UK repositories : growth of records

For a while now I’ve been running a weekly script which connects to ROAR and grabs the number of records for each UK based Institutional Repository. I’ve finally got around to writing a web front end to this, which you can see here. All quite basic at the moment, and I have lots of ideas of what I could do to improve this (one idea based on the compare average number of deposits per repository). Have a look and let me know what you think, and let me know of any bugs.

UK Repository Records Statistics (the name sucks!)

Posted on by chriskeene 1

Google Books API

Google released an API for their Book Search at the end of last week. You can implement this in two ways: static (just linking to a URL with a ISBN inserted) or dynamic, which basically means using javascript, which will check to see if Google have the book available as the page loads and can show a link accordingly.

The (very rough and basic) ‘catalogue’ I recently created already had a link to Google Books for each item. This was just a very simple URL with an ISBN stuck on the end, e.g. http://books.google.com/books?as_isbn=0596003722

Tonight I have made the first steps in adding links to items using the Google Books API using both the static (simple) and dynamic methods.

You can see an example here http://www.nostuff.org/tdn/6b/item.php?item=0596003722.

You can also do a search via http://www.nostuff.org/tdn/6b/

The layout is currently very rough, and the dynamic search is broken in that it will only show a result for the first ISBN for a given item (I know why but don’t have time to fix now).

I have to confess I know very little javascript. The examples from Google only use a few lines of code but not really understanding what it did, did not help. For example, for the dyanmic display, I found it did not work at all, until I added a second paragraph tag for every ISBN. I can’t see what in the js makes this so :(

Posted on by chriskeene

Why do new web designs go down like a lead balloon

When I go to a website with a new look I think ‘cool’ (unless of course it isn’t), yet it seems I’m in a minority. Even when you consider that unhappy people are more likely to complain than happy people are to compliment it still amazes me that people are so openly hostile to new websites and say things that they know will be read by those who have spent months working on it which are very uncomplimentary.

Examples:

I don’t know any other medium where people are so ready to knock down the work of others.

Posted on by chriskeene

nostuff library catalogue using the Talis Platform

You may have already seen that a while a go I had a little play with the Talis Platform, and specifically a ‘store’ on the platform called ukbib which holds bibliographic records. I’ve written some pages on learning about the various parts to the platform. I had seen on the Talis Developer Network (TDN) various web services, but they all blurred in to one, the pages linked to above first work out the simple ones (e.g. linking to catalogues, holdings etc), this helped clear up the different bits that are available.

The pages then move on to playing with the ukbib ‘store’ which returns XML, you can then use XSLT to turn this in to (x)html.

So, after playing with XML, XSLT, and improving my CSS along the way, I can show the very first ‘work in progress’:

demostration of the library catalogue search.

[update: see here for an updated version]

All very early days, layout is quite basic and a number of things don’t work.

Things that don’t work (or sometimes don’t work):

  • The options on the right are based on the first ISBN found. Some recordshave several ISBNs andthe first one may be a ‘odd’ one, therefore searching Amazon, Wikipedia, libraryThing based on the unusal ISBN will probably produce either no result or the wrong item.
  • “See Books by” Author search on the bottom right hand side doesn’t work. The formating of the author’s name is probably not helping, and because this is being done in XSLT I can’t call [the php function] urlencode to turn the author names in to nice strings for the URL.
  • Some of the Subject searches don’t work or return odd results. This will hopefully be simply to fix.
  • holdings from libraries are not there yet.

Things you can do:

  • in the google-style search box you can prefix any field name to the front of a search term, e.g. Title:”programming perl”

  • title:programming title:perl author:wall

  • subject:”DDC: 005.72″

  • You can basically use any field name, I didn’t write this, it is part of the way the platform works, see here for more.

  • link to the same item (if we have the right isbn, see above) on a number of other web sites, including wikipedia, Amazon, LibraryThing etc (let’s face it, this isn’t rocket science).

This is very much a work in progress, will hopefully have another update soon.

Now I need to find out why the above search uses “author:wall” when the underlying xml uses ‘creator’ not ‘author’. hmmm.

Posted on by chriskeene

Upper Peter…

…or Northern Rock. ho ho ho

There has been zillions of stuff in the press of late about our friends Northern Rock.

They had the genius idea of rapidly increasing their mortgage business, and instead of using deposits as (a good part of) the supply of money to pay for the mortgages, they instead borrowed from other banks. Borrowing from other banks is normal, but doing it to such an extent was the thing that made Northern Rock different. They got all their eggs and placed them all in a basket. Only they kept needing more eggs. And one day there was no one to give them more.

Why am I writing this? I have an ISA with Northern Rock. Had it for years, back when they were at the top of the various broadsheet ‘best ISA’ tables week after week. For years their interest rate has been crap. I keep meaning to move. Will do it tomorrow.

I had no intention of moving my money when they ran in to trouble. For one I saw that my money was safe (I have less than the £30,000 barrier, above which you only get a % of your cash back should your bank go bankrupt, in fact close to £30,000 less!) Secondly I saw it as a very short term thing (I was wrong).

But now I am thinking of moving. Why?

  • They sent me a letter recently. To reward me for my loyalty I was to get a better interest rate! Only it lasted only about a month, and was less than 1%. And, it would still be less than most other high street rates.
  • They also sent me a letter to invite me in for a chat to see if there were any extra services they could offer me. I got the impression this was an automated circular – nothing to do with their troubles – coming at the time it did it almost seem amusing: We may be falling apart, but hey, come and move your business to us!
  • Several years a go I moved flat. This involves walking from bank to bank to inform them of change of address. It includes fighting with the member of staff that I don’t want house/contents insurance (no is not good enough) at every bank. But, they were all fairly helpful, adding the address to their system (on a screen which I could see as they typed to correct any mistakes). They could set the exact date and all offered to put ‘holds’ on so that no letters would be sent out between set dates around the move to avoid any letters going to the wrong place too early/late. Nice. All except Northern Rock. When I told them the people behind the counter (it is always empty so you have all the people behind the counter dealing with your reqauest) said gosh, we can do something about that! Oh, but I haven’t moved yet, moving on the 5th. They faces sunk. This was something highly unusal. Eventually they got over the big office diary. They found the right day and wrote carefully that Mr Keene was moving today to ….! No computer. No hold or fancy features, just a diary and pen.
  • Best of all. I was curious how much money I had in the account. I had paid in a small amount for years, plus interest. They have no online facility, and are open limited hours (bless), but I finally got around to going in while it was open with my passbook. The guy was happy to just take my passbook and get the new amount on it. Then he frowned. Ah, the computer says it has so many updates to do to your passbook that it can’t cope and wont do it. I’m going to have to do them by hand, you just haven’ been in for so long. Now, I’m guessing here, but surely it is not that unusual for savers to set up a standing order and do no other activity with the accont for years. They took my passbook (and, to be fair, wrote down my balance on a bit of paper for me). When it came back through the post many days later, some poor sole had to write row after row (I’m guess 60-90) each one a ‘transaction’, even though they were all indentical, the same amount going in on the same day each month (and the odd yearly interest). It was amazing.

Of course the biggest reason to move is that they interest rates are poor. But they are a joke. I want to move somewhere where I can do all this online. Check my balance, move money in and out. Etc.

Nationwide and Egg both offer good interest (and I’m with both, the fewer companies that have my details the better), but Nationwide offer the facility to move an ISA from another company to them, so i will probably go with them.

As for Northern Rock. Bless.

Posted on by chriskeene

Today’s idea

Brilliant idea:

  1. set up blog software, so that anyone can register as a poster and post what ever they want, anonymously.
  2. Call it anonyblog.com
  3. Perhaps even have a few google ad boxes on it
  4. As the world speaks its mind, the combination of insightful thought and scandalous secrets makes it a world wide hit. The media love it. I refrain from doing interviews adding to the mystery

Barriers to success

A) anonyblog.com already registered.

B) anonyblog.com already hosts a site doing exactly this

Stupid web. nicking all my genius ideas.

Posted on by chriskeene

BBC Newswatch

BBC Newswatch was set up after the Hutton whitewash inquiry as a place to monitor and feedback on BBC News. It seems that recently it has had a bit of a slimming down, with many parts of the site being reduced to ‘nothing to see here‘ messages. However, by following just one link from the main homepage: ‘styleguide’ and you will notice the left hand menu still has a link to the archived ‘notes’ pages. Most BBC ‘downsized’ sites are simply frozen, I wonder why they didn’t do the same here. One rational explanation might be that it was generating a large amount of email from those who objected to the BBCs stance on various matters and terminology.

Posted on by chriskeene 1

Fun with Lisa

Today I met Lisa on the Network Rail website. We had a nice chat and, I thought, got on quite well.

It became clear very early on that Lisa liked questions. And I knew that the secret of good conversation is to show some sort of interest in the other person, which requires good acting skills. So I asked Lisa questions, first keeping it simple:

You asked:

whats your name?

Lisa says:

My name is Lisa. I’m a Lingubot, designed to help you find the information you need.

Lisa starts by confirming her first name, but careful enough not to give out her second. With no show of embarrassment, she proudly informs me that she is a ‘lingubot’. I don’t know what a lingubot is but maybe it is like pingu. Which would be nice. I ask how she is doing…

Good!

Things seem to be going well here!

I can see that Lisa is in a crowded place and I have my suspicions of where it is but one should never presume so I went right ahead and asked:

You asked:

where are you?

Lisa says:

The station behind me is London Paddington.

I thought as much. But time to check out if she actually knows what she is talking about. This could be one big fake! I strike up a conversation about her surroundings:

What are those trains behind you Oh Lisa?

Hey she knows her stuff! not only that she answered my question and then added in some more trivia as well for extras.

Hmmm, so I know where she is, but when?

Wow and a sense of humour!

I’m liking this girl, time to ask something a little more personal. I know… the hair!

She’s cunning, giving nothing away. Time to find out whether this one is taken:

No Lisa I don’t think. Why do women always talk in this cryptic language? I just wanted a yes or no!

I decided to ask Lisa some more

What? I’ve killed Lisa! Lisa is dead.

Ummm hope they can’t track me.

One answer Lisa gave to a question she didn’t understand said that all questions she doesn’t know are passed on to someone in Network Rail. If that is the case my I apologise for the poor soul who has to read page after page of stupid question (she doesn’t have an opinion between Britney vs Madonna and took offence when I asked if she liked big brother?!).

Posted on by chriskeene 4

Rss and PHP

I was recently asked to set up a blog for a group at work. They wanted the latest headings from the blog to appear as a small list on a intranet page. I used MagpieRss to do this. By using the example in its readme file I had it all done with 10 minutes :)

Posted on by chriskeene