Comments on: Technosocial scenarios for Sutton: 1: The library http://blog.adrianshort.co.uk/2009/03/10/technosocial-scenarios-for-sutton-1-the-library/ Government web design, open data, transparency, etc. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 12:21:59 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Adrian Short http://blog.adrianshort.co.uk/2009/03/10/technosocial-scenarios-for-sutton-1-the-library/comment-page-1/#comment-354 Adrian Short Wed, 11 Mar 2009 14:15:12 +0000 http://adrianshort.co.uk/?p=299#comment-354 Most of this is based around the library itself having an open API that permits the following: - get a list of new acquisitions - reserve an item for a member - lend an item to a member RFID is a bit of a red herring here, perhaps. All that's required is to be able to easily identify items (eg. books) and members. To use the API, members (via their client applications) will need to be authenticated. Let's say the underlying database is something like this with these three tables: Members ======= id name password Items ===== id date_acquired author title Loans ===== id member_id item_id date_borrowed date_due There would also be a Reservations table which would be similar to Loans but I'll ignore that. Checking out a book means creating a new record in the Loans table. If we were happy just to type in a URL into a browser we might be able to type: http://api.sutton-libraries.gov.uk/loans-create?member_id=12323&password=mysecret&item_id=989834 and the response from the /loans-create script might be: OK: loan_id=4389834, date_due=2009-03-25 or: ERROR: You have unpaid fines of £7.34. or: ERROR: You have borrowed 10 items and that's your lot. While this is probably not how you'd implement this in practice, an API that worked exactly like this would be entirely viable. If such a thing existed, it would be easy for the council or third parties to build applications on top of it, whether for the web, specific mobile phone platforms, desktop OSes or whatever. Getting a list of new acquisitions as Atom would be very straightforward. It's just a script that queries the Items table and creates a feed with the most recent x items sorted by date_acquired. The client application on the mobile phone could just be a (mobile) web app. Cameraphones could scan the optical barcodes that are still on items to identify them and the member's library card to identify the member. There isn't really much in the way of new technology needed here, just the willingness of the library's software vendor to provide an API to their database and for the council to switch it on. Most of this is based around the library itself having an open API that permits the following:

- get a list of new acquisitions
- reserve an item for a member
- lend an item to a member

RFID is a bit of a red herring here, perhaps. All that’s required is to be able to easily identify items (eg. books) and members. To use the API, members (via their client applications) will need to be authenticated.

Let’s say the underlying database is something like this with these three tables:

Members
=======
id
name
password

Items
=====
id
date_acquired
author
title

Loans
=====
id
member_id
item_id
date_borrowed
date_due

There would also be a Reservations table which would be similar to Loans but I’ll ignore that.

Checking out a book means creating a new record in the Loans table. If we were happy just to type in a URL into a browser we might be able to type:

http://api.sutton-libraries.gov.uk/loans-create?member_id=12323&password=mysecret&item_id=989834

and the response from the /loans-create script might be:

OK: loan_id=4389834, date_due=2009-03-25

or:

ERROR: You have unpaid fines of £7.34.

or:

ERROR: You have borrowed 10 items and that’s your lot.

While this is probably not how you’d implement this in practice, an API that worked exactly like this would be entirely viable. If such a thing existed, it would be easy for the council or third parties to build applications on top of it, whether for the web, specific mobile phone platforms, desktop OSes or whatever.

Getting a list of new acquisitions as Atom would be very straightforward. It’s just a script that queries the Items table and creates a feed with the most recent x items sorted by date_acquired.

The client application on the mobile phone could just be a (mobile) web app. Cameraphones could scan the optical barcodes that are still on items to identify them and the member’s library card to identify the member. There isn’t really much in the way of new technology needed here, just the willingness of the library’s software vendor to provide an API to their database and for the council to switch it on.

]]> By: Tom Chance http://blog.adrianshort.co.uk/2009/03/10/technosocial-scenarios-for-sutton-1-the-library/comment-page-1/#comment-352 Tom Chance Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:44:38 +0000 http://adrianshort.co.uk/?p=299#comment-352 This all sounds great, the main question to my mind is: how? It would be interesting to sketch out the stakeholders who would need to work together to make this kind of thing possible. Also ,what could the library service do to facilitate this or some similar process without the phone app, RFID-enabled phones and bookshop stuff in place? What could they do with RSS/Atom feeds, for instance, and how could this happen? This all sounds great, the main question to my mind is: how?

It would be interesting to sketch out the stakeholders who would need to work together to make this kind of thing possible.

Also ,what could the library service do to facilitate this or some similar process without the phone app, RFID-enabled phones and bookshop stuff in place? What could they do with RSS/Atom feeds, for instance, and how could this happen?

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