June 29, 2010, 08:00 AM ET

Hacking Your Library's Catalog: SMS and RSS

It's probably been a long time since any of us have used an actual library card catalog, standing in front of the long wooden drawer, searching for a book by author, title, or subject heading. You don't need to hear it from me that there's been a revolution in the way we search our libraries for material.

I'm not so convinced, however, that what we do after we find our results has changed much. Do you still jot down call numbers on sticky notes before heading over to your institution's library? Do you still rely on library slips to keep track of due dates? Do you still print a hardcopy list of your dozens and dozens of check-outs?

Many ProfHacker readers already know that Zotero can capture citations directly from an online catalog's search results. But you don't need a laptop and a browser to make the most of your library catalog. I want to highlight several lightweight tools that can complement Zotero, giving you new ways to keep manage your library life.

SMS

I'll begin with a straightforward tool that more and more libraries are offering: the ability to send call numbers in a text message. Most libraries let you email yourself a citation, but again, that doesn't do you much good unless you're also carrying your open laptop all over the library. You could print the call number too, but why waste the paper? Instead, look for a phone icon similar to this:

text options

Type in your cell number and your carrier, and you'll get something like this sent as a text message to your phone:

sms received

This is just like receiving a text message from your Aunt Mathilda, so note that standard messaging rates apply. But if you have SMS bundled with your mobile service, this can be a quick and easy way to keep your library wishlist with you at all times. And best of all, since text messaging works with even the most modest cell phone, you don't need a fancy smart phone with a $30/month data plan. Just one more reason to hold on to that Motorola V60 from 2001.

If you explore your library's site, you might discover there's even more you can do with SMS. I am fortunate that my institution belongs to the Washington Research Library Consortium (WRLC), which offers a fantastic collective online catalog, allowing me to search (and request books from) nine research libraries in the greater D.C. area. The WRLC has been quite forward-thinking with its mobile services. For example, I can also sign up to receive text alerts about upcoming due dates and recalled books:

RSS

In addition to SMS, many libraries offer RSS (Real Simple Syndication) tools. RSS is the draft horse of social media. It's now longer a sexy new technology, but it is nonetheless a powerful mechanism for receiving pushed content. In this case, check out whether your library offers an RSS feed of your library items. The Washington Research Library Consortium, for example, provides several feeds:

rss options

I subscribe to "All Checked out Items" in Google Reader, which means I always have a record of what I have checked out, even long after I have returned the books. This comes in quite handy when you're trying to remember that book you checked out three years ago but which somebody recalled before you ever had a chance to look at it.

Notice that the WRLC also offers an iCal feed of your due dates. You can subscribe to an iCal calendar in a number of ways. In my case, I use Google Calendar. This means that as September 30, 2010 looms ahead, I can see everything due that day. Each book has its own icon, and you can display more information about a book by hovering over its icon.

calendar feed

Unlike SMS tools, the RSS feeds aren't something I use every day. Rather, I see them as archival tools that let me look back in time and see what books I had checked out when.

How about you?

We realize that not every student, staff, or faculty member will have access to these kinds of tools. If not, have you hacked your library's card catalog in other ways? If you do have access to SMS or RSS through your library, have you found other creative uses for them? Are we missing something? Let us know!

And keep your eye open for part 2 of "Hacking Your Library's Catalog," in which we'll look at some helpful mobile apps that you might not know about.

[Image Credits: Catalog Card made by Mark Sample using John Blyberg's Catalog Card Generator; Other screen shots by Mark Sample]

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Comments

1. drnels - June 29, 2010 at 11:13 am

I'm suddenly really happy that my university's library has the same due dates for faculty each semester: the end of it. I never have to think about when books are due because they are all due the same day no matter when I check them out. I think we also get emails before they are due, but I usually have them back before then. I also guess it's unusual to remember the call numbers rather than write them down or have them recorded for us in some other form? I guess I usually don't check much out and know where the books generally are. Right now, I'm spending a lot of time in the NX section.

2. lithewish - June 30, 2010 at 09:52 am

I don't know about catalog hacks, but we teach how to "research while you sleep." Set up a carefully precise search in your favorite database journal collection [E.g. My brother, the microbiology researcher, might do an advanced search for (CBM OR Coal Bed Methane) AND methagens in ScienceDirect].

Then, just set up an RSS search alert to email you or alert your feed whenever new articles are published. Nearly every database has RSS for searches and individual journals these days.

Ask your librarian if you have questions on the best search or alert options.

3. lithewish - June 30, 2010 at 09:54 am

MethaNOgens. Sorry. Clearly I'm not the researcher.

4. lagcc_ctl - June 30, 2010 at 10:47 am

Can you please add diigo to your share tools? I'd like to share this and other Chronicle articles with my librarian colleagues via diigo.

5. ridie - June 30, 2010 at 11:25 am

What tools does a library need to offer this text service? I would love to start this at our library.

6. jmeloni - June 30, 2010 at 04:14 pm

@lagcc_ctl unfortunately, we at ProfHacker don't have the access to modify such things at the Chronicle. I'd send a note to Josh Fischman, Sr. Editor for the Technology section, at josh.fischman@chronicle.com.

7. stevekemple - June 30, 2010 at 11:01 pm

This might qualify to some degree or another. Having a mild obsession with iGoogle, I found a way to include both my library's catalog search page as well as our index to historical local newspapers. I do this using the "Include Gadget", which uses an html iframe to embed the pages... so I can search our catalog and local newspapers side by side in the same window (in a dedicated reference tab that also includes a number of other nifty and useful but less clever resources). I also have a notepad gadget in the middle of the window so I can easily keep a running list of notes and citations.

8. mbelvadi - July 01, 2010 at 08:40 am

The use of RSS for your checked-out history is intriguing. A difficult issue librarians face is the conflict between wanting to protect patron privacy by purging from the ILS the history of books each user has checked out (after the books are returned of course) so that investigators of various ilk can't get the data later with or without a subpoena, versus the convenience to the user that you describe, of seeing their own past history. Providing a simple way for the user to keep their own local copy of that history, allowing the library to purge their central computers, may be a good solution.

On the other hand, I wonder what percent of our students and faculty use RSS at all? I have never once had a patron ask me for RSS functionality relating to anything to do with the library, nor heard the same from colleagues (who would come to me as systems librarian with that kind of request). We don't have that functionality yet, but I'm sure we could add it (we have Evergreen, an open source ILS so we can change it as we like) if we had reason to believe it would be worth the effort to do so.