Mashed Library UK ’09

Mashupcookbook by Dave Pattern
Mashupcookbook by Dave Pattern

My employer’s agreed to fund my attendance at the Mashed Library UK 2009 unconference in Huddersfield next month, which I’m very grateful for and really looking forward to after the successful inaugural event in London last year.

I think it may be the most well-organised event I’ve ever encountered – Dave Pattern and his colleagues have been gathering tons of information, ranging from asking attendees about their interests and expertise to gauging opinions on the lunchtime pizza options! As part of the build-up Dave’s been carrying out blog chats with various attendees, and today was my turn (hence my hasty blog update!).

Over the next few weeks I’ll consider what sort of things I’d like to explore on the day and perhaps even come up with some fresh ideas. I’d like to make more progress with our OPAC – API work at Christmas enabled auto-plural searching and it now uses a custom synonym list (so finally searches for cello and violoncello give the same results!). I think spell-checking would be a nice thing to add soon, and I saw someone on the Mashed Library forum discussing this so maybe I’ll pick up some tips. Also very intrigued by the Juice Project