Re: IUG meeting proposed discussion

[Steve Sowder <sowder@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I would also be interested in participating in a discussion on this.

At Andrews University we maintain off campus links in a separate 
database. This database provides the info for static web pages that are 
created by a perl script. The perl drivers create different versions 
for off-campus and on-campus and organized by name and subject. 
Off-campus example at 
http://www.andrews.edu/library/screens/databases/onlinedatabases.cgi

There is a reluctance on the part of the librarians to code the 856 field 
for items that we don't own or that are just web based pages that could 
be gone tomorrow. So, we create pages separate from the innopac.


Steve Sowder                         Systems Librarian
sowder@xxxxxxxxxx                   Andrews University
                                     Berrien Springs, Michigan


  

On Thu, 6 Apr 2000, Linda Bills wrote:

> I would be interested in meeting (perhaps as a Birds of a Feather) 
> with a small group of people to talk about how the catalogs we have 
> on III can be used as databases of URLS to be used in our webpages. 
> I would like to see if we can come up with definitive needs that 
> could be discussed with III as a suggestion for product development 
> that would have a market -- something that there is enough agreement 
> on that they would find it attractive to develope.  (I have already 
> presented my ideas on this subject to III, and I am interested to see 
> if there are other, better ways to do this, or other ways we can 
> leverage our existing III database.  Here is the basic theme I am 
> working with (stop here if you don't like essays).
> 
> We catalog all of our paid web resources and many free resources on 
> our III database.  We also have links to these resources, in many 
> cases, from various more narrative webpages -- and given that we are 
> a consortium, there may be 3 or more links to the same resource. 
> Naturally it has occured to us how efficient it would be if we could 
> maintain the URL only in the III database and somehow pluck it from 
> III into our webpages as needed.
> 
> Right now we accomplish this by having our webpage URLs go to our III 
> bib record, from which the user clicks the 856-produced link.  It's 
> good for upkeep but a bit confusing for the user.  We would also like 
> to be able to construct more tailored dynamic webpages (a la Cold 
> Fusion type stuff) using our III database of websites instead of 
> having to transfer info from there to another database for a 
> web-based application.  The basic model here is what CORC is doing 
> with their database + Pathfinders, but on a local level.  We have the 
> database, we maintain it on the III system for its value as part of 
> our catalog; we would like to leverage that if we can.
> 
> We see several possibilities here -- that III could develop 
> something, or that we could use other products like Cold Fusion, or 
> CORC.  That we could transfer records around.... We do not have any 
> programming resources in our Consortium that could be easily 
> commandeered to do intensive local development.
> 
> So, I would like to do a reality check with others who are working in 
> this area to see what's out there and how people are working with it.
> 
> Please let me know if you are interested.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Linda
> Linda G. Bills           Tri-College Library Automation Coordinator
> lbills@xxxxxxxxxx      Bryn Mawr, Haverford and Swarthmore Colleges
> (610) 526-5294           Canaday Library, Bryn Mawr College
> (610) 526-7480 fax       101 N. Merion Ave.
>                           Bryn Mawr, PA  19010
>