Nicole Engard
Nicole Engard, VP, Education at Bywater Solutions and author of the newly published book, More Library Mashups: Exploring New Ways to Deliver Library Data (Information Today, 2014), began with a brief introduction to mashups and then illustrated them with some examples.
A mashup is a single integrated tool created from a combination of sources. Mashups are used to create and share content more efficiently, provide better services to library users, and add value to websites and catalogs. They connect Web service data using Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) which pass information back and forth (like cars going across a bridge). APIs have grown rapidly since 2005 (see The Programmable Web–a database of APIs). To use mashups, one must ask vendors for APIs, create RSS feeds for library content, sign up for social networking sites, and use tools to create the mashup.
Tools for mashup creation generally do not require the user to have programming knowledge. Some of them are:
- Yahoo! Pipes: Many sources of data and mash to one source. Simple web-based flow chart interface.
- IFTTT (If This Then That): Easy to create connections between multiple services using a simple trigger/action model.
- ScribbleMaps: Create a map mashup with simple drag/drop tools and menus.
- OpenRefine: Cleaning messy data, extending it and linking it to databases.
- Fusion tables: Create visualizations from data.
Slides with examples are available on Nicole’s website.
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