Toronto 2.0
I was thrilled to open up this morning's Globe and see an article about the City of Toronto and open data: Toronto 2.0: Data Sharing Source.
A few weeks ago we created a post about opening up the Library's data because making our content accessible and mash-able is a priority for the Library.
Today's article talks about Toronto being a real leader in social computing uptake and also a innovator in civic engagement. It specifically talks about Change Camp, which took place last weekend. Change Camp's mandate:
"How do we re-imagine government and citizenship
in the age of participation?"
At the Library we imagine many possibilities. Like you looking for a book from your mobile phone and then being able to get TTC, driving or walking directions to the nearest available copy. We also imagine you browsing the internet and being able to see related Library resources and programming information. We're not entirely there yet, but the willingness and the motivation is and the capabilities are definitely coming along.
The web team will be at Toronto's Mesh Conference again this year and are looking forward to a lively discussion about social computing and open data that meets civic needs. So if you happen to also be attending, make sure you stop one of us for a chat.
It is an exciting time for us here at the Library and for all Torontonians!
Library tip for accessing news online: Do you ever get a "To continue reading, you will need to purchase this article." message from newspaper websites? That message is your cue to go to the Library's website where you will able to find, read and print the full text of newspapers articles that are no longer available through the news company's website. As always, it's free, with your Library card.
6 thoughts on “Toronto 2.0”
Great news. I really admire what the team has done during the last few months. It has made the entire system a pleasure to use (though the old system wasn’t so bad by any means!).
Great work. Keep it up. Looking forward to future improvements.
Hi Dara,
http://Blinkmonitor.com/ lists the recent tech books at the OPL. It is an experiment; what do you think? Maybe it would be useful for Toronto too, and other libraries.
Thanks,
Rick
Hey Rick, This is very cool! Great idea for the ‘campy’ community. At the moment we’re coordinating our librarian expertise into blogs about our collections, programs and services on a range of topics such as Career and Job Search Help, Consumer Health Info, Children’s Literature & Reading (coming soon!) and others.
Tech isn’t in the queue at the moment but it’s a good idea. So far we’ve been promoting access to online Safari books and have created a short url for it
torontopubliclibrary.ca/safari
The Ottawa library unfortunately cancelled its Safari access. I have to pay $20/m, which hurts for some one like me with ‘short arms and deep pockets’.
Tech moves so quickly that books are often obsolete in a year. That’s a problem for libraries and patrons. What are other public libraries doing?
Maybe Blinkmonitor needs a more structured DB, with an ISBN field so it is easier to cross reference with other web sites.
Hello, I like that tip about getting full articles through the library site! (In the past, I’ve just googled the sentence and it seem to find it in a different site… but not always reliable.) Thanks for all the improvements.
I love the feature how I get notification through email rather than the phone and what material they are notifying me about. I just got an email saying my books are overdue. Unfortunately, I’m scatterbrained, lost my little slip with the due date and forgot to check into my account to find out and now it’s too late. Is there any way to set the notification to the borrower that the material is due in (1 or 2) days as a reminder before the due date? Then I can choose to renew or just return for another holder?
Thanks!
Hi Susan,
Thanks for your kind words. Right now, our system is only able to notify you by email after your materials are already overdue. Plenty of people have mentioned that they would like to get a reminder before the due date. We will let the company that makes our system know that this is an enhancement we’d really like to see.
Sandra