Librarians take on the iPad

Since its much-hyped introduction a few months ago, Apple has sold just over 3 million of the touch screen devices, with several more countries seeing them for the first time just today. Rumors abound regarding the form factor/pricing/features of the waiting-in-the wings competition. The game’s afoot!

Meanwhile, what do librarians think of the usefulness of said device? Check here for a few thoughts from some clever librarians.

My rule of thumb concerning Apple products is to hold off until the second generation: more features and refinements, fewer issues, more 3rd party software choices, and lower cost. But these things are tempting, very tempting. We’ll see.

And now, a word from our Principal Developer…

Just a quick note to let you know that there’s a new release of several of the Plymouth Rocket applications.

It contains a handful of changes under the hood which should not change your user experience and also a couple of things that might interest you.

EventKeeper: – The maintenance of the search index has changed. Several users have enough events so that the reindexing process was taking a painful amount o time. We added a new button which you can use to reindex only those event added or modified in the last 24 hours. Much quicker. We also changed the way the Reindex All function works to make that quicker as well.

TixKeeper: – Our museum pass management system is spreading to a lot of libraries outside New England and we’ve been happy to respond to requests to provid a Patron Authentication interface to several new ILS providers. The list now includes: SirsiDynix, Innovative, Polaris, and The Library Corporation.

EKRegistration: – Our patron authentication feature now can be used with EKRegistration as well. Let us know if that is of interest to you.

EKRooms: – It is now much easier to manage equipment that is not associated with a particular room. Check with us if you have always wondered how to do this.

Best regards, Ric

Ric Bailey rbailey@plymouthrocket.com

New England Aquarium/EventKeeper

Wow. If you are visiting Boston and wish to find out about all of the very cool things happening at the New England Aquarium, visit their newly designed web site. It’s spectacular.

Their web team worked closely with Plymouth Rocket’s Principal Developer Ric Bailey to create what we call a “branded” calendar, that extends and sustains their brand across their event listing. Check it out by clicking “Events Calendar” on their home page.

HTTPS Protocol enabled within EventKeeper

In response to some interest from both existing and prospective subscribers, we’ve enabled the HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol over Secure Socket Layer, or HTTP over SSL) protocol within EventKeeper. We haven’t noticed any speed or performance changes, but we’ll keep an eye on things for you.

Here’s what Wikipedia has to say regarding https:

https (Hypertext Transfer Protocol over Secure Socket Layer) is a URI scheme used to indicate a secure HTTP connection. It is syntactically identical to the http:// scheme normally used for accessing resources using HTTP. Using an https: URL indicates that HTTP is to be used, but with a different default TCP port (443) and an additional encryption/authentication layer between the HTTP and TCP. This system was designed by Netscape Communications Corporation to provide authentication and encrypted communication and is widely used on the World Wide Web for security-sensitive communication such as payment transactions and corporate logons.

A little more on EKRegistration

We’ve been working hard to roll this out. Lots of web demos lately. Visit our web site to find out a few more of the details.

SirsiDynix EPS Rooms/EventKeeper

The San Diego Public Library is a long time subscriber to EventKeeper. We’re pleased to let you know that EventKeeper has been successfully integrated into the SIRSIDynix EPS Rooms Portal solution adopted by San Diego School Rooms.

Is Kindle the Future of Reading?

Maybe. I hope not. Check out the Amazon Kindle page here. You can’t loan it, borrow it, or drop it. Very pricey. Gets high marks for the “cool” factor among the first adopter crowd.

Let’s see how it does after Christmas.

Plymouth Rocket signs up for Event Registration

In order to enable patrons to easily register for events and classes online, Plymouth Rocket, Inc. announced today the release of EKRegistration, the latest addition to its suite of web based applications developed for use by libraries.

“As we spoke with librarians around the country about their web site priorities, we came to understand that enabling patrons to register for events online is incredibly important,” said Ric Bailey, President and Principal Developer for Plymouth Rocket, “We are very pleased to offer this application, which works in tandem with our web calendar application, EventKeeper, to create a simple, intuitive, and very powerful event registration tool. Librarians from the State Libraries of North and South Carolina assisted in creating the specification, and are among the early adopters of EKRegistration. We’re very grateful for their assistance.”

Today’s announcement is further evidence of Plymouth Rocket’s commitment to providing library patrons with web-based tools necessary to access and monitor the unique resources available at libraries. In addition to the EventKeeper calendar, Plymouth Rocket offers software that lets users reserve museum passes, register for events and classes, and submit room and equipment reservations.

EKRooms: Manage Meeting Rooms and Equipment Online

The latest addition to our suite of web based applications for libraries (and others) is EKRooms , software that enables librarians to harness the power and convenience of the web by managing room and equipment reservations online. You can create a room reservation and add it directly to your EventKeeper calendar, and if you wish, enable patrons to request meeting room reservations online, without calling the library. EKRooms  is simple, powerful, and affordable.

We’re offering a series of WebEx  online demos to demonstrate the software. We’d be glad to have you join us!

A Human Service Connection

Whenever we stop what we’re doing long enough to check out our client list, we’re always both suprised and pleased by the sheer variety of organizations using EventKeeper. For example, The Arc of Greater Plymouth, one of the largest human service agencies on the South Shore of Massachusetts, uses EventKeeper to keep their stakeholders informed about trainings, workshops, conferences, special events, classes, and lots more. It’s kind of exciting that our web based application is being used to fulfill one of the original purposes of the web: to help people connect and remain informed about common interests. We’re pleased to play a role in helping such an organization carry out its mission.