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Improving Library Web Services With AJAX and RSS

Hongbin Liu, Yale UniversityWin Shih, University of Colorado at Denver

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Speaking of Library Web Services, Where Are We?

User-friendly web siteUsabilityAccessibility

Analyzing user needsOrganizing informationDesigning navigation, systems labeling and searching functionGraphic design

Speaking of Library Web Services, Where Are We?

Web sites with static webpagesDatabase-driven websites

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Ever Heard Web 2.0?

What is exactly Web 2.0 anyway?

“Web 2.0 is a term often applied to a perceived ongoing transition of the World Wide Web from a collection of websites to a full-fledged computing platform serving web applications to end users. Ultimately Web 2.0 services are expected to replace desktop computing applications for many purposes.”--- en.wikipedia.org

Ever Heard Web 2.0?

Google Suggest…

…YouTube…Amazon…Gmap…Gmail…

Flickr…

Web 2.0Web 1.0

Web 2.0 Has Taken Hold

9.5 million+ citations in GoogleBut there's still a huge amount of disagreementSome people decrying it as a meaningless marketing buzzwordOthers accepting it as the new conventional wisdom.

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Something in Common

Tagging (Flickr, YouTube)User Reviews (Amazon, Netflix)Great User Engagement

Blogging

One of the most highly touted features of the Web 2.0 era is the rise of blogging. A blog is just a personal home page in diary format. But “it drives an entirely different delivery, advertising and value chain.”

Blogs in Library Sphere

As a technology, it can be dated back as early as 1993.Many libraries start to provide blogsthrough their library web sites. Peter Scott’s list of Library weblogsYale University Cushing/Whitney Medical Library

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Blogs & Library Marketing

“What’s New” - Promote Library Events“New Books, E-journal or Database”“Subject guides, new resources or web sites”Course-specific resourcesAn effective way to invite visitors to come back to the library website over and over again.

Blogs + CMS = Drupal…

Drupal, Plone, etc.aadl.org

Think outside of the

Users don’t come to visit the library website unless they have to.Fewer users come to visit the library physically.Fewer users visit the library website.

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What’s Users’ World?

GoogleYahoo!MSNMyspace…Sorry, no library.

From MyYahoo! to MyLibrary

MyYahoo! 8 yearshome page personalization

MyLibrarya “user-centered, customizable interface to collections of library resources.”

More than three dozen libraries have implemented MyLibrary and similar systems.

Examples of MyLibrary

MyLibrary@Cornell

MyLibrary@NCState

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Why MyLibrary

The LITA’s Top Technology Trends Committee noted in January 1999 that “Library users who are Web users . . . expect customization, interactivity, and customer support.”

Problems With MyLibrary

Narrowly adopted: Low percentage of users set up full profiles Low percentage usage of MyLibrary pages

An irrelevant MyLibrary is a burden

Nobody recommends if the adoption rate is less than 10%.

Something New

Google --- Google/IGGoogle launched its homepage personalization service on May 5, 2005

Microsoft --- Start.comMicrosoft launched its homepage personalization service on June 3, 2005

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Google/IG

Google/IG allows to you to personalize your homepage with all the news and information you could ever want.It's very similar to My Yahoo! but, it does it a lot better. Offers RSS support which means you can add any RSS feed to your Google/IG.

Start.com (Microsoft)

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Why Personalize?

The reason is very simple: if you keep users with your personalized homepage, they will more likely come back often. In the case that they set up the personalized homepage as their desktop homepage, they surely will visit you everyday.

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From Google/ig, Start.com to Mylibrary

A Google/IG-like library personalized home page

What’s behind Google/IG & Start.com?

RSS feeds, aggregator & Ajax

What is RSS feedsRSS is a format for syndicating news and the content of news-like sitesWhat is RSS aggregatorRSS-aware programs What is Ajax(Asynchronous JavaScript and XML)

About RSS“Is the most significant advance in the fundamental architecture of the web since early hackers realized that CGI could be used to create database-backed websites.”Allows someone to link not just to a page, but to subscribe to it, with notification every time that page changes. Being used to push notices of new blog entries, stock quotes, weather data, and photo or video availability.

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About Ajax

Not a technology in itself

But a term refers to the use of a group of technologies together to create interactive web applications

A key component of Web 2.0 applications such as Flickr, Google/ig, Basecamp.

About Ajax

HTML (or XHTML) and CSS for presenting informationDocument Object Model manipulated through JavaScript to dynamically display and interact with the information presentedXMLHttpRequest object to exchange data asynchronously with the web server. (XMLis commonly used, although any text format will work, including preformatted HTML)

About Ajax

Ajax applications use web browsers that support the above technologies as a platform to run on.

Browsers that support these technologies include Mozilla, Firefox, IE, Opera, Safari, and Konqueror.

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Uses of Ajax

Real-time form data validationAutocompletionSophisticated user interface controlsRefreshing data on the pageServer-side notifications

Pros and Cons of Ajax

More user interactionsSpeedy at which an application runs and responds to user interaction.Rich web browsing experience.

Pros and Cons of Ajax

ComplexityRequires users to have JavaScript enabled in their browser.Debugging.Viewable Source.

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Ajax is Picking up the Trend

Many popular applications:Google/IG, Google Mail, Google Map, Flickr (Yahoo!)Start.com (Microsoft)more…

A Google/ig Style Mylibrary

RSS feeds + RSS aggregator + Ajax

"Google/ig" style Yale Medical Library

Conclusion

Think from outside of the boxTechnology is a tool

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ReferenceTim O’Reilly, “What Is Web 2.0 Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software”, retrieved on August 25, 2006.

Greg Murray, “Asynchronous JavaScript Technology and XML (AJAX) With Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition”, retrieved on August 25, 2006.

Questions?Hongbin LiuCushing/Whitney Medical LibraryYale UniversityNew Haven, CT 06520-8014Hongbin.Liu@yale.edu203-785-3969

Win ShihDenison Memorial LibraryUniversity of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center4200 E. 9th Ave, A003Denver, CO 80262win.shih@uchsc.edu

303-315-8649