Project Play, Semester 2, Week 10

Week's 10 is an introduction to Mashups.

The assignment is to add ones library to the Project Play sandbox at the Mapbuilder.net site. Following the directions on the included screenscast on how to use mapbuilder, I added a entry for MPL Federal Depository web page (name of library, address, phone number, and link to the web page). At first, I couldn't get the link to work. Just clicking after adding the address didn't work. I eventually decided to use the link insert key and this worked.

Most of the examples of libraries using Mashups are informative and gets one to thinking of services and procedures on could modify using Mashups. The Go-go Google Gadget of John Blyberg at Ann Arbor District Library and the Hot Title Carousel at the Cambridge Libraries in Ontario, Canada looks like they could be readily adopted to do like project at MPL. Using the mapping features of Google Maps that Mel Delivery Locations and Libraries 411 are additional adaptive to some of our efforts.

In terms of efforts at my library, tracking population growth in the planning process for future branch locations or service changes would seem a nature for a Mashup mapping project. I would also like to be able to use a Mashsup map project to view changes in circulation by Dewey numbers for library locations over a few years. The idea is to get a graphical view of what areas of the collection are in most need of building up, transferred to other location or weeded/discarded.