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This article was downloaded by: [York University Libraries] On: 13 November 2014, At: 22:47 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK New Review of Information Networking Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rinn20 WEB 2.0 TO LIBRARY 2.0 – FROM DEBATE TO REALITY Richard Wallis Published online: 07 Nov 2007. To cite this article: Richard Wallis (2007) WEB 2.0 TO LIBRARY 2.0 – FROM DEBATE TO REALITY, New Review of Information Networking, 13:1, 53-64, DOI: 10.1080/13614570701571484 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13614570701571484 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub- licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly

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Page 1: WEB 2.0 TO LIBRARY 2.0 – FROM DEBATE TO REALITY

This article was downloaded by: [York University Libraries]On: 13 November 2014, At: 22:47Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH,UK

New Review of InformationNetworkingPublication details, including instructions for authorsand subscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rinn20

WEB 2.0 TO LIBRARY 2.0 – FROMDEBATE TO REALITYRichard WallisPublished online: 07 Nov 2007.

To cite this article: Richard Wallis (2007) WEB 2.0 TO LIBRARY 2.0 – FROMDEBATE TO REALITY, New Review of Information Networking, 13:1, 53-64, DOI:10.1080/13614570701571484

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13614570701571484

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all theinformation (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform.However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make norepresentations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, orsuitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressedin this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not theviews of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content shouldnot be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sourcesof information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions,claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilitieswhatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connectionwith, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content.

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes.Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly

Page 2: WEB 2.0 TO LIBRARY 2.0 – FROM DEBATE TO REALITY

forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

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WEB 2.0 TO LIBRARY 2.0 � FROM

DEBATE TO REALITY

A presentation to the cpd25 Conference,

23 April 2007, London

Richard Wallis

Building on a history of providing services to users that goes back

centuries, libraries are beginning to embrace the social software features of

what has become known as Library 2.0. Library 2.0, a conjunction between Web

2.0 and librarians, is starting to engage users with online library services. Behind

these developments, there is something more fundamental taking place. The

services that drive the library systems are becoming accessible as web services,

enabling the componentisation of services and systems. These changes are going

to fundamentally change the way library systems and services will be built and

delivered in the future. Library 2.0 is not an end in itself, but just a point on the

road to a wider distribution of library services in the Web of Data promised by the

Semantic Web.

Libraries, and librarians, have been providing services to their users for

many centuries. Archaeological research has shown that buildings, such as the

Library at Ephesus, were integrated into their surroundings with easy access to

the local purveyors of alcohol and other human necessities built in.

Rolling the clock forward to the 20th Century, not ignoring the introduction

of the book on the way, we find libraries providing services to the wider

population in a locality, stocking a wide range of material for all to freely lend.

The 20th century library also provided the fully integrated search and discovery

system for people to find information � the card catalogue. Moving in to more

recent decades, we are now seeing new library buildings being fashioned for a

purpose wider than just housing books.

Learning Spaces

The Saltire Centre at the Glasgow Caledonian University1 for instance,

which opened its doors in January 2006, is far more than just a library. It provides

flexible ‘learning spaces’, making use of portable and even inflatable furniture, to

provide areas that satisfy the needs of the students. In this purpose-built

building, the noisy, more collaborative areas are to be found on the lower floors

at the front of the building, and the quieter more study-based areas are located

on the upper floors, towards the rear of the building.

New Review of Information Networking, Vol. 13, No. 1, 2007ISSN 1361-4576 print/1740-7869 online/07/010053�12

# 2007 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/13614570701571484

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The Online Spread of the Library

Towards the end of the 20th Century, technology started to play its part

and integrated library systems started to appear, providing online access to the

catalogue for users of the library, via computer terminals in the reading rooms.

With the spread of the Internet providing access to these online library

systems, users of the library can now access the library service from anywhere on

the planet. The consequence of this trend is that, often, the reading room of

choice for many students and citizens is their sitting room or bedroom, where the

only visibility of the library environment is on the screen in front of them.

Evolution of online service provision has not stopped there though. Non-library

organisations are now appearing, providing library style services.

LibraryThing2 is a social software service which enables anyone to create a

catalogue of the books that they own, or have read. This service is free, for those

with collections of less than 200 books, and has some 200,000 members world

wide. Its simplicity, ease of access and social features, such as being able to

search, view, compare and comment upon books in other members’ libraries, has

even attracted some smaller physical libraries to the possibility of using it for their

library system. LibraryThing is now so successful that some of the data it has

amassed, relationships between titles, reviews and ratings, etc., are being

provided to add value to traditional library catalogues.

The three dimensional virtual world has not escaped the influence and

experimentation of innovative librarians either. Second Life,3 an online 3D virtual

world, has many librarians exploring and experimenting with it. Talis have

sponsored an initiative by the Alliance Second Life Library in setting up an Island in

Second Life, named Cybrary City. On this Island, they have set up buildings for

libraries to use to experiment with the possibilities, and identify some of the

challenges, for providing library services in a virtual environment. As sponsors, we

at Talis4 have an office in Cybrary City, in which we have met and interacted with

the avatars of many librarians from across the world. These meetings have resulted

in conversations that would probably never have occurred in any other way.

Second Life, for librarians, therefore, is not only about playing with the possibilities

for services in the future, it is also a way to interact and share ideas in real time

with colleagues from all over the planet. Second Life, in my opinion, has along way

to go in terms of speed, ease of use, and development capability, but it is an

excellent pointer to how things may be very different in a few years (Figure 1).

Web 2.0

Web 2.0 has been a meme for the last 2 to 3 years. It has been a label

attached to something different going on in the Web and on the Internet. Web 2.0

is just a label for a collection of attributes that ‘Web 2.0’ sites and services

possess. There is no real definition of what Web 2.0 is, but examination of some

sites can begin to clarify what is meant by Web 2.0. Liveplasma.com is an

54 RICHARD WALLIS

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Page 5: WEB 2.0 TO LIBRARY 2.0 – FROM DEBATE TO REALITY

excellent example of a Web 2.0 site. It simply offers the user a graphical

representation between musical groups and artists (it also provides similar

services around movies and actors). Entering the name of a band into the search

prompt, results in an animated display as all the similar groups collect around it.

By clicking on the names of other bands, the user can traverse these relation-

ships, discovering new artists, and being offered links to purchase relevant CDs

from Amazon, as they go (Figure 2).

Liveplasma5 has a compelling user interface, but that is not its main

attribute which gives the site Web 2.0 status. Liveplasma do not compile or store

the data that drives their service, it is all freely provided by Amazon6 through

their Web Services.7 The Liveplasma application is a fairly small piece of software

running on a comparatively small set-up, all the power and the valuable data

being provided by Amazon. Liveplasma is also light-weight in business terms. The

fact that Amazon services provide the systems that do the hard work means that

a very small business organisation can put together, launch, and run such a site

very easily. The running costs are being covered by referral fees, as users

purchase from clicking on to Amazon’s site.

Liveplasma is an example of the Internet moving inside applications.

Traditionally, the Internet has been used only to connect a user’s web browser to

a web site, where he/she could only benefit from what was provided by that site.

In the Web 2.0 world, where machines can talk to machines, applications are

FIGURE 1

Richard Wallis’ avatar meeting an Australian librarian in Second Life

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being built upon services provided by many other sites and services distributed

across the net. This effect means that as the underlying services improve their

capabilities all the applications of those services will benefit.

A technologist will tell you that there is very little new in Web 2.0, so why

has this phenomenon appeared now? The dramatic increases in computing

power, storage, network bandwidth, and connectivity, coupled with the equally

dramatic decrease in the costs of computing has served to release the innovators

and entrepreneurs to produce the solutions we are now calling Web 2.0. As a

simple example of this trend, the co-operative bibliographic cataloguing service

Talis Base,8 20 or so years ago, ran on an IBM mainframe in a fully air-conditioned

data centre managed by several staff. Today’s service could be stored on a

standard iPod, twice over.

Library 2.0

Library 2.0 in simple terms can be described as a conjunction between

libraries, and their traditional ethos for serving their users, with Web 2.0. There

has been much debate between librarians whether or not this is a real trend.

Whatever your opinion on the debate, it is clear to all that because of this trend, a

spotlight has been shining on developments in the library world. Some libraries

FIGURE 2

liveplasma.com

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are already starting to make use of Web 2.0 applications, such as Blogs, Wikis, RSS

feeds, etc., to reach out and interact with their users. Others are starting to

embed those tools into their more traditional offerings.

The Lamson Library9 at Plymouth State University have created WPOpac. By

embedding their OPAC into a blogging platform, they have turned every search

result into a blog posting, enabling users to comment and even create

conversation threads around the individual contents of the catalogue. As a

standard piece of blogging software is used, it was comparatively simple to add

in other features, such as tagging, lists of recent searches, and even a link through

to Amazon’s search inside the book feature.

The University of Huddersfield10 have taken a different approach with their

OPAC by embedding Library 2.0 features in to it. At first glance it looks like a

normal OPAC, but close inspection reveals features such as star ratings, ‘People

who borrowed this item, also borrowed . . .’, and floor plans with arrows

indicating which stack to look in for the selected item. Plymouth State and

Huddersfield are just two of many examples of how libraries across the world are

experimenting with their OPAC interfaces.

Taking the Library to the Users

Innovation in the way users access library services is not just taking place in

the OPAC interface. John Blyberg, then of Ann Arbour District Library11 in

Michigan, was a prize winning entry in the 2006 Talis Mashing Up The Library

Competition with ‘Go-go-google-gadget’.12 This provided four Google Gadgets

for users to load on to their Google home page (Figure 3). The gadgets display

New Books in the library, the Top Ten most popular books, Material on-hold, and

Material checked out. This is a way of bringing the library to the user, on their

home page when they open up the web every morning. How many people have

the library OPAC configured as their home page? This concept has been taken

even further by a citizen of Ann Arbour, Ed Velmetti, who has used the Web

Service, that Jon Blyberg used for his competition entry and made publicly

available, to produce a browser plug-in which tells him if a book he is looking at

in Google Book Search is available in the library.

Another way to take the library to where users are, in their daily activities, is

demonstrated by the Student Portal at Queens University Belfast. With the aid of

Talis Keystone13, a tool for exposing Library System functionality as Web Services,

a live representation of the students’ library account and a single-sign-on link in

to the catalogue, is displayed on their portal home page every time they login.

You’ll Wonder Where the Library Went14

As I postulated in my blog posting ‘You’ll wonder where the Library went’,

although these innovations, in the way libraries can unlock their online services

and deliver them in to the daily work flow, should be welcomed and widely

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emulated, it does create a problem for the libraries themselves. Where is the

library brand inside a student portal; where is that brand in a browser plug-in;

where is it in a Google Gadget; and where is the Library influence in a student

bedroom? A dichotomy is emerging where libraries, delivering ever more useful

and powerful services to their users, are becoming less and less directly visible

within their parent organisations. Librarians must improve the marketing of

themselves within their organisations, otherwise come the next round of bids for

funding, they may have an uphill battle.

Disruption and Consolidation

Whilst these developments in the way libraries deliver services have started

to emerge, the world of the library system has not been stagnant either. Here are

just some of the events over the last couple of years:

. Sirsi and Dynix announce merger � June 2005

. OCLC Pica acquire Fretwell-Downing � November 2005

. ExLibris acquired by Francisco Partners � July 2006

. ExLibris merger with Endeavor � November 2006

. Evergreen Open source Library System runs 252 Georgia Libraries � September 2006

. Google’s Eric Schmidt promotes portability of data � November 2006

. SirsiDynix acquired by Vista � December 2006

. SirsiDynix shelves Horizon and Unicorn upgrades in favour of Rome � March 2007

. EMI and Apple to sell DRM-Free music � April 2007

. OCLC to pilot WorldCat local � April 2007

FIGURE 3

Go-go-google-gadget

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Are the monolithic library management systems provided by the vendors

mentioned, and others, fit for the 21st Century? I contend that they are not.

They are huge monolithic pieces of software that attempt to carry out every

library function. Some do have APIs, but often very limited, specific to a particular

vendor, and by definition proprietary. For these reasons, the valuable data that is

stored within them is also closed, trapped and obscured inside these systems.

The examples I showed previously are often only made possible by an innovative

system manager delivering services almost despite the Library System, not

because of it; or, as in the case of Talis Keystone, by providing a separate web

service component for an existing system.

Open Data

Even when you can get data out of your library system, is it open to add

value to others? The current model for sharing data between libraries is

fundamentally flawed. Today, libraries can pay significant amounts, up to three

times, to share their data � some Library System vendors charge for the export of

data from a local library system, then, to make their data visible, they have to

fund membership of some form of Consortium or Union, finally paying charges to

use the services to discover, access, or interlend. This financial lock-out � having

to pay to join and use, and financial lock-in-we can’t share with you because you

haven’t funded the Union, massively restricts the mobility and reuse of data. That

is not to say there is no innovation coming from the Consortia, the Unions and

those such as OCLC, but little is being done to break down the walls of the silos,

these innovations are just an exercise in putting lipstick on pigs.

If data was Open and shared it could be mobile, accessible, and useful,

adding value for all. That is not to say that things like ownership should not be

protected. Creative Commons15 for instance has been a powerful influence upon

the sharing of music and images whilst protecting the rights of the creator. The

many and varied images I use in my presentation slides come freely shared, but

nevertheless attributed, from the photo sharing site Filkr.com.16 This is a model

that has many lessons for the library world and how it could approach the

sharing of its data.

Examples of Sharing

So what can happen if we use the Web 2.0 technologies I have been

discussing, and the Open and sharing principles I espouse? Talis Source17 is an

interlending application built upon the Talis Platform which ably demonstrates this.

Talis Source, launched in the spring of 2006, was a re-engineer of a

traditional Inter Library Loan Service. Realising the benefits of commodity

hardware and software, it was possible to create a service that was free for

libraries to contribute to, free for basic discovery, and only a nominal £500 per

institution to use the interlending functionality. Anyone with experience of

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interlending will realise the dramatic difference between this and the traditional

business models for such a service. Since its launch, the service has grown to

support in excess of 200 libraries, with approximately 26 million bibliographic

records, and 55 million holdings records, all freely contributed to the Talis

Platform.18 The Talis Source application does not hold or manage the data

contributed to the Platform, all it does is use the services provided by the

Platform to create a resource discovery and interlending application. Due to this

architecture, any number of other applications can consume the same Platform

services to derive value for users in many other ways � so much more than just

Inter Library Loan.

@Libraries19 is an open source freely downloadable (from the Talis

Developer Network) browser plug-in which identifies books on the pages of

Amazon.co.uk, and provides the user with a list of libraries which hold that book.

The plug-in then uses library location information, also openly shared in the

Platform, to take the user directly to the relevant item page in the OPAC when

they click on a library that is relevant to them. The plug-in also has the capability

to select a personal set of libraries, limiting the information to those libraries that

are relevant to the user, effectively creating an ad hoc union. A typical student

will obviously be interested in the catalogue of their University library, but he/she

will also be interested in the libraries in the district where they live, their home

town and even the university and home town of their girl/boy friend. How many

traditional Unions, constructed around related subject and geographical interests

of libraries, could satisfy that need?

Aquabrowser,20 a Dutch company providing alternative online OPAC

systems, became a Talis Platform partner which enabled them to offer their service

to any library that contributed to the Platform, regardless of vendor. The Google

Scholar service also uses the data freely contributed to the Platform to enable users

of its service to identify UK libraries that hold items that they return as results.

The final example of the power and simplicity of building applications on a

Platform containing freely shared data is Talis Cenote.21 Cenote is a publicly

available, free to use, innovative search and discovery site, with a striking user

interface design. It allows users to discover items held by the 200� UK libraries

who have contributed to the Platform. In Library 2.0 style, it pulls in jacket

images, descriptions, and pricing information from other sources, and provides

deep OPAC linking to the libraries that hold the discovered items (Figure 4).

If Talis Source had not been built on a Platform, the contributing libraries

would have only seen their data in an interlending application, but because it is,

their contributions are powering many applications, adding value to users in

many ways with no extra effort.

Benefits of a Platform

So what are the key benefits of a Platform approach that these applications

demonstrate?

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Shared Functionality � applications, and their developers, share the

functionality of the Platform. Previously, every application would have to have

its own storage, indexing, search and retrieval functionality � a massive

duplication of effort. As the Platform removes all that complexity, application

builders can concentrate on what they are best at � serving the particular need of

their target users.

Shared Data � consistent storage and indexing of a single logical set of data

that has been loaded in to the Platform without the constraints of a particular

application, means that application developers again only have concentrate on

what they are best at � serving the particular need of their target users. Also, as

the data in that shared pool is added to and enhanced, all the applications that

consume that data will benefit.

Shared Innovation � as enhancements are made, and new features added to

the Platform services, all consuming applications will benefit. Also, as the

Platform is supported by an open developer community, in which they share

experiences, programming tricks, and code for the benefit of all.

FIGURE 4

Talis Cenote

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Simple Development � as the Platform implements the complex perfor-

mance critical functionality that is needed in many library applications, and

makes it accessible via simple light-weight Web Services, an application

developer does not need the in-depth skills in these areas. Powerful applications

such as I describe are effectively just user interfaces built upon simple web

service calls � well within the skill set of a web developer.

Rapid Development � as the Platform hides the complexity and removes the

requirement for specialised developers, the applications built on its Web services

can be delivered very quickly. For instance, the @Libraries plug-in took

approximately a week to produce its first release; Aquabrowser can deliver an

OPAC within 24 hours; and Talis Cenote took two developers two days to

complete � much of that being taken up producing reflections below images and

a chrome effect on the logo! Imagine using this approach in your library, it would

be entirely feasible to have separate specialised interfaces for students, staff,

researchers, specialist collections, children, and even fresher’s week, poetry week,

or any other event.

Beyond Web 2.0

I have been discussing Web 2.0 and Library 2.0, concepts, practices, tools,

and applications that are already starting to effect the world in to which we have

to deliver our services, and the way those services are developed, organised and

procured. Unfortunately, for those trying to keep abreast of what is happening,

Web 3.0 is already being talked about and having effects.

Web 3.0, like its predecessor, is just another label for a collection of

attributes. As we all know, the Web does not go through revisions like Library and

other software applications has done in the past, with a major upgrade every year

or so. It evolves from year to year, month to month, and even week to week. The

attributes associated with the term Web 3.0 are also sometimes referred to as The

Semantic Web. I prefer the term ‘A Web of Data’.

The Web of Data

The Web so far has been a Web of Documents with web pages interlinking

and referencing each other, regardless of their location. In the Web of Data,

elements of data will be able to reference other data, regardless of location.

These semantic links will enable applications to be built, not only on more than

one data set, potentially held in different systems by different organisations, but

also the semantic relationships between those data.

Describing The Web of Data is a whole other subject, but I will give one

small example of how it will add value to a future library experience. One of the

key requirements of a search interface is to return results in a relevant order,

providing the user with the most appropriate results first. This has been worked

upon in many library systems, using item usage statistics etc. Imagine, if you will,

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a Web 3.0 library system which, as well as bibliographic and circulation data at its

disposal, could also build on the semantic relationships with a course reading list

system and the university administration system. In such a system, the relevance

ranking of a book on the reading list for the course that the searching student is

enrolled, would be greatly increased. As I say, one simple example that just

scratches the surface of the potential for using semantics in our world � it is no

accident that the Platform that is powering applications such as Talis Cenote is

built around Semantic Web technologies ready to take advantage of them at its

core as they evolve.

I have covered many topics in the journey through Web 2.0, Library 2.0 and

on to Web 3.0. To summarise, many of the visible attributes of Library 2.0 are

Blogs, Wikis, RSS, tagging etc., These are valuable assets in striving to reach out

and include our users, and should be embraced whole-heartedly by all libraries.

However, there is something more fundamental occurring, the Web 2.0

technologies are enabling the data and services within our systems to reach

out as well � the users of our systems are not broken, our systems are � these

technologies will help us solve that problem. Openness is key to the future of

libraries � Open Systems, Open APIs, Open Data, and Open Minds. All this is taking

place with a background of disruption and consolidation in the Library Systems

Marketplace � this coupled with the technological changes afoot will result in

future systems being built from components potentially obtained from many

vendors and other sources including Open source.

Talis is at the forefront of much of these fundamental changes, not only

contributing to, and often leading, the Open debate, but also in building a

Platform for Talis, and most importantly, others including libraries and other

vendors to build their applications upon. The Platform is a significant example of

Library 2.0 in action. Oh yes, and do not forget, The Web of Data (Web 3.0)

holding the promise of massive benefits in the future, releasing the power locked

up in the semantic relationships between data.

Notes

1. The Saltire Centre, Glasgow Caledonian University, http://www.gcal.ac.uk/thesal

tirecentre/

2. LibratyThing.com, http://www.librarything.com/

3. Second Life, http://www.secondlife.com/

4. Talis, http://www.talis.com

5. Liveplasma, http://www.liveplasma.com/

6. Amazon, http://www.amazon.com

7. Amazon Web Services, http://aws.amazon.com/

8. Talis Base, http://www.talis.com/applications/products/talis_base.shtml

9. Lamson Library, Plymouth State University, http://www.plymouth.edu/library/

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10. University of Huddersfield Library, http://webcat.hud.ac.uk/ipac20/ipac.jsp?force

logout�true&profile�cls&lang�eng#focus

11. Ann Arbour District Library, Michigan, http://www.aadl.org/

12. Go-go-google-gadget, http://www.talis.com/tdn/node/1524

13. Talis Keystone, http://www.talis.com/keystone

14. You’ll wonder where the Library went: http://blogs.talis.com/panlibus/archives/

2005/04/youll_wonder_wh.php

15. Creative Commons, http://creativecommons.org/

16. Flickr.com, http://www.flickr.com/

17. Talis Source, http://www.talis.com/source/

18. Talis Platform, http://www.talis.com/applications/developers/index.shtml

19. @Libraries, http://www.talis.com/tdn/greasemonkey/amazon-libraries

20. Aquabrowser, http://www.aquabrowseronline.com/

21. Talis Cenote, http://cenote.talis.com

Richard Wallis, Technology Evangelist, Talis. E-mail: [email protected]

64 RICHARD WALLIS

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