VuFind & Fish4info

http://www.vufind.org/
http://fish4info.org

Yesterday, we had a great demo from Chris Harris of Genessee Valley BOCES on their fish4info.org site.
Fish4info (still in the early stages of production, but soon to be open source) and VuFind (open source, released this summer) are products that will allow libraries to essentially replace an ILS's poor user interface OPAC by displaying catalog data in an easier format for patrons to use that also integrates Web 2.0 features. While Fish4Info is tailored more towards K-12 school libraries, VuFind is more of a broad spectrum product. Our library has also been working on a similar grant project and if everything goes right *fingers crossed* will start creating an open source product in the coming months. Exciting stuff!

Ryerson University Library - 2.0 Tools

Check out some tools that Ryerson University Library has created for their patrons: http://www.ryerson.ca/library/library20/

They've got several tools they've created to connect library resources to outside services including Amazon, Firefox and Facebook. I wonder if we should be putting some energy into creating tools like these. Why not immerse ourselves into the services and sites students use on a regular basis? A quick check on their Facebook app shows that over 250 users have already installed the Ryerson App on their Facebook profile.