location-aware mobile search mj suhonos Toronto Public Library

location-aware mobile search simple problem: where is the closest copy of an item to where I am standing now? i have only an iphone

TPL

questions to start with do we have an API to access the catalogue? can we present human-readable results? can we make it feel like a “native” app? can it work on multiple kinds of devices? as simple as possible for the user

web service-style three-tier

simpler is better transformation pipeline free libraries: yaz, xslt, domxml, iui open standards: marcxml, mods, html5

unofficial side-project running in my living room works for any library with z39.50 works in any browser with html5 geolocation

look around you old != bad new != good open technology = critical sometimes a butter knife makes a pretty decent screwdriver

full story in code4lib journal issue 10 source code available now under GPL3 sharing is good