The Highland Park Public Library is using a tool called Speakwire. Follow the link to Speakwire from their blog (Highland Park has the link near the bottom of the right navigation column — “Want this blog to read to you? Click Here”) and after a few seconds’ pause, you’ll start to hear the blog entries read to you. The voice is synthesized but utterly understandable.
Bridging the gap between blogs and podcasts, Speakwire opens an interesting set of possibilities to reach vision-impaired patrons with library news and announcements.
Another tool, called “Talkr,” goes a bit further — it will turn blog entries into podcasts that you can download to play on your MP3 player while you’re offline. Talkr offers three podcasts for free; you can subscribe to their service to receive more.
[Via Shifted Librarian and Web4Lib.]
Month: June 2005
Innovative Interfaces and RSS… Coming [Not] Soon [Enough]
[Sorry for the long gap between postings — I was on vacation.]
RSS is coming to Innovative Interfaces library management system. The Shifted Librarian highlighted this news release late last week, noting that Innovative makes a mention of RSS on page 8 of their June 2005 INN-Touch newsletter:
Innovative will use RSS to support one-to-many communication, but in Release 2006 there will also be one-to-one support. Patrons will be able to get RSS messages as part of their My Millennium suite of personalization features. Timely messages such as “Materials due tomorrow” or “New item on hold shelf for you” will let patrons know about their interactions with the library more quickly than ever before. […]
“Our users are familiar with RSS feeds as they stay current with the news or their special interest groups and it seems to us that the library should be part of that information stream,” says [Yale University Law School’s] Associate Director for Technical Services Mary Jane Kelsey. “The library will begin by providing time-sensitive patron notices in an RSS feed so our busy faculty and students can see the status of holds, recalls, and overdue materials at a higher level than their patron record. They will also have the option to integrate the library’s feed into the Law School portal or subscribe with a local RSS reader.”
“Our users are familiar with RSS feeds as they stay current with the news or their special interest groups and it seems to us that the library should be part of that information stream,” says [Yale University Law School’s] Associate Director for Technical Services Mary Jane Kelsey. “The library will begin by providing time-sensitive patron notices in an RSS feed so our busy faculty and students can see the status of holds, recalls, and overdue materials at a higher level than their patron record. They will also have the option to integrate the library’s feed into the Law School portal or subscribe with a local RSS reader.”
Since my library uses Innovative, I’m particularly excited by this announcement. Kudos to Innovative!