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Circumvention using the Cloud?

Tim Ribaric @elibtronic

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Probably not 5 minutes worth

  • This details a workaround for our ILS
  • Doesn't natively support RSS
  • I wanted a 'New Books' Feed
  • Uses 'Cloud' (*bleech*) technologies
  • Simple, but ended up being empowering

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'Cloud' Based

Dropbox Public Folder

Any files in this folder will be publicly accessible on the web

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'Cloud' Based

Dropbox Public Folder

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'Cloud' Based

Yahoo Pipes

'Magic' web service that will mush together various web services

Has 'Fetch CSV' & 'Create RSS' tools

Very useful for many other things too

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'Cloud' Based

Yahoo Pipes

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Setup Steps

  • Clone a Yahoo Pipe
  • Change value of URL field & Description of Pipe
  • Create a block on LibGuide page etc.

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Monthly Steps

  • Take spreadsheet created by Collections
  • Convert to CSV file with two columns URL,TITLE
  • Copy to Dropbox Public Folder

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End Product

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Pretty Good Uptake

My colleagues seem to like it

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Pretty Good Uptake

16 or so clones

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Pretty Good Uptake

Works well with LibGuides

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Pretty Simple Process

  • Demo-ing this I felt like I was wasting the time of my colleagues
  • I thought it was 'too simple'
  • Turns out it was a really empowering exercise
  • It is easy to lost perspective on what counts

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Script to convert

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  • https://github.com/elibtronic/book_for_RSS_prep
  • Almost criminally simple
  • Will make monthly process even shorter

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Fin

Blog Post:

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http://elibtronic.ca/content/20120207/dead-simple-new-books-rss-feed

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Any examples of awesome circumvention?

Any examples of using that Dropbox public folder?

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Tim Ribaric

@elibtronic