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LibWorm Booked
My copy of Phil Bradley’s How to Use Web 2.0 in Your Library arrived recently and it was loads of fun to find LibWorm in the index, mentioned on pages 36-37 and page 201.

Above: Scan from the top of page 37 (Chapter Three: Weblogs). I figure that Phil won’t mind my reproducing the image he kindly asked our permission to reproduce- but Facet or Phil should please let me know if this is a problem and I’ll take it right down.

It might make me look foolish, but I can’t really contain how (perhaps inappropriately) pleased I am that the tool Frankie and I created is mentioned in a book authored by a Web guru like Phil and published by CILIP (Facet)

Performance improvement
As LibWorm’s database grows and usage increases, we’re noticing (as you may have) that performance is slowing down and searches take longer to run. More RAM has just been installed on its server and you’ll notice that searches are now running MUCH more quickly.

Optimized code, New Features
LibWorm’s code is also being optimized to further enhance performance and will soon have new features that have already been installed on MedWorm.

But enough about us- How are YOU?
Please remember to share your thoughts on LibWorm with us! Compliments, complaints and suggestions for improvement/enhancement/features are cheerfully welcomed.

June 21st, 2007 | Category: LibWorm, RSS/Feeds, Search, Technology | Comments (2)

PsychSplash posted an interview today with my LibWorm parter-in-geekery, Frankie Dolan, about MedWorm and RSS for clinicians.

Have I mentioned recently that Frankie rocks?

June 1st, 2007 | Category: Blogging, For Medical Libraryfolk, LibWorm, RSS/Feeds, Search, Technology | Comments Off

Dr. Ves Dimov at Clinical Cases and Images writes:

It would be nice to have feed “pipes” (similar to Yahoo Pipes) of blogs in different specialties:

- A feed pipe with general medicine blogs
- A feed pipe with hospitalist blogs
- A feed pipe with cardiology blogs
- A feed pipe with nephrology blogs, etc.

What are medical libraries for if not attempting to fulfill the information wants of clinicians?

We’ll do this with help from MedWorm.

A feed pipe with general medicine blogs

MedWorm Blog Category: Internists and Doctors of Medicine
Feed

A feed pipe with hospitalist blogs

MedWorm Query: hospitalist* OR “hospital medicine”
Feed

A feed pipe with cardiology blogs

MedWorm Query: cardiolog*
Feed

A feed pipe with nephrology blogs

MedWorm Blog Category: Urologists and Nephrologists
Feed

There’s lots more in MedWorm’s Blog Directory, like:

Psychiatrists and Psychologists

Emergency Medicine

Radiologists

Surgeons

If you want to see what blogs make up each category, click on the Sources tab- this will show you what medical blogs make up the category and when each was last updated:

Do you know of good medical blogs that don’t appear to be indexed by MedWorm? Be sure to get ‘em added!

May 14th, 2007 | Category: Blogging, For Medical Libraryfolk, LibWorm, RSS/Feeds, Search, Technology | Comments (1)

Have I mentioned recently how much MedWorm creator and LibWorm co-creator Frankie Dolan rocks? Let’s just make sure I cover that bit of housekeeping: Frankie Dolan Rocks.

Moving on…

Okay, say we want to search MedWorm for mentions of Ulcerative Colitis. When we get the search results, we now see a new option to “filter.”

This produces a breakdown of the search results by feed category with a number in parenthesis showing how many search results come from each feed category.

So if I’m primarily interested in getting updates on Ulcerative Colitis from sources mainly concerned with drug therapies, I might select Drugs & Pharmacology and Pharmaceuticals, then click the Apply Filter button.

We’ve now filtered the search results to just those from feeds in those two categories AND we can subscribe to a feed for this filtered search. How cool is that?

Coming to LibWorm: Because MedWorm and LibWorm are very similar, enhancements to one will inevitably roll out on the other. Imagine being able to search LibWorm for “Information Literacy” and restrict the search results to just items appearing in feeds from Academic Libraries.

Feel free to say it with me: Frankie Dolan rocks.

April 29th, 2007 | Category: For Medical Libraryfolk, LibWorm, RSS/Feeds, Search, Technology | Comments Off

Update: Wow!ter is absolutely right- his variation is better.

Query: +(CIL2007 “CIL 2007″ “computers in libraries”)
Feed for this query

______________________________________

From the InfoToday Blog:

* LibWorm search: +(CIL2007 “computers in libraries”)
Feed for this search…

That’s really great that the organizers of CIL2007 like the idea, but I’m a little surprised that there was no link to the post they borrowed it from:

Even weirder, Connie Crosby blogged about Steven Cohen’s presentation on RSS today:

LIBWORM is cool – David Bigwood and developer created this site – searching only library feeds. He conducts a live search for CIL2007. Then you can throw the search into your Google Reader.

Picture me blinking, confused. “David Bigwood“? I figured that maybe this was a transcription error, as Steven definitely knows my name and knows who created LibWorm. He was the first person (outside of Frankie) with whom I discussed LibWorm. Regardless, sort of odd. Anyway- I’m glad Connie thinks LibWorm is cool and glad that Steven thought LibWorm was worth including in his presentation.

I really hope that in Steven’s talk, Frankie’s name was used. Really, “…and developer…” is nowhere near adequate. I’ll propose text for Steven’s next presentation on RSS including LibWorm:

“LibWorm, created by rockin’ UK code-maven Frankie Dolan and MedLib geek David Rothman, is way cool…”

Wish I could’ve seen Steven’s talk. I’ll bet it was really good.

*sigh*

Maybe I’ll be able to attend CIL2008.

April 17th, 2007 | Category: LibWorm, RSS/Feeds, Technology | Comments (5)

Update: Wow!ter is absolutely right- his variation is better.

Query: +(CIL2007 “CIL 2007″ “computers in libraries”)
Feed for this query

______________________________________

Its great that so many bibliobloggers are posting about Computers in Libraries 2007, but it can be a lot to keep up with. An easy way to keep up with all the posts is to use LibWorm searches and feeds.

If you just want to catch all posts about CIL2007:

LibWorm search: +(CIL2007 “computers in libraries”)
Feed for this search

But what if you only want to see mentions of gaming at CIL2007?

LibWorm Search: +(CIL2007 “computers in libraries”) +gaming
Feed for this search
(Be sure to check out the videos)

You get the idea. Have fun!

April 17th, 2007 | Category: "Library 2.0", Blogging, How to, LibWorm, RSS/Feeds, Technology | Comments Off

Sweet!

Frankie Dolan has also added a Tag Cloud built from the tags MedWorm reads from Medical Blogs.

As with Libworm’s Tag Cloud, there are five ways to view this data: Small Cloud, Storm Cloud, Popularity List and Alphabetical List.

March 27th, 2007 | Category: Blogging, For Medical Libraryfolk, LibWorm, RSS/Feeds, Search, Technology | Comments Off

Two VERY cool enhancements at MedWorm, sister site of LibWorm.

First, MedWorm now indexes feeds from categorized medical blogs.

Second, the MedWorm search interface now lets you limit your search to just a subset of the feeds MedWorm indexes.

March 27th, 2007 | Category: Blogging, For Medical Libraryfolk, LibWorm, RSS/Feeds, Search, Technology | Comments (1)

Just a heads-up:

LibWorm is being moved to a new server over the next couple of days. This should result in improved performance when you use LibWorm.

While the server migration is going on, you may notice a few records disappearing (and then reappearing) or feeds not working, but this is temporary and should last only a very short while.

Thanks!

February 28th, 2007 | Category: LibWorm, RSS/Feeds, Search, Technology | Comments Off

Want to follow online talk about the 2008-2009 ALA Presidential election?

+(ALA “american library association”) +President +(”2008-2009″ Rettig Davenport)

February 28th, 2007 | Category: Blogging, LibWorm, RSS/Feeds, Search, Technology | Comments Off

I’m not the first to blog about these and I certainly won’t be the last, but I wanted to say a few brief “me too’s”:

I’m going to order Social Software in Libraries…

…and not just because Meredith mentions LibWorm in Chapter Three, either! I’m going to order it because Meredith’s writings on technology (at both her own blog and at TechEssence) are smart, clear and practical- and they don’t leave out the human element. I expect her book will have similar qualities.

I won’t go so far as to recommend that others purchase a book that I haven’t myself yet read, but I will say that I am definitely ordering my copy the instant I can.[1]. [Other biblioblog chatter about this book]

I will also need to buy a copy of Phil Bradley’s new book, How to Use Web 2.0 in Your Library[2]:

Like Meredith’s book, Phil’s has a companion Web site, and also mentions LibWorm (curiously, also in Chapter Three). I subscribe to Phil’s blog and routinely learn new things from him, so I can’t be without this book. I just hope it gets published in the States, too- the exchange rates from Pound to Dollar and shipping from the U.K. are probably going to be painful.

Lastly, I’m going to order a copy of this book [3]:

While I don’t yet have any indication that it mentions LibWorm ( ) and I’m still not yet wholly comfortable with the term “Library 2.0″, everything I’ve read that Casey and/or Savastinuk have written on the topic has been thought-provoking, required reading. I wouldn’t miss getting my own copy for any reason. [Other biblioblog chatter about this book]

If I read German, I’d also want a copy of this book by Oliver Obst.

__________________________
[1] – It goes without saying that if Meredith wants to send me a copy, I will of course devour it and write a detailed review.

(I’m subtle, huh? My subtlety is inversely proportionate to my budget for discretionary spending.)

February 27th, 2007 | Category: "Library 2.0", "Social Software", Blogging, Interfaces, LibWorm, Mashups, Podcasting, Professional Development, RSS/Feeds, Technology, Web Applications, Wikis | Comments (3)

I have nothing new to add on the story of school media librarians expressing hesitation about the inclusion of The Higher Power of Lucky in their libraries, but I’m using LibWorm to keep up with the ongoing (and often funny) discussion.

LibWorm Query: +(scrotum* scrota) +lucky

LibWorm RSS Feed

February 25th, 2007 | Category: LibWorm, Perception of Libraries/Librarians, RSS/Feeds | Comments Off

We’ve gotten a handful of requests for permission to add LibWorm searching to other Web pages. Please consider this post permission granted to any and all who want it.

We’ll even show you how to do it.

Just copy and paste this code into your Web page…
<p>Search LibWorm:</p>
<form action="http://www.libworm.com/rss/search.php" method="get">
<p>
<input name="qu" type="text" size="20px" maxlength="40"/>
<input name="s" type="submit" value="OK"/>
<input name="r" type="hidden" value="Any"/>
</form>
</p>

….and you’ll get something that looks very much like this:

Search LibWorm:

Feel free to customize to your heart’s content.

If you do add LibWorm to your own Web page, we’d love to know about it. Please leave a comment here or drop me an email () to let us know where you’ve put it or how you’ve adapted it.

February 22nd, 2007 | Category: LibWorm, RSS/Feeds, Search, Technology | Comments Off

We’ll start with the radio buttons, then move on to search operators that LibWorm understands.

RADIO BUTTONS

There are three radio buttons beneath LibWorm’s search field, any words, all words, and exact phrase.

any words
By default, any words is selected when you first load the main page of LibWorm in your web browser. Having this radio button selected tells LibWorm that your search results must contain at least one of the words you’re searching for. With the search below, you’re telling LibWorm you’d like to see results that contain either OPAC or sucks.

all words
The all words radio button tells LibWorm that you only want results that contain all of the words you’re searching for. Wth the search below, you’re telling LibWorm that you’d like to see results that contain both OPAC and sucks, but not necessarily in that order or near each other.

exact phrase
The exact phrase radio button tells LibWorm that you only want to see search results that contain exactly the characters in the exact sequence you typed into the search field. With the search below, you’re telling LibWorm that you only want to see posts that contain exactly “OPAC sucks”. Posts that don’t contain EXACTLY this string of characters in this sequence, even if they contain something very similar (like “OPACs suck”) will not appear in the results of this search.

SEARCH OPERATORS:

Note: For best results, select the any words radio button before using these operators.

” “
A phrase that is enclosed within double quote (” “) characters matches only rows that contain the phrase exactly as it was typed (see notes on “exact phrase” radio button above).

+
A plus sign before a word indicates to LibWorm that the word must be present in every result returned.

-
The leading minus sign indicates that the word must not appear in any search result returned.

*
The asterisk is the truncation or wildcard character in LibWorm.
Example: suck*
The set of results returned by this query will include items containing words like suck, sucks, sucked, sucker, sucking or “sucktastic.” Okay, no feed is indexed in LibWorm as having used the word “sucktastic” (…until about an hour after I post this).

( )
Parentheses group words into subexpressions.
Example: +”Meredith Farkas” +(”5 weeks” “Five Weeks”)
This query will produce results that contain the exact phrase “Meredith Farkas” AND either “five weeks” or “5 weeks”.

> <
These help influence the relevance sorting of returned search results. If the > is placed before a word or phrase, its “weight” in the sorting by relevance is increased. The < placed before a word or phrase lessens its “weight.”
Example: +”Walt Crawford” +(>”cites and insights” <”Walt at Random”)
This query will return only results that contain both the exact phrase “Walt Crawford” AND either “Cites and Insights” or “Walt at Random,” but it’ll place those that mention “Cites and Insights” higher in my list of results as ordered by relevance.

~
This operator is sort of like the -, but not as emphatic. A search term with this operator in front of it will not be excluded from results returned, but the term’s presence will not be considered in the sorting of results by relevance. It sort of de-emphasizes the search term without making it a hard, absolute NOT.

Try these operators out and you’ll find you can generate very, very specific results.

Searching by URL
To answer Walt’s questions in the comments below, searching by URL sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t because LibWorm strips out an item’s HTML. Searching by URL will work if the URL was in the text of the item, but not if it was only in the hyperlink. Also note that the source URL is not searchable, but the Source’s name is. More advanced searching (by source, by category, etc.) is on the way.

Want more help?

Do you have a query or feed you’d like to create but can’t get it to work in LibWorm? Want to run a query by us to make sure it is doing what you think it should? If LibWorm isn’t processing your query as expected, we’ll get it fixed. If you just need a pointer or two on how to get what you need, we can help with that, too- just drop me an email () so we can help.

Want to demonstrate LibWorm for your colleagues? We’ll be happy to help you get your presentation materials together or answer any questions you might have. If you have web conferencing software that can be applied, we’d be happy to demonstrate LibWorm for your group, too.

Keep the ideas and the questions coming- We love ‘em!

February 15th, 2007 | Category: How to, LibWorm, Search, Technology | Comments (4)

I’m been really tickled lately to see bibliobloggers using LibWorm to keep track of conversation on particular topics in the biblioblogosphere. This post will give a little detail on how to do that most effectively.

Important: You might have noticed your existing search-based feeds from LibWorm behaving a little strangely while we made changes that enable search-generated feeds to work better (This is why it is called a “beta.” We’re still identifying bugs while expanding features).

AAP and Open Access
Iris at Pegasus Librarian has been blogging on the topic of the American Association of Publishers and Open Access, wants others to follow the news, and suggests using LibWorm to do it.

Here’s the query Iris uses:

+(aap “association of american publishers”) +”open access”

It produces these search results, and provides this feed that you can subscribe to in order to follow new comments in the ongoing blogversation.

(Iris also gives us great feedback as a LibWorm user on what works and what doesn’t- we’re so grateful that she shares her observations with us. Thank you, Iris!)

European Digital Library/Bibliothèque Numérique Européenne
A French blog, Numismatique Médiévale, talks about the difficulties in searching for the same topic in different languages (”european digital library” vs. “bibliothèque numérique européenne”), and offers two queries in LibWorm for seeking information about Bibliothèque Numérique Européenne.

Here’s a single query that’ll allow users to search LibWorm for mentions of this organization in both languages simultaniously, either in full name or abbreviation:

“Bibliothèque numérique européenne” BNUE “European Digital Library” EDL

This query provides these search results and this feed that users can subscribe to.

(Tangential question for LibWorm users: Should the European Digital Library have its own subject feed in LibWorm?)

How about you?
What are you using LibWorm to search for or track? What conversations are going on in the biblioblogosphere that you think others should be following? Please leave a comment and let us know.

Stay tuned:
If it isn’t yet clear how we used ” “, +, and () above, we’ll help clear that up in a post later this week. Those of you already familiar with MySQL search operators, however, should feel free to go crazy making elaborate and specific feeds from LibWorm with them.

Questions? Suggestions?

February 13th, 2007 | Category: Blogging, LibWorm, RSS/Feeds, Search, Technology | Comments (2)

Since we first announced LibWorm’s new tag clouds in December, Frankie and I have been talking about how they could be made more useful in helping to describe the zeitgeist of the biblioblogosphere.

One of the problems with the tag clouds was that they only represented tags from ALL items indexed by LibWorm. If they were really going to be useful in helping us understand what bibliobloggers are tagging about, the clouds would need to be date-sensitive to specific periods.

Now there are three time periods to choose from for each cloud: This Week (frequently-used tags from the previous seven days), This Month (frequently used tags from the last 31 days), and This Year (frequently used tags from the last 365 days).

(Note: The Alphabetical list does not have this function, but instead shows all tags from all time in alphabetical order, along with the number of times the tag has been indexed.)

Stay tuned, there’s much more to come.

January 30th, 2007 | Category: LibWorm, RSS/Feeds, Technology | Comments Off

on

LISNews has made a list of “10 Blogs To Read in 2007″ with LibWorm coming in at #4!

4. LibWorm

If you were familiar with LISFeeds, then consider Libworm to be LISFeeds 2.0. It doesn’t (yet) have all the features I wrote for LISFeeds, but I think you’ll find it a great way to follow all the blogs you can possibly handle. It’s nice to have a tool that specializes in aggregating the biblioblogosphere, and I’m looking forward to seeing what LibWorm adds this year.

Although LibWorm isn’t itself a blog, we’re thrilled to mentioned in this way- thanks!

Questions for Blake, though:

Which features from LISFeeds do you most want to see implemented first, and why haven’t you emailed us or left a note in the form at LibWorm to suggest them?
EDIT: Frankie rightly points out in the comments that Blake has already offered us feedback. I just want more ’cause I’m greedy.

We’re really counting on users to let us know what enhancements they most want to see, so I hope that Blake won’t be the only one sharing his thoughts! Use the form at LibWorm (bottom of the page) or email me at david [AT] libworm [DOT] com.

January 25th, 2007 | Category: Blogging, LibWorm, RSS/Feeds | Comments (4)

As mentioned previously, Guus van den Brekel has been traveling in Norway (Oslo and Trondheim) to give talks and run workshops about library web technology.

I try to follow most of what Guus does online because I can’t really get enough of tech-savvy medical librarians. So when I saw he’d posted another presentation on SlideShare titled “Web Developments & Trends,” I started looking through it right away- and was delighted to see that three slides (35, 36 and 37) are screen captures of LibWorm!

(Check out more from Guus’ trip to Norway here.)

Guus, we’re delighted that LibWorm was a part of your presentation! Please let your workshop attendees know they should email us if they have any questions, concerns or (our favorite) suggestions for improvement: david [AT] libworm [DOT] com.

January 20th, 2007 | Category: LibWorm, Presentations, RSS/Feeds, Technology, Web Applications | Comments Off

I had to smile a little when I noticed this post at Hedgehog Librarian about RSS information overload.

First, because I noticed it via multiple feeds in my aggregator. I have a few feeds set up to let me know when others post links to my blog, and other feeds that look for mentions of RSS in librarianship blogs- so I noticed it pretty soon after it was posted.

Second, because I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how to advise others on managing a lot of feed subscriptions without being overwhelmed. The Hedgehog Librarian describes feeling overloaded at 56 subscriptions, and I’m certain others feel the same way- but I have about 460 feed subscriptions in my aggregator, and don’t ever feel overwhelmed by them. I noticed previously that several folks have written posts on managing one’s feeds, but I didn’t bother to read them because I wasn’t having any problems. I thought I’d go back, read them now, and provide a round-up of the best tips.

A couple of the posts I link to below go much further, I think, than the average user would want to- so I’ve limited my recommendations to what I think are the easiest and most useful to more casual users, like the Hedgehog Librarian.

1. Bundle feeds into folders by subject or category
Marjolein Hoekstra recommends categorizing feeds by topic or subject. I do exactly that. For instance, I bundle together in a folder all the feeds I subscribe to about Medical Librarianship. Rather than click on each feed, I click on the folder and can review them all simultaneously. This lets me review and prioritize (see below) with greater speed, convenience, and efficiency.

2. Prioritize
When I don’t have time, I don’t check my feeds. If I only have a little time to spare, I’ll check just those feeds that I care a lot about, like those from Medical Librarianship blogs, feeds from the blogs of good friends, or the feeds that let me know if someone has linked to my blog (that’s how I noticed Marjolein blog-tagging me even though I was hardly reading feeds while on my blogging vacation). After hardly reading any feeds for about 3 weeks, I had a lot stacked up. Some I slogged through, the rest I just trashed. Relax. Except for those very few feeds that you prioritize, do you really have to read through each and every item in your aggregator? No way. Skim subject lines the way you skim the Table of Contents in a journal.

3. Let Google Reader make skimming easier
There are two features that make my aggregator of choice, Google Reader, ideal for managing a lot of feeds.

First, Google Reader lets me review the contents of a feed or folder in “List View” so I can skim the items just by title, check out just the items that look promising, then click “Mark all as read” in order to clear the rest.

Second, Google Reader lets me view the feed list by toggling between “list all” and “only list updated,” and mine is permanently set to “only list updated.” If there aren’t new items for me to read, the feeds aren’t visible to clutter up the interface

4. Filter your feeds
Marjolein and John Tropea also recommend using feed filtering to make sure you only see the posts from a feed that relate to a topic you care about. For instance, you might use Feed Digest, FeedShake, or FeedRinse to do this quickly and easily. Check out this post for step-by-step instructions on how to do it. Also, I just linked a few days ago to a good article on feed filtering that is worth reading.

5. Search-based feeds
I subscribe to a lot of feeds created by very specific searches in feed-generating search tools like PubMed and LibWorm. One of the things I like about LibWorm is that it allows me to create feeds out of the entire biblioblogosphere based on a keyword search, tag search, or subject. I’m also in favor of search-based feeds from technorati or del.icio.us, but only if the search is very specific. If the search is too broad, you’ll only add to the feeling of overload.

It’ll get easier!
It will get easier, I promise. RSS is still a very new technology, and aggregators are still pretty simple. Soon, aggregators will be available that will learn what sort of things you value most, and prioritize your feed contents for you, help you generate search-based feeds, and have built-in functions for mashing/filtering feeds.

Since starting work on this post, I’ve learned that the (alias) Hedgehog Librarian is someone I like and am friendly with from a ListServ (which is one of the reasons I’ve linked to her blog multiple times in this post)- so I’ve happily added her feed to my aggregator so I don’t miss anything else she shares…and I know with confidence that I won’t be overwhelmed.

January 8th, 2007 | Category: How to, LibWorm, RSS/Feeds, Technology | Comments (4)