Open Library Developers Meeting
March 11th, 2008 by Roy
I’ve been remiss in not quickly reporting on the Open Library Developer’s Meeting I attended on Friday, February 29. The purpose of the meeting was to “introduce developers to the Open Library framework so that other library developers can start building on it, as well as discussing some outstanding issues.” They listed potential issues as: designing the schema, designing the APIs, library participation, FRBRizing, reconciling different data sources, representing journals, and picking identifiers.
As it turned out, given the ad hoc nature of the agenda (jotted on a flipchart moments before the speaking started), not all of these topics were addressed. The meeting began with a few run-throughs of existing infrastructure and technologies by Open Library staff (about six strong, funded by the Internet Archive and a state grant), then was followed up with break-out sessions. Break-out session topics included user experience, book viewer options, identifiers, catalog data and merging, and Wikipedia links.
There were approximately 35 people in attendance, including Open Library staff and Brewster Kahle. Libraries represented ran the gamut from the Library of Congress and OCLC to the Missouri Botanical Gardens and Oregon State University. Others came from organizations such as Wikimedia and Creative Commons.
Those of you who weren’t there but are curious can always watch the movie.
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