Library Mashups for the Virtual Campus: Using Web 2.0 Tools to Create a New Current Awareness Service Linda Absher, Adriene Lim and Kerry Wu Portland State University – ACRL 2007

History/Overview Inspired by Web 2.0 functionality Automated Customizable Modular “MyPortlandState”: Campus Portal –Desire to integrate library/selected web resources and content within the campus portal

Mashups Definition : New Web applications or sites created through the combination and re-use of data and/or functionality from two or more disparate and usually third-party Web sources (Wikipedia, Jan. 2007)

Current Awareness Services (CAS): The Library Literature Definition : “system…for reviewing newly available documents, selecting relevant items…and recording them so that notifications may be sent...” (Kemp, 1999)

CAS: The Library Literature Historically paper-based and labor-intensive Online Services Alerts mostly available via or electronic lists World Wide Web: some news/content pushed via RSS feeds or blogs Still library specific (i.e., via library Web site) Not customizable

Topic Watch: The CAS Mashup Building Blocks: RSS feeds and more Chosen Subject Areas Business Film Studies What’s Different? Not intended to be used solely within a library context Planned from the beginning to be integrated within MyPortlandState Portal

Topic Watch: Technical Overview Presentation framework using HTML, JavaScript, Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX), and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) RSS feeds polled and displayed, grouped by type (news, podcasts, etc.) New titles gleaned and cached via “screen scraping” from canned reports

Technical Overview (cont’d) PHP scripts used for retrieving, caching, and parsing of data Data stored in mySQL database Mouseover balloons using AJAX Central Search XML-based API OpenURL links offered Other APIs being considered

Close-up view of the podcasts/videocasts channel with “play” buttons

Challenges Customization and personalization not yet possible Lack of filtering of keywords Few licensed databases offering RSS feeds Copyright concerns – Example: YouTube, holding off on using this API Non-Romanized characters

Initial Reactions to Pilot Project Initial comments very positive Faculty admitted they had little time to subscribe to feeds Many had never encountered RSS feeds before the CAS Subject area of “Business Research” too broad for at least one respondent

Future Enhancements and Ideas More customization – User-submitted RSS feeds for adds and deletions Identifying and pulling in more Webinars and videocasts if possible Sharing of OPML file for users Flag already read items Possibly share framework and scripts

Next Steps More topics covered - Work with subject librarians and faculty More marketing –Introduce tool into Library instruction sessions More integration –Integrate tool with Research Guides and Learning Management Systems, (i.e., Sakai, WebCT)

Thank you – Questions? Linda Absher – Adriene Lim – Kerry Wu –