Information Takes Over

A few folks have pointed out the Lookybook beta. Some though have slightly missed the point. This is an interesting example of an online store that allows you to have a look at exactly what you get if you buy. It has links to del.icio.us, and other social sharing sites that allow you to spread the word-of-mouth that will sell their books.

I am sure it is not, as some people seem to think, a source of free books to view online.

However, it is rather a nice example of what you can do if you take a bit of a risk and open up your content.

Now imagine the lookybook interface as the interface to your junior library catalogue!

While walking round the Business park, some time ago now, Richard and I got to talking about enquiries that you get in libraries from the great unwashed book reading public.   One I mentioned was the classic:

“I borrowed a book three months ago.  I can’t remember who wrote it or what it was called, but it was blue.”

So we got to thinking about how you could construct a search in a modern online catalogue to help with this query.  And that is how www.colourphon.co.uk was born.

We are building what will become a service, to take an image and return the most frequent colours in both a human readable and machine readable form.  If you have a look at the example links below, you will see results of our weighted ’scan’.  This analysis attempts to add weight to colours that it finds most frequently toward the centre of the image.

Need an example?  These examples will take a moment or two to calculate…

Try this one: Test number one. An ISBN lookup.
This one: Test number two. A Weigted URL
Or this one: Test number three. Another URL

Thought provoking? We’d welcome your comments over on the colourphon blog.

Just came across this useful looking data while looking for Haringey Central Library. Visions of people “lost in carparks”. Is this a prank? or is it a determined effort to come to the aid of people who never seem to be able to get out of carparks without going round twice?

The real answer may be that it is deliberate data or errors to act as a fingerprint so that any infringements of rights can be traced…

Technorati Tags: car park, google maps, google, GPS, Haringey

I have recently treated myself to a slighty more modern phone, and have been revisiting avenues that I went down with the old one before hitting big red technological walls.

Today I have been having another look at QR-codes, and the reader that you can download to your phone.

Why not generate them for your library? It could be a very simple impementation,

• Encode a link (URL) for each subject area (class search maybe) that you have and place them around the library (there is the small caveat that your online catalogue should render readably on a small screen device ).
• Or perhaps have an encoded phone number printed on the datelabel, so that people on trains who suddenly realise their book is overdue can renew by phone. (Not limited to trains of course!)
• Or add them to the bottom of all your posters so that there is a web page offerring more event information or competition entry details.

This is SO easy, and you can make a mobile users life more interesting!

Tell me if you are doing this already?

It’s been some time since I last had time to write a quick blog post.  In the past month, we have moved to Wolverhampton and finally found a cinema with more than one screen; been to the Isle of Wight and visited as many National Trust and English Heritage properties as possible; One of us has started a new job, and is looking for a folding cycle to play on the trains with; the other of us is painting anything that stands still long enough.

But we are back online, Broadband is enabled, and wireless rules.

So what have you been up to in the last month?