Well, after 14 months of planning and hoping, Enki is now live at 2 member libraries in beta. Read the article here: http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2013/05/ebooks/califa-launches-enki-a-lending-platform-for-direct-ebook-distribution/
We're thrilled about this big first step! Now we need to get the rest of the BALIS libraries set up, the State Library of Kansas after that, and then take some time to look at stats and come up with a model that we can offer to all Califa members. Stay tuned for more information as we take those next steps...
We'll be at BookExpo in a joint booth with Douglas County next week, meeting with publishers and hopefully working out more deals to get more content. If you're a publisher, and you'll be at BEA, stop by and say hello to us in booth 963.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
EBSCO trial and bundles offer
EBSCO has set up a trial for our members for the databases they are including in their special end of year bundles offer, as well as several others. Please see below for the bundles offer. The trials login and password is available on our members only page at http://www.califa.org/members_only.php. If you need your login, let me know.
Introducing EBSCO’s database bundles for Califa libraries. Please contact Heather Teysko for more information or a quote.
EBSCO’s “Reference Centers” Bundle
(includes Literary Reference Center, History Reference Center, Science Reference Center, Biography Reference Center & Poetry & Short Story Reference Center.
EBSCO’s “Do it Yourself” Bundle
(Includes Auto Repair Reference Center, Home Improvement Reference Center, Hobbies & Crafts Reference Center & Small Engine Repair Reference Center
EBSCO’s Legal & Small Business” Bundle
(Includes Legal Information Reference Center & Small Business Reference Center)
Databases in Trial (More Info @ http://www.ebscohost.com)
- MasterFIle Complete
- Points of View
- Literary Reference Center Plus
- Legal Information Reference Center
- Small Business Reference Center
- Home Improvement Reference Center
- Small Engine Repair Reference Center
- Auto Repair Reference Center
- Hobbies & Crafts reference Center
- History Reference Center
- Science Reference Center
- Poetry & Short Story Reference Center
- MAS Ultra –in Student Resource Center interface
- Novelist Plus
- Novelist k8 Plus
- Biography Reference Center
- Academic Search Complete
- Business Source Complete
- eBook subscription for Public Libraries
Saturday, April 27, 2013
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Facts on File special
(Please note this special is only for Public Library members)
Facts on File will be running an end-of-the-year special for Califa members with additional percentage discounts through the end of June on three of their databases (Access Video on Demand, World Almanac for Kids, and Issues and Controversies in American History). To give you more information about their products, they are setting up a series of webinars. The first is on Monday at 3pm (login information below), covering Access Video on Demand. There is a trial available in the Members Only section of the Califa site (if you need your login/pw, let me know).
Stay tuned for a schedule of upcoming webinars - they will be doing about one each week on AVOD as well as their other products.
Here is the login information for the Monday webinar.
Meeting Number: 640 314 373
Meeting Password: AccessVideo
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To join this meeting (Now from mobile devices!)
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2. If requested, enter your name and email address.
3. If a password is required, enter the meeting password: AccessVideo
4. Click "Join".
5. Follow the instructions that appear on your screen.
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Audio conference information
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Call-in toll number (US/Canada): 1-650-479-3208
Access code:640 314 373
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Are you a techy consultant who's into eBooks? If so, we may want to hire you...
We need to hire someone to help out with Enki. Below is the job description (though this was originally done in January, and it's not so VuFind heavy now). It can be done from anywhere, but please note that we'd love to have you involved in the (rare) face to face meetings we have with Contra Costa, that generally happen in our office in San Mateo. So if you can travel to San Mateo from wherever you are, that would be best. You don't need to be a librarian, but having a passion for literacy/ebooks/libraries is a big plus. Email me with your resume/CV and current or expect rate. The gig is part-time for now - probably about 20 hours/week. Please send this post to anyone and everyone who might be interested - we want to hire someone awesome soon!
Thanks!
Job Description: The enkiLibrary is a shared open source eBook Network that allows California libraries to own and store purchased and free digital content, to share access to more content than any individual library can purchase on its own, to add features and functionality lacking in current third-party vendor models (e.g., renewing, suspending holds, donating, circulation data transferred to ILS, etc.), and to share access to unique local digitized content with other libraries within the Network. Califa and Contra Costa County Library partnered to co-develop an open source eBook Network, shared by, and accessible to multiple library systems in California. The platform is based on the Douglas County (CO) Libraries model, which utilizes the Adobe Content Server and the open source VuFindPlus, developed at Villanova University. The Quipu Group, a software development company, is developing the initial VuFindPlus interface.
Funding for this project is available through a Bay Area Library Information Systems (BALIS) Innovation Grant, LSTA monies, and Califa. This position will be part of the team making enkiLibrary happen through system administration and support of the Adobe Content Server (ACS) and the VuFindPlus open source software, including configuration, maintenance and customization of these two servers.
Working Knowledge and Experience with:
Open source software for next generation library catalogs and discovery tools.
Database administration (MySQL, Oracle, Solr)
User-facing web standards/platforms (HTML/XHTML, cross-browser CSS, Javascript, jQuery/AJAX, PHP, mobile web)
Search platforms (Apache Solr)
Library software applications and protocols (NCIP, SIP, APIs, user authentication, integrated library systems)
Web server software
Thanks!
Job Description: The enkiLibrary is a shared open source eBook Network that allows California libraries to own and store purchased and free digital content, to share access to more content than any individual library can purchase on its own, to add features and functionality lacking in current third-party vendor models (e.g., renewing, suspending holds, donating, circulation data transferred to ILS, etc.), and to share access to unique local digitized content with other libraries within the Network. Califa and Contra Costa County Library partnered to co-develop an open source eBook Network, shared by, and accessible to multiple library systems in California. The platform is based on the Douglas County (CO) Libraries model, which utilizes the Adobe Content Server and the open source VuFindPlus, developed at Villanova University. The Quipu Group, a software development company, is developing the initial VuFindPlus interface.
Funding for this project is available through a Bay Area Library Information Systems (BALIS) Innovation Grant, LSTA monies, and Califa. This position will be part of the team making enkiLibrary happen through system administration and support of the Adobe Content Server (ACS) and the VuFindPlus open source software, including configuration, maintenance and customization of these two servers.
Working Knowledge and Experience with:
Open source software for next generation library catalogs and discovery tools.
Database administration (MySQL, Oracle, Solr)
User-facing web standards/platforms (HTML/XHTML, cross-browser CSS, Javascript, jQuery/AJAX, PHP, mobile web)
Search platforms (Apache Solr)
Library software applications and protocols (NCIP, SIP, APIs, user authentication, integrated library systems)
Web server software
Friday, March 15, 2013
Edgy Librarian archive now up
If you've been waiting for the archive of the Edgy Librarian, it's now up at http://www.califa.org/edgylibrarian.php. The keynote and the first talk by Brewster Kahle of the Internet Archive are both open to the public. The rest are password protected for those who registered for the conference. If you registered and never received a password, let me know.
Thanks!
Thanks!
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Update from eBookland
I know there's been a fair amount of radio silence from me on our eBook project. That's because we've had our heads down, working, and figuring out some solutions to problems that have come up. Here's where we are now, for those who are interested:
- The biggest hurdle by far has been the VuFind+ discovery layer which is designed to work with one ILS. Since we are a consortium with members who have multiple ILS systems, this has been an issue that has required a great deal of original coding to work around. To be honest, I don't know that VuFind+ will be the be-all-and-end-all solution for us, but for now, it's what is out there, and until you start experimenting, you don't really know what you need, so it's been worth it to make it work. Now we are incredibly educated with it, know what we will need in the product (or a new product) moving forward, and can make some decisions based on facts and experience.
- Along with VuFind+ there have been issues with metadata from publishers; getting fields to match up, etc., and finding an automated way of doing this. Again, it took original programming to make this work. These two issues have kept the tech folks very busy for the past few months.
- We're continuing to work with publishers, and sign up new ones. We're going to have a shared booth at BookExpo this year (with Douglas County and NC Live) where we hope to meet lots of new publishers who want to work with us. So far, the methodology I'm using in approaching publishers is to go through the folks who have already worked with Kansas, or Douglas County. You can find a list of them in the How To Do It section of the evoke site that Douglas County has put together: http://evoke.cvlsites.org/
- We've put $175k on deposit with Smashwords. We're going through their catalog now to find the books that we want. It will add tens of thousands of titles to our shared collection, given that their prices are so inexpensive.
- We've also put money on deposit with several other publishers, and spent $40,000 on a Gale reference collection. We bought 3 of everything in the Workman catalog, and have placed other smaller orders with other publishers including Infobase.
There are lots of other things going on - like talking with Bilbary about providing the Buy it Now button, getting ready to get Boopsie involved for the app, etc. But we've been focused on getting CCCL ready to go live, and now that we're almost there, we can start to think about some of these other plans. After CCCL, the next libraries to go live with be three other BALIS libraries (since BALIS gave us seed money): San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley. Then the State Library of Kansas will also be set up in April. By the end of April, the hope is that those five libraries will be set up.
So just because I've been quiet, that doesn't mean we haven't had our heads down working on this. We think we will have something ready for our members to buy into by late summer or early fall.
- The biggest hurdle by far has been the VuFind+ discovery layer which is designed to work with one ILS. Since we are a consortium with members who have multiple ILS systems, this has been an issue that has required a great deal of original coding to work around. To be honest, I don't know that VuFind+ will be the be-all-and-end-all solution for us, but for now, it's what is out there, and until you start experimenting, you don't really know what you need, so it's been worth it to make it work. Now we are incredibly educated with it, know what we will need in the product (or a new product) moving forward, and can make some decisions based on facts and experience.
- Along with VuFind+ there have been issues with metadata from publishers; getting fields to match up, etc., and finding an automated way of doing this. Again, it took original programming to make this work. These two issues have kept the tech folks very busy for the past few months.
- We're continuing to work with publishers, and sign up new ones. We're going to have a shared booth at BookExpo this year (with Douglas County and NC Live) where we hope to meet lots of new publishers who want to work with us. So far, the methodology I'm using in approaching publishers is to go through the folks who have already worked with Kansas, or Douglas County. You can find a list of them in the How To Do It section of the evoke site that Douglas County has put together: http://evoke.cvlsites.org/
- We've put $175k on deposit with Smashwords. We're going through their catalog now to find the books that we want. It will add tens of thousands of titles to our shared collection, given that their prices are so inexpensive.
- We've also put money on deposit with several other publishers, and spent $40,000 on a Gale reference collection. We bought 3 of everything in the Workman catalog, and have placed other smaller orders with other publishers including Infobase.
There are lots of other things going on - like talking with Bilbary about providing the Buy it Now button, getting ready to get Boopsie involved for the app, etc. But we've been focused on getting CCCL ready to go live, and now that we're almost there, we can start to think about some of these other plans. After CCCL, the next libraries to go live with be three other BALIS libraries (since BALIS gave us seed money): San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley. Then the State Library of Kansas will also be set up in April. By the end of April, the hope is that those five libraries will be set up.
So just because I've been quiet, that doesn't mean we haven't had our heads down working on this. We think we will have something ready for our members to buy into by late summer or early fall.
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