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Browsing Library by Subject "APIs"

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    Strangers in a strange land no longer: using APIs to create a seamless user experience
    (2014) Betz, Sonya
    Betz discusses how her library embarked on a dramatic re-visioning of their online space. Instead of sending students out into the scary (and not so user-friendly) world of disparate vendor user interfaces, they began using commercial and home-grown APIs to keep students wthe library in a fully integrated and customized web environment. They developed a fully-featured iOS app that integrates APIs and web services from Ebsco Discovery Service, Sirsi Symphony, and the Atlas Ares eReserves software. She talks about the big benefits of keeping Library users "in-house."
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    Taking control of discovery: in-house development to improve student experience and break down silos
    (2014) Popowich, Sam; Betz, Sonya
    When it comes to software, libraries have many more options today than they did ten years ago. While still reliant on vendors for some aspects of library software, more and more libraries are turning to in-house development and open-source software to take back a measure of control over their data and their users’ experience. MacEwan University and University of Alberta Libraries are both taking advantage of these new options in software development to create discovery and access systems that are more flexible and more intuitive. While these libraries differ greatly in their focus, and in the needs and requirements of their users, their approach to discovery has evolved along a similar path, with similar outcomes. Do projects like those at MacEwan and U of A represent a fundamental shift in how libraries understand discovery, or more broadly, a shift in how they understand their relationship with software vendors? This presentation examines the discovery projects at U of A and MacEwan, and probe some of the big-picture questions such projects raise.