charming. I like the approach of presenting the librarian as a person and give the library not only a lot of meaning, but also show a friendly and smart human face. And I also like the approach of the other film that shows very well how you can go on a discovery in the library - and find besides the fishing rod (that you really can borrow at this library" and all the other stuff, what could be an interesting discovery for you.

The film about Meland bibliotek:

The film about Fjell folkeboksamling:

Siden vi i Hordaland fylkesbibliotek får for tiden mye nyttig fra Drupal-samfunnet, vil vi selvfølgelig gjerne gi tilbake hva vi kan. Noe som ofte er undervurdert av utviklersamfunn selv i veldig oppegående åpen kildekode-prosjekter er brukerdokumentasjon, ikke minst til end-brukeren.

Jeg er invitert til Fjell folkeboksamling i morgen for å gi opplæring i bruk av Drupal til bibliotekarene, som blir da redaktører på sin egen nettside. Jeg har derfor laget en redaktørhåndbok for å støtte denne prosessen og for bibliotekarene å ha den aller viktigste informasjonen lett tilgjengelig i deres travel hverdag.

Eventuelt er det interessant til andre Drupal-prosjekt å bruke og forandre teksten på håndboka. Den skal få en GPLv2-lisens, så gjerne forandre alt mulig, så lenge du pusher tilbake til Drupal-samfunnet. Og ta bort mitt navn og organisasjon, bare gi oss kreditt hvis du synes det er nødvendig. Last ned filene (zip, ca. 850k med bilder): Kilde til redaktørhåndboken

As the libraries in Nordhordland are preparing to get the "Aquabrowser" installed, a vendor-installed layer to their catalogues that is supposed to add advanced and eye-candy search possibilities to their collections, there is a very interesting module project for Drupal: The SOPAC, aka the social OPAC. It could provide a functionality that is comparable to that.

It is especially interesting, because what most of the libraries in the norwegian districts suffer from is lack of time and money - which often ends up forgetting how people tend to use - and how they are looking for media. Dividing your webside and the web interface of the catalogue is not helping.

This is a problem that all libraries want to fix, but not everybody is so lucky to have the necessary resources to do that. Still, library services are not less needed whether they are being online or offline.

You can get an idea of what the Social OPAC can do if you look at the catalogue of the Darien library.

I am testing viable ways to display media data in a way, that libraries can show what they have - which is not unproblematic at the moment with having many different libraries with different catalogue systems from different vendors - and as it is with working in the public services sector: a limited budget.

So here is a test with WordPress and the open book plugin, which pulls data from the Open Library and points to the WorldCat.

The problem is: Book data from norwegian books appear, but very little and almost none of the Norwegian books have a cover picture. I don't know if librarians are actively taking part in collecting data for this open database of books, or not. Problem nr. 2: There is a non-trivial discussion going on in library world about in how far the WorldCat tries to own data that libraries deliver to them. I don't know if this is the reason while there is no support for Norwegian libraries on the WorldCat.

Norway wants all public service to be accessible to everyone, regardless of disabilities. "Universell utforming" is the term that describes how every aspect of public service should be shaped to meet the needs of a diversity of people. Of course, also the web services in public service have to be accessible to as many people as possible. You can order and download (norwegian) brochures about this topic on the pages of the Norwegian Directorate of Health:

Tilgjengelige nettsteder:

1. Oversikt og innholdsproduksjon

2. Design og koding

3. Anskaffelse og kvalitetskriterier